07/11/10

This page is intended to provide any news that comes out of a continuing effort to understand the phenomenon of dowsing and the ongoing tests that are expected to be conducted in the future.  Selected new inputs from the visitors to this site will also be published here.

On July 9th, 2010, I finally returned to Valley Forge and the Headquarters building (see April 1st visit below). I had sent an undimensioned outlined drawing to a representative of the National Park Service (NPS).  During a short exchange of E-mails, I said that I planned to go out again to take measurements.  After that I looked at the outline and realized that I had not seen a fireplace base.  My chore would then include a search for a fireplace.  An associate in archaeology went with me to help with the measurements. 
When we arrived, there was a Temple U. crew working a site behind the headquarters.  There had been an article in a local newspaper, a couple of days earlier, about this dig.  I went to look for a wall that the NPS representative had told me about.  I could not find it.  I then circled the rectangle that I had found earlier. Nothing was found.  We started taking dimensions, and on the southwest corner, I came across something.  It turned out to be 36 inch square with a brick pattern within it.  This gave me a short emotional trip.  We then when on with the measurements.  The outside dimensions of the rectangle are 24 feet by 36 feet.  The two outer lines of the rectangle are a nominal 8" apart (log). I had trouble getting the 24' measurement due to other lines showing up.  After I finished with all of the dimensions that I wanted, I walked across the 24' within the outline.  Multiple lines showed up every 10 or so inches, as I went.  This could have been a plank floor.

On April 19th, 2010, I went out to the Moland House to work with the landscaping crew.  Before I got started, I thought that I would do some scanning on the north side of the house.  Over the past few days I had been reading an account on the "13 days in August" by Helen Gemmill.  In her book she had told of John Moland being buried on the farm.  I then thought that, if his grave was there, he would have been buried within the site of a front door and not more than 100 feet distant.  My scanning began in a large native flower garden where other lines had been found in the past.  It did not take long before I found a rectangle that was a little over 6 feet in length and about 30 inches in width.  I found that this rectangle faced to the house entrance by its length.  I then searched to find if there was yet another rectangle.  I only found one other that was about a foot to the side.  There is no proof that these are the graves of John Moland and his wife, but it is fun to speculate that they are. We also know of a stone, on this site, that has been used as a sill plate, and has been broken.  On this stone is "/61".  John Moland died in 1761.

On April 1st, 2010, I went out to Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge.  Last year, an archaeology project took place there at a location near the house that could have been a log dining cabin that was built during the encampment.  There was no definite confirmation of the cabin during the season's dig.  On listening to a presentation about the dig that was given last fall at the Living History Center on Independence Park, I decided to go out in the spring and see what I could find.  I have found an outline on the south side of the Headquarters that appears to be a log structure.  I will be adding a page to this site about this find in the near future.

We are scheduled to begin a survey on Quaker Meeting site on April 29th, 2010.  This survey will be in preparation for the installation of marking stones showing the outline of the old Meetinghouse.  While setting the stones we will perform archaeology were the stones are to be set.   We hope to find artifacts dating from that early structure.

On December 4, 2009, There was a  book signing at the Horsham Quaker Meeting (see the page on the Quaker Meeting from the Research page).  The book was written to cover the history of the meeting which dates back to the building of the first meetinghouse, in 1714.  Prior to that meeting a question was asked as to whether the trustees would allow the marking of the outline of that first meetinghouse.  Tentative permission was given at that meeting by the Clerk of the Trustees.  The Board of Trustees confirmed with their approval, which was received on January 15th.  We will plan the task to begin sometime in April, 2010.  We will again locate the outline using a dowsing rod.  It has been two centuries since the meetinghouse stood on the site.  We will use archaeology techniques to remove the soil that is necessary to allow us to install Belgian blocks, which will mark the outline.

Whenever upcoming events are scheduled that are expected to broaden the knowledge of those interested in the use of dowsing in research of any kind, when known by the author, those events will be published here.

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