A President's Neighbors: Geophysical Survey and Excavation of the Forney House Lot at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Neighborhoods and Communities (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Damaging flood events along Hoover Creek at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, Iowa have prompted plans for major construction within this historic neighborhood. In advance of the flood mitigation project, archeologists at the Midwest Archeological Center (MWAC) undertook a multi-instrument geophysical survey of the Forney House Lot (13CD146), which sits across the street from Herbert Hoover’s birthplace cottage. Survey results identified a number of potential features of archeological interest, including midden locations, a privy or well, and the site of a former outbuilding. Results also provided insight into the layout of the non-extant house. Following the survey, MWAC staff targeted several potential features for excavation. This paper investigates the correspondence of our excavation findings to the geophysical anomalies upon which the excavations were based. We discuss which features were well defined by the geophysical survey and the discovery of features not revealed via our remote sensing investigation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Historical Archaeology of Neighborhoods and Communities (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology