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General Information • Important
Past Projects |
Current Projects
Van Winkle's MIll: Although Van Winkle's Mill is not within the station territory of the SAU Research Station, it is (in a sense) a station project as Jamie Brandon, now the SAU Station Archeologist, has directed the Van Winkle's Mill Archeological Project since its inception in 1997. Nestled in a narrow hollow in the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas, Van Winkle's Mill was an important sawmill community in the region from the 1850s until the early 1900s. The mill and community were founded by Peter Van Winkle , an Ozark entrepreneur who rose to the elite circles of Northwest Arkansas society. Interestingly, part of the labor that operated Van Winkle's Mill was enslaved prior to the war and African-American Freedmen stayed on and worked the mill following emancipation. This makes Van Winkle's Mill a great site to address the often forgotten industrial and African-American heritages in the Ozark region.
The community and mill have faded into history and the area is now a part of the developing Hobbs State Park and Conservation Area. Archeological investigations connected with the park's development, however, have helped shed new light on Ozark history--research themes include entrepreneurship and industrial development in the Ozarks, African-American heritage in the Ozarks, landscape archeology and historical memory in the Ozarks. Archaeological investigations include excavations at the main house, possible slave quarters, postbellum worker's quarters, the blacksmith shop, the mill area and much more. For more information about this project, visit the Van Winkle's Mill Archeological Project website: The Van Winkle's Mill Archeological Project Web Site More Coming Soon...
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Copyright
©2006-2007, Arkansas Archeological Survey, Revised - November 20, 2009 |
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