Historians dig for treasure at Streetscape site
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 4, 2014 10:59 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Kirk Keller, president of the Goldsboro Historical Association, holds a clay ink well from the Civil War period discovered in the dirt displaced by the Streetscape project.
Kirk Keller loves dirt -- especially when it is mixed with a little bit of history.
And knowing that the families who lived along Center Street in Goldsboro's early days did not have garbage pickup makes his latest project even sweeter.
The dirt displaced from the downtown Streetscape project is providing Keller, president of the Wayne County Historical Association, and others a window on city life in the 1800s.
For more than a century, those items were buried under Center Street's pavement.
During the first round of Streetscape, there was no organized effort to sift through the dirt.
Although some artifacts were found and are on display at the city hall annex, the excavated dirt was not systematically checked for artifacts. It was dumped as refuse.
Keller is not letting this round's pile go unsearched.
So far the treasures have included a Flying Eagle penny, minted between 1856 and 1859, an Indian head penny, numerous railroad spikes, broken bottles and even oyster shells.
Old timbers and lighter knots that pre-date Goldsboro have been uncovered as have trolley tracks.
A ceramic ink well that dates back to the 1860s was found in one of the piles of dirt. Other than a few chipped places that could have been caused by the excavation, it as if it had just been dropped, Keller said.
Volunteers are also finding items as work progresses at Union Station and on Walnut Street.
Those finds include a child's toy whirligig similar to the replicas sold in the Wayne County Museum gift shop.
Other items include whiskey flasks, some type of spice or cough medicine bottles, a 1900s-era Pepsi bottle with Goldsboro written around the bottom (not on the bottom where the names are normally found) and a Coca-Cola bottle that does not have the signature curved look.
"We have a lot of whatsits," Keller said. "That's going to create a whole other line of work to investigate. So this goes in many directions. Not only are we pulling out the relics we are trying to preserve, we are researching the whatsits."
Center Street was used a garbage dump in the 1800s, Keller said.
"A lot of things that they had, they would throw out into the street," he said. "They didn't have a trash man to come by and haul the stuff off. So one man's trash is another man's treasure. Today it gives us a window or an insight into the past."
Center Street was paved about 1909. That left the dirt beneath the street as a sort of time capsule, he said.
"The decision to pursue getting (the artifact search) done was based off what we saw when they did the first section (of Streetscape) from Mulberry to Ash Street," Keller said.
After the pavement was recently torn up on the west side of the street, Keller and others made a preliminary sweep using metal detectors.
"(Goldsboro) was the halfway point of the longest railroad in the world (the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad) at 161.5 miles when it was first built," he said. "This was the getting-on and getting-off place for that traffic.
"It was the inland seaport of North Carolina because you had two railroads that connect -- Wilmington and Morehead City that came together 80 miles inland. Goods could come here and go out, or go there (ports) to go out to the rest of the world."
Much happened in Goldsboro and with the rail came the luxury of being able to have fresh seafood, hence the oyster shells, he said.
Tons of dirt, with more to come, representing probably more than a year and half of work, have been dumped at a site located behind McDonald's on U.S. 70 West just past Claridge Nursery Road.
But don't think just anyone can play archeologist.
No one can be on the site without an official project representative.
Saturdays will be dedicated to raking through the dirt and will be open to anyone who wants to help. There will be other special workdays, Keller said.
"We do want to keep a control on it," Keller said. "We don't want people to go in and find relics that we know are there, and they disappear. These relics are owned by the city. They are just allowing us to participate to recover them so they can be put in the museum for everyone to enjoy.
"We are encouraging people to come and participate, but to understand that we have a job to do, and they have to play by the rules."
The control of the dirt is through the cooperation of T.A. Loving, the company doing the Streetscape work, Keller said. The salvage operation is a joint project of the city, the contractors doing the work and the Wayne County Historical Association.
"Local landowner Bill Lane has allowed us to put the dirt there," Keller said. "He will use the dirt as fill dirt, but he is allowing us to search through it before he uses it. So we have a contained site to search."
Want to join the crew? There are some rules, Keller said.
"You have to sign a waiver releasing for liability issues and be willing to dig with a rake and a shovel," he said.
And, no, sadly, you cannot keep what you find. The items will be preserved for posterity.
"Now that we have a public interest, a lot of folks want to come in and help with this project even knowing that the relics will not go into personal collections. They will be given to the museum and actually owned by the city."
When the items are displayed, they will have an acknowledgment of who found them.
Two people trained in archeology are helping -- Keith Lane, a graduate of East Carolina University who has participated in several other digs, and Lura Hulse, an archeology student at UNC who is just back from a dig in Peru.
While Keller is concerned about the adverse impact the torn-up street will have on downtown businesses, he can't hide his excitement over what treasures the street might surrender.
Keller said he would like to see some of the relics placed on temporary display in some of the downtown shops that want to participate.
"We can have a little exhibit and call it the walking historic tour of Center Street," he said. "Flyers will be made up so people can go store to store and see these items and at the same time purchase items from these businesses. It is just a way to help them through this tough time."
Keller has created a Facebook page for the project. People can access it by going to Facebook and searching for Downtown Goldsboro Artifact Recovery Project.