ST. LOUIS --He’s not Indiana Jones, but he’s MoDOT’s closest thing to
it.
Instead of the distinctive fedora and leather jacket, he
jauntily sports a bright yellow hard hat and florescent work vest.
And fortunately, the most dangerous thing around him is the
noise from the nearby trains and the occasional passing tractor trailer truck.
But like the famed fictional archeologist, Michael Meyer
found himself intrigued and excited by history at a young age.
“I have never grown up – this is something I wanted to do as
a kid. I have a job that fascinates and intrigues me. I can’t imagine doing
anything else,” he said.
Meyer leads a team of
preservation specialists for the department who are currently investigating a
portion of cleared land between several elevated railroad tracks and the Poplar
Street Bridge. They are preserving a
portion of St. Louis history that may be impacted by next year’s construction to
widen the ramp from northbound I-55 to the eastbound bridge.
“What we do is more than archeology – we are tasked to
consider how our projects may impact the history the general public wishes to
preserve,” said Meyer.
That “tasking” is due to the National Historic Preservation
Act of 1966. The act instructs
organizations involved in construction to consider the impact that work may
have on historic areas, such as the downtown St. Louis area.
In many cases, MoDOT’s historic preservation office works
with the design team to adjust projects to avoid an impact to a historic
site. In others, such as this one, where
it is impossible to move the bridge or the ramps, the office sets out to
investigate and document historical areas to ensure the information is
preserved for future generations and for
additional study.
In the specific area where Meyer and his four person team
are investigating – a mid-19th century settler’s home constructed
over a mid-18th century French settler.
“We were able to determine through a records search that a
French soldier built a home here in about 1765. Then, about the mid-1860s an
American settler built a three story home in about the same location. We wanted to see what we could find of both
homes. This was a very significant historical site and potentially a fragile
one. Most of the earth over the site was about one to two feet deep. So, there
was a distinct possibility that historical features could be damaged by
something as simple as a loaded truck driving over the area,” said Meyer.
Finding the home from the 1860s was easy, Meyer said. They
were able to find clear evidence of the 18th century French
soldier’s home as well. French construction at the time used a process called
“post-in-earth,” where the builder digs and trench and places vertical walls in
that trench – somewhat like a log cabin with vertical logs instead of
horizontal. The preservation team was able to locate and identify the
distinctive footprint of the “post-in-earth” trenches, despite the challenges
the terrain and time have taken.
Meyer reads the patterns and lines of earth in the dig site
like most people read a map. He points out features of the two homes based on a
different shade or type of earth that has been uncovered. Most of the time, he
is excited about the history that those shades or types of earth represent.
That is, until he points to several thick, darker lines of earth that cut
across the area that he identifies as looter’s trenches.
“That was where collectors dug up the area about six or
seven years ago looking for bottles to ‘preserve’ them. About the same time, a
historical building was demolished in the area and they probably decided to
come here and look for bottles. They may
be preserving history, but are disturbing a much more important historical site
to find something commonplace. In doing so, they make it harder to interpret
what happened in the past,” Meyer said.
The team has also found some evidence of prehistoric cultures
– mostly chert flakes from tools. Meyer believes that the tools may have been
discarded as the hunter-gatherers moved from their settlements in the north to
a creek entering the Mississippi River in the south.
This work complements work done before around the area. Meyer says the team is creating a database of
property around the St. Louis area from the French Colonial time.
“We have contributed to creating a small picture of the
colonial era in St. Louis. We’ve looked at houses, outbuildings and other
buildings that give us a broader view of life in colonial St. Louis. Different
buildings, different status – merchants, solders and the like which give us a
better understanding of life as St. Louis was colonized. This is important
because we need to understand where we came from,” said Meyer.
“Historically, people settle and travel around the area for
the same reasons then as we do now. It’s
important to study how people dealt with the same problems in the past –
infrastructure, bridges, sewer systems. We make a mistake if we don’t take a
look at how people in the past solved the same problems we face.”
In this case, Meyer hopes that the work that he does will be
part of a greater study of the area.
“It’s a challenge to find something new to build on what
we’ve learned before – and it’s exhilarating to find something new that
challenges what we thought we knew before.”
