MAY 15, 2004

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: Ponton Site - May 15, 2004

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

Yesterday was mainly a lab day, but... John and I did go over to the Ponton site in the early afternoon to check it out. The site and driveway was very wet from the large amount of rain we had this week. We couldn’t drive back to the site because the driveway was flooded so we walked (see driveway.jpg). The units with the features had water in them (see excavation.jpg). While we were at the site I took GPS readings on the linear depression that runs along the north edge of the site and latter plotted them on a topo map (see depression.jpg). I’m seriously wondering (again) if this might not be the sluice or runway for the mill. If so the reason the Ponton mill project might not have progressed any farther could have been that this side of the river is about 3-4 feet higher than the south side and they might not have been able to raise the water high enough (without damming all the way to the beach ridge that the Nature Study building is on)! At any rate we might want to make some backhoe cuts in this depression when it dries out this summer to see what it is!

We are nearing the beginning of the excavation season. If it is dry enough we will try to go to the site next Saturday for a “clean up” day. I’d like to get the features exposed, do some mapping, etc. I’ll send an email latter in the week to update you on this.

Hope to see you at the site!

Scott

*********************************************************************
Scott G. Beld, Ph.D.
Research Associate II
The University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology
1109 Geddes Road
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1079
Phone: 734-764-0489 (UMMP Main Office)
734-763-9253 (My Office)
Fax: 734-936-1380
Email: sbeld@umich.edu
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