[The Mound City Archaeological Society is a proud supporter of the ongoing
archaeological research into the original St. Ferdinand Church complex in
Florissant, Missouri. We're now halfway through this year's four-week field
season, which runs through June 12th and is open for public viewing from 9am to
5pm, Wednesdays through Sundays. For further updates on this and other Society
projects, please visit http://moundcity.missouriarchaeology.org or e-mail me
personally at bgpaulus@... . -- Greg]

STLtoday.com: Florissant (MO) digs for its history (5/23)

By Joel Currier
Of the Post-Dispatch

Monday, May 23 2005

Archaeologists hope successes at 1st dig will mean more exploration

Archaeologists dig into city's history

Buried under a layer of dirt and a minefield of decaying coffins, lie the roots
of a city now retracing its colonial history.

With the help of volunteers and professional archaeologists, a group of
Florissant residents hopes to uncover a landmark that historians say was the
cultural crossroads of an 18th-century French settlement.

Archaeologists resumed the second phase of a three-year excavation Wednesday at
the Spanish Land Grant Park, a grassy, rolling field in Florissant.

The crew is searching for the footprint of St. Ferdinand Catholic Church, built
in 1790 and destroyed by fire 46 years later.

The three-year dig is the first archaeological excavation of a former French
colonial settlement in the metropolitan area, says Joe Harl, chief investigator
on the project with the Archaeological Research Center of St. Louis.

"It's not so much the objects, but what the objects tell us about the people,
that's so fascinating," Harl says.

The first phase of the dig began last spring using money the city of Florissant
set aside for its Lewis & Clark celebration and from private fundraising. The
crew has drawn on the help of volunteers and students interested in preserving
Florissant's history. This year's dig will cost about $20,000, Harl said, paid
for by a state grant and from private donations.

"It's like treasure hunting," said volunteer Kelli Craven, 21, of Florissant, a
junior education major at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. "It's like my
hometown history."

Historians say French settlers used the log church until 1821, when they built
the St. Ferdinand Shrine, which stands today at 1 Rue St. Francois in
Florissant. After the shrine was built, the old log church either sat empty or
was occupied by priests until it burned in 1836, said Gretchen Crank, head of a
committee of Florissant residents overseeing the project. The cause of the fire
is unknown.

Last year, the crew collected bits and pieces typical of many archaeological
digs: brass buttons, lead balls, nails and broken glassware. They also found a
skull-and-crossbones broken off a crucifix.

Their most shocking find was a stack of charred papers they first thought were
10 leather-bound books. After further investigation, however, the books turned
out to be newspapers dating only to the 1950s or '60s.

The archaeologists weren't discouraged, though, because the newspapers led to
the discovery of limestone rocks they believe formed the foundation of a wall
that once guarded the church's rectory. Their finding also revealed two crucial
discoveries: that the church's vertical-log structure was French colonial
construction and that they were coming closer to identifying the exact site of
the old church.

The team has had to dig carefully around rows of buried iron and wooden caskets
that were abandoned when the headstones from a cemetery on the site were removed
and dumped elsewhere, about 1900, Crank said. Harl said the excavation wouldn't
disturb any coffins.

Florissant Mayor Robert G. Lowery, a self-proclaimed "history buff," says he
envisions a replica of the original church being built on the site, to house
artifacts collected during the three-year excavation.

"We're so rich in history out here," Lowery said. "So many people in the St.
Louis area don't realize that."

All artifacts gathered over the next four weeks will be taken to a lab at UMSL,
where they will be cataloged and stored for future research, said Timothy
Baumann, an UMSL anthropology professor working with the archaeological crew.
Baumann says he hopes the city of Florissant will secure money for school
programs that incorporate the community's history into classrooms.

The direction and focus of the third phase of the excavation, next spring,
depends on what the team discovers this year.

"Last year was the mystery year. We didn't know what we were going to find,"
Baumann said. "We've definitely got a road map -not a complete map, but we're
playing 'connect the dots' now."

For more information about the project, call the chair of the archaeological dig
committee, Gretchen Crank at 314-838-5085, or e-mail gdcrank@....

Reporter Joel Currier
E-mail: jcurrier@...
Phone: 314-340-8744

Link to original story:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/40AE3A\
6504A68D7286257008005771DE?OpenDocument