Students participate in ARI’s Trelawn Plantation dig

Hailey Heseltine
ECB Publishing, Inc.

In recent years, ARI has been making special effort to provide quality educational experiences to the youth of Jefferson County and neighboring counties. One of their means of doing has been inviting students from Jefferson County K-12 (JCS) and local homeschooled students to participate in digs, so that they can experience history firsthand through sight and touch.
Their most recent project is at the Trelawn Plantation, originally known as the Bird Plantation, which was originally built by the Mathers family. It was later lived in by one of Jefferson County's founding families, the Birds, who arrived in Jefferson County around 1832. It was purchased by them in the 1850s, and it stayed in the Bird family for well over a century, until the 1990s.
The main house was originally built in 1838, only eleven years after the county was founded; this makes it among the oldest in Jefferson County. During that time, kitchens were typically built separate from houses, as risk of fire was more prevalent. The Trelawn Plantation was no exception. Its outdoor kitchen building was used until additions were made to the house in the late 19th century, one of which was an attached kitchen. The separate kitchen building then served as a secondary residential building until at least the 1930s, when it fell into disuse. Afterward, it was left abandoned, and rotted until its collapse.
ARI is involving local students in the digging of Trelawn's kitchen site. High school students from JCS and several homeschool students began the exciting project on March 29, digging up artifacts, taking soil samples, and separating dirt from small pieces of iron, ceramic, and glass, which will be studied later. Throughout their day, students got to learn some basics of anthropological processes, as well as becoming more connected to the history of their county.
This dig was especially remarkable because it was attended by several representatives from the Jackson County School District who wanted to see ARI's educational outreach program in action. In the future, ARI hopes to be able to bring their outreach to more counties, and beginning to work with the school districts is key to turning that dream into reality. The four representatives got to see firsthand the students' avid participation, and Jack Carswell, a co-founder of ARI, explained the institute's mission.
ARI is currently in the process of receiving a $400,000 state grant for their outreach program, and members of the Florida House of Representatives, including Allison Tant, came to view and participate in the activities at Trelawn Plantation.
Most of the materials found on the site were fragments. Pieces of iron, glass, and ceramic were found to be plentiful, as well as some chains and large portions of bottles. Additionally, an ARI member previously found a nearly whole ceramic plate, the missing pieces of which may be found during the course of the project. Only time will tell what the dirt still hides, waiting to be unearthed.
The students were diligent in their work, but it's not quite done yet! The dig will continue on Fridays for the next few weeks, and ARI will continue to educate local youth during the Trelawn dig and others in the future.
Homeschool students and others are welcome to participate in the Trelawn dig as it proceeds over the next few weeks. For more information, you may get in contact with ARI by visiting aucillaresearchinstitute.org.