Excavated Mitchelville

In the late 1980s, Dr. Michael Trinkley found remnants of Mitchelville and recorded them as an archaeological site. Dr. Trinkley conducted the first archaeological investigations and thorough study of Mitchelville in 1986. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

In 2012, archaeologist Scott Butler identified a portion of Mitchelville adjacent to the Hilton Head Island Airport runway. It was designated archaeological site 38BU2301. The South Carolina State Historic Preservation office determined the site eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Since it was necessary to improve airport safety by extending the runway safety zone, archaeologists conducted extensive excavations to recover important information about Mitchelville before construction began.

Archaeologists found 85 features and over 20,000 artifacts. Site 38BU2301 may contain evidence of some of the last houses built in Mitchelville, possibly as late as 1864 or 1865, when military officials ordered all refugee families still living in the encampment to move to the village. All of the data and artifacts gathered during this work were analyzed and interpreted. The results are presented in a written report that is available to researchers and the public through the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia and this website.

Links:

www.brockington.org
www.chicora.org
www.scdah.sc.gov
www.diaspora.illinois.edu

Further Reading:

Archaeological Data Recovery at Mitchelville (38BU2301) Hilton Head Island Airport Improvements Study Area by Scott Butler, Patricia Stallings, Megan Brady, and Jeffrey Sherard
Digging for Clues by Kate Duke
Archaeology: A Brief Introduction by Brian Fagan
Archaeology for Kids: Uncovering the Mysteries of Our Past by Richard Panchyk
Method and Theory in Historical Archaeology by Stanley South