News from Garfield Farm

Volunteer Registration for 3 Archaeology Field Sessions in 2019 CAMPTON HILLS, IL- Garfield Farm Museum is looking for volunteers to help with archaeological research this June. The hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 am-4pm during the weeks of June 11th-15th and 19th-23rd. Under the direction of James R. Yingst, Director and Chief Archaeologist of Heartland Archaeology Research Program, and a Research Associate in Archaeology at Garfield Farm Museum, work is focused on understanding the lives of the 1830s/1840s settling farmers in Northern Illinois. In the field volunteers are taught how to screen and look for artifacts. Registration is currently open. Individuals enrolling for a minimum of 40 hours receive a complete orientation, structured training involving rotation through the activities of shovel excavation, screening of excavated soil for artifact recovery, and washing of recovered artifacts. Participants who successfully complete 40 or more hours will receive certificates documenting hours of training and supervised experience in historical archaeology. Volunteers who cannot commit to 40 hours are also welcome and will receive informal orientations and participate in tasks needed during their hours of participation. As volunteers gain experience and display proficiency they are introduced to basic shovel excavation in the plow zone located 8 inches above any historic features like cellars, post molds, or middens. Additional field sessions the public can participate in are scheduled for July 9th-12th and 16th-20th and again in August from the 6th-10th and 13th-17th. The most proficient and disciplined volunteers may learn how to trowel to prepare a meter square for final troweling by the head archaeologist to detect any historic features. Excavation of the original log house building site will continue this summer. The Culbertson log house/Garfield log tavern stood in the fork of the Chicago/St. Charles Road that branched northwest to Sycamore and southwest to Oregon, Illinois. Culbertson originally claimed 440 acres of land that he improved with a log house, a dug well, and 30 acres under cultivation by mid-1841 when he sold the claim to Timothy Garfield for $650. The Garfield’s immediately saw a lucrative opportunity in establishing an inn to capture the business of the numerous farmers hauling wheat past their house to Chicago’s port. To register as a participant, to visit the excavation site, or to financially contribute to the effort, contact the museum at 630 584-8485, e-mail info@garfieldfarm.org or write to Box 403 LaFox, IL 60147.