EASTOVER SOUTH CAROLINA - Hidden in the woods of the South Carolina Army National Guard McCrady Training Center (MTC), among the trails used for tank and paladin maneuvers and land navigation courses, is the story of South Carolina. Until the severe flooding that affected most of the state in late 2015, including MTC, some of it was still undiscovered.
"In the historic flood that hit South Carolina in October 2015, there was so much damage and erosion on the sandy trails that make up the tank and vehicle paths of MTC, most paths were impassable," said Jason Moser, Ph.D., RPA, MTC cultural resource manager, during a press conference held Feb. 2, 2016, to announce their most recent archaeological discovery. "While we were out conducting damage assessment and documentation, we stumbled upon an old transportation system that had been buried for more than 100 years and uncovered during the flood."
"Once the archaeology team was called out, they carefully began revealing more of the find," added Moser. "They logically determined that it was a corduroy road dating back to the 1890&'s, probably heading towards Winnsboro, S.C…We are still in the process of figuring out the importance. It may not be significant in itself, but it lets us know that there are still things out here to find. And now we can study the engineering behind the find."
In addition to the erosion of the sandy trails on MTC, James Spirek, state underwater archeologist, also expressed concern with a dam and mill site that was damaged in the flood nearby the newly found road system.
"This mill is from the early 1800&'s," said Spirek. "We last recorded the site in 2005 and it has suffered significant damage from the flood. Some timbers have been displaced downstream while more construction timbers were exposed. The water was very forceful…Approximately two to three feet of soil has been eroded away."
With the recent discovery, more study of the area is taking place which lends to the development of the hidden story of South Carolina.
"All sites have something to say. We want to study it before it's gone so we can give this area the story of its past," said Moser. "We found several artifacts and we will preserve them and display them to visually tell of the story of McCrady."
Further down the dam there is a break where the team found timbers of a gate structure for the mill. They also followed a ditch that came to the site the flood uncovered in the road. It can be assumed it was a filtration system or where they diverted the water flow during the construction of the dam or as an emergency spillway, explained Moser.
"We learned so much about the lay of the land and the construction process of this original mill," said Moser. "We have pulled a lot of pieces together and are able to explain more about the site."
Using a 3D point cloud system, the team was able to create a 3D model of the flood damaged road, said Bryan Hall, MTC conservation manager. This allows them to be able to continue to study the structure even after it&'s been reburied and marked for preservation. This 3D point cloud system is plugged into a graphical information system (GIS) to show a 360-degree view of the area and can also offer many benefits to the Guard such as capturing changes caused by storm damage and age deterioration to armories.
USC is working with us on a project to better document the storm damage, explained Hall. Using light detection and ranging (LIDAR), detailed topography was taken by the Corp of Engineering from D.C. The last time topography was taken was in 2014, so it was relatively recent and they were able to compare the 2014 views with after the storm views, which showed heavy amounts of sedimentation and erosion, he added.
"We will continue our outward thinking to manage natural resources for the future and to preserve historic sites," said Chris Stone, deputy conservation manager for McCrady. "Currently our focus is to clean everything up…Our conservation effort kept even more erosion from happening…Encouraging natural vegetation and preservation efforts helped protect McCrady."
"We don&'t foresee any long term effects," added Stone. "But we want to plan how to avoid more extreme damage in future storms. However, with three to four feet of surface eroded away, artifacts that we had never found before were exposed. We would have never known the corduroy road was there were it not for the flood; a little positive effect from the flood."
Hall added the National register of historic places has recorded 30 historic sites on McCrady and 25 sites on nearby Fort Jackson.
"The South Carolina Army National Guard is proud of our past and is concerned with preserving it," said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert E. Livingston Jr., adjutant general for South Carolina. "We will continue to work with the Cultural Resource Center to ensure we document and protect the history of South Carolina."