Old Davidsonville Site Yields Artifacts For Archaeologists.


If the earth does indeed hold secrets of times gone by, then the ground at Old Davidsonville State Park in southern Randolph County is singing like a bird.

Archaeologists from the University of Arkansas completed another dig at Old Davidsonville last week and, once again, they are taking home a truckload of treasures that had previously been lying undisturbed just below the surface for nearly 200 years.
 
The town of Davidsonville was platted in 1815, and was the earliest planned community in the Arkansas territory. It was the county seat for Lawrence County, which took up most of the northern half of the state. The first Post Office in Arkansas was at Davidsonville, as was the first Federal Land Office in Arkansas. As a county seat, it was where court was held and, when court was in session, the town would swell with travelers.

But by 1830, Davidsonville was no more, the county seat moved just west to the town of Jackson on the Spring River near Imboden. Like Davidsonville, the town of Jackson also is only a memory. 

But for 15 years Davidsonville was an important place, an active community that had a two-story brick courthouse, a post office, stores, private residences, a tavern and a ferry across Black River.

But one thing Davidsonville didn't have was the old southwest military road, which some archaeologists believe is one of the reasons the town did not survive. Sure there were floods, and plenty of mosquitoes, but the main road from St. Louis to Texas passed several miles to the west, along with most of the commerce.

But archaeologists from the University of Arkansas have been coming to Old Davidsonville to dig and unearth not only treasures, but also clues as to what kind of town Davidsonville was.

"We attempt to understand how people lived in the past by studying what they left behind, said Kathy Cande, Senior Project Archaeologist with the Arkansas Archeological Survey. "What did the houses and build ings look like? How did people make a living? How were they connected to the wider world?"

What they left behind is telling. Speaking about their culinary tastes on Monday, Cande laughed, "We know they ate a lot of pork."

At one particular dig site archaeologists uncovered what they believe to be a garbage pit behind a residence. They found plenty of animal bones, and pieces of everyday china, parts of bottles, tools, jewelry and other clues to what living was like in the early 1800s.  A recent expedition unearthed a leather pouch that contained Spanish coins and a pair of U.S. coins that helped validate the time frame of Davidsonville.

Most of the artifacts that have been found are very well preserved. Cande says that is because the soil makeup around Old Davidsonville is not very acidic, thus preserving what lies just beneath the surface.

"We literally have recovered too many artifacts to count," Cande said. "It has pretty much taken up our whole lab space." Cande did estimate that the number of artifacts found was in the "tens of thousands", and that she had no doubt that thousands of artifacts were still waiting to be found.

"We have just begun to examine the artifacts and other information collected at Old Davidsonville last year," Cande said. "The artifacts will be washed, sorted and numbered."
Cande went on to say that the archaeologists will continue returning to Old Davidsonville for the foreseeable future, to continue their digs in an effort to better understand the first residents of what is now Randolph County.

(from Pocahontas Star Herald, Nov. 10, 2005; by Dalton Sullivan, Star Herald staff)