(Radio Iowa) – Students from Iowa’s three public universities are wrapping up five summers of archaeological research sifting through the soil at the Gardner cabin. The cabin was the site of the 1857 Spirit Lake Massacre where more than 30 settlers were killed by Native Americans. This is the final season State Archaeologist John Doershuk will lead excavations there.
“It’s a lot of hard physical labor. It’s a lot of mental labor to keep track of where you are in the stratigraphic profile and what you’re finding. And so it takes patience, persistence, and a lot of just hard work,” Doershuk says. Thirteen-year-old Abbie Gardner was taken captive during the attack and then released about three months later. She later returned to buy her family’s cabin and preserve it as a museum.
Doershuk says the cabin is in critical need of restoration, and he hopes the state will help preserve the historic site. University of Iowa senior John Morris says the hard work pays off when finding pieces of pottery, coins and other items. “I’ve always loved stories, and I believe every object that you come across, every artifact you find has a story, and I love finding out what that story is and being able to then pass it on and teach other people the history and the stories of the past,” Morris says.
This is the last year the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory will conduct research there, but students will continue exploring other areas to bring history lessons to life.
