On a nice cool day we had two extra guest we us today. Don Weir and Dick Clute both join us for the adventure of Middle Island today. Andy Weir took both of them on a little tour of the area pointing out all the cool things that we notice while on the site. While Andy was doing that, Wayne and I kept mapping the main house, the outer walls and underneath. They used precise measurements to include the two coal bunkers. They discovered some pretty extraordinary artifacts like a spoon and cork for the life jackets.

Cork life jackets as shown in a 19th-century illustration, and as worn by the U.S. Life-Saving Service crew at Wallis Sands, New Hampshire. Surfmen learned quickly never to jump into the water feet-first while wearing these life jackets, because they would easily slip over the men's' heads. U.S. Coast Guard photos.

Ryan Riordan went around taking detail pictures of the area and underneath both the main and boat houses. We continued mapping were we found all these artifacts and what quadrant they came from. Soon after we were done we got to eat lunch were we all enjoyed are sandwiches with a nice cold refreshing drink. After lunch everyone continued with what they started, Andy and Wayne working on getting the mapping down with me helping them out. Ryan kept taking pictures of the area and cool things that we found. Don and Dick went around clearing the area around the privy and log cabins and they did a pretty good job. They cleared it enough for us to take good pictures and so we are able to work on them in the up coming days.

The old paint shed and privy (outhouse), from a 2004 photograph.

 

Stephen Riordan, Archaeological Field Tech