Trace: Town Creek Indian Mound and the Rise of Scientific Archaeology in North Carolina

SUMMARY: When a student archaeologist was dropped off in a Montgomery County cotton field in 1937 to investigate a problematic Indian mound, there’s no way he could have known the project would last 50 years. Joffre Lanning Coe would develop academic archaeology in North Carolina and establish the state’s only historical site dedicated to archaeology at Town Creek. But just down the road, a town doctor was busy becoming one of the most prolific artifact collectors of his generation.

Trace: Trace: Town Creek Indian Mound and the Rise of Scientific Archaeology in North Carolina

PART ONE

CRIS LAMACK: (Research Labs of Archaeology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) 

STRUCTURE FROM MOTION IS A 3D MODELING TECHNIQUE THAT USES DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS TO CONSTRUCT THE MODELS. WHAT IT’S ACTUALLY DOING IS PULLING POINTS THAT REPEAT IN DIFFERENT PICTURES. AT THE END OF THE DAY, WHAT YOU ACTUALLY DO HAVE IS A 3D MODEL — A SORT OF MOVEABLE, TURNABLE DIGITAL REPRESENTATION OF THAT ARTIFACT. I MEAN IT’S REALLY THE NEXT BEST THING TO HAVING IT IN YOUR HAND.

NARRATOR: (Historical maps and photos)

In the late fall of 1936, the eventual leader of UNC’s Research Labs of Archaeology was lecturing members of the Natural History Club in Raleigh. There seemed to be a lack of interest in the state’s culture prior to the arrival of Europeans. To a student of human culture, he argued, one period of history should be just as important as another.

The young Joffre Lanning Coe — then only 20 years old — already knew as much about the evolving field of scientific archaeology as anybody in the state. But he still had plenty to learn.

Much of it, he would learn over the next 50 years on a bluff above the Little River, near Mount Gilead, North Carolina. There, a farmer named Lloyd Frutchey was having trouble with artifact collectors.

RICH THOMPSON: (Town Creek State Historic Site)

THE MOUND STUCK UP OUT OF THE EARTH SORT OF LIKE A SORE THUMB – ESPECIALLY FOR A FARMER NAMED LLOYD FRUTCHEY WHO OWNED THE LAND. EVERY YEAR HE WOULD COME OUT TO PLOW HIS FIELD IN PREPARATION TO PLANT. AND DOING SO PULLED UP NEW ARTIFACTS, BECKONING PEOPLE TO COME IN. THEY WOULD WALK AROUND LOOKING FOR WHAT THEY COULD FIND AND TRAMPLE HIS ROWS. HE DECIDED THE SOLUTION WAS ESSENTIALLY TO BULLDOZE THE MOUND. IF HE COULD TEAR THE MOUND DOWN, THE LANDMARK WOULD BE GONE AND PEOPLE WOULDN’T KNOW EXACTLY WHERE TO LOOK.

FORTUNATELY, DR. COE GOT WIND OF THIS PLAN AND WAS ABLE TO TALK HIM OUT OF DEMOLISHING IT UNTIL ARCHAEOLOGY COULD INVESTIGATE IT TO SEE IF IT WAS SOMETHING THAT WAS WORTH SAVING.

DR. BILLY OLIVER:

COE MENTIONED THAT WHEN HE WAS FIRST TAKEN TO TOWN CREEK, HIS GRANDFATHER DROVE HIM DOWN. HE SAID THAT “THE LONELIEST DAY OF MY LIFE WAS WHEN I SAW THE PLUME OF DUST TRAILING BEHIND MY GRANDFATHER’S VEHICLE AS HE DROVE UP THE ROAD GOING BACK HOME AND I WAS LEFT ALONE WITH THE COTTON FIELD BEHIND ME, AND THE DUST IN FRONT OF ME.”

NARRATOR: (Historical photos spanning decades, in the field and in the lab)

What began as a camping adventure would grow into a research project spanning nearly five decades. Coe’s drive to discover more about Native American cultures took him to other sites in the immediate area and across the state where he developed an approach to archaeology marked by meticulous excavation techniques and sound analysis.

In 1964, he published his signature work, a book widely regarded as the cornerstone of archaeology in the Southeastern United States. Coe’s research enabled him to distinguish between different periods of native occupation separated, in some cases, by thousands of years.

Near the end of his life, Coe said that it was careful methodology that allowed archaeologists to comprehend native cultures as more than just a jumbled pile of arrowheads. Prior to that understanding, he said: “It was just Indians, and us.”

JOFFRE LANNING COE: (Historical News Clip)

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER, WE GRADUALLY HAVE LIFTED OURSELVES OUT OF THE UNKNOWN MUD… SOMETIMES WE DON’T THINK WE KNOW VERY MUCH BUT WE SURE KNOW A LOT MORE THAN WE DID BACK IN 1936.

PART TWO

NARRATOR: (Pressley Rankin Museum collection)
If scientific archaeology gave rise to a more nuanced understanding of native cultures based on data and interpretation, it didn’t replace the earlier, collector-based approach to native artifacts overnight. Even as Coe worked at Town Creek, a doctor just down the road in the hamlet of Ellerbie was busy becoming one of the most prodigious collectors of his generation.

JIM CHAVIS:

HIS COLLECTION WAS SO HUMONGOUS HE JUST NEEDED A PLACE TO KEEP THINGS, AND WE HAD A LOT OF DISCUSSION ABOUT (HIM) WANTING TO SHARE WHAT HE HAD COLLECTED. WHEREVER HE MAY HAVE TRAVELED TO, HE USUALLY BROUGHT SOMETHING BACK OF SOME SIGNIFICANCE. THAT’S THE WAY THE MUSEUM GOT STARTED.

DR. BILLY OLIVER:

JOFFRE COE AND PRESSLEY RANKIN WERE CONTEMPORARIES, CLOSE IN THE SAME AGE. THEY BOTH WERE NATIVE NORTH CAROLINIANS – COE BEING BORN IN GREENSBORO; RANKIN BEING BORN IN MT. GILLIAD. THEY WERE SONS OF PRIVILEGE IN SOME WAYS BUT THEY BOTH HAD AN INSATIABLE CURIOSITY ABOUT THE PAST.

COE, ON ONE HAND, PURSUED ANY ACADEMIC CHALLENGE. RANKIN PURSUED ANOTHER PATH. HIS LOVE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND GEOLOGY AND WILDLIFE LED HIM TO COLLECT THINGS ALL OF HIS LIFE, OFTENTIMES BUYING LAND, CLEARING TREES AND COLLECTING THE ARTIFACTS THAT WERE EXPOSED ON THE SURFACE, OR SOMETIMES EVEN BUYING ARTIFACTS THAT WERE PUT UP FOR AUCTION OR SALE.

JIM CHAVIS:

HE HAD A KEEN INTEREST IN NATIVE AMERICANS AND IN NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY. ONCE HE REALIZED THAT THAT WAS ALSO AN INTEREST THAT I HAD – AND ALSO THAT I WAS FULL-BLOODED NATIVE AMERICAN – HE AND I JUST DEVELOPED A RELATIONSHIP THAT LASTED UP UNTIL HIS DEATH. HE HAD SOME SPECIAL PLACES IN THIS COUNTY AND A COUPLE OF OTHER COUNTIES WHERE OTHER PEOPLE DIDN’T KNOW THAT THERE WERE ARTIFACTS THERE. HE ALWAYS WANTED TO KEEP THAT TO HIMSELF. WE JUST TOOK A PACT MANY, MANY YEARS AGO THAT WE WOULD NOT TALK ABOUT A LOT OF THOSE THINGS. I STILL DON’T TALK A LOT ABOUT IT. I’M STILL VERY LOYAL TO DOC. HE WAS LOYAL TO ME AND I’VE ALWAYS BEEN LOYAL TO HIM.

DR. BILLY OLIVER:

IT’S A VERY DIFFICULT SUBJECT TO ADDRESS WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT COLLECTING VERSUS ACADEMIC ARCHAEOLOGY. UP UNTIL THE 20TH CENTURY, THE FOCUS OF AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY WAS COLLECTING. BOTH IN THE END CONTRIBUTED KNOWLEDGE TO THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE OF NORTH CAROLINA ABOUT HOW THESE PEOPLE LIVES, HOW THEY DIED, AND WHAT THESE ARTIFACTS MEANT.

NARRATOR: (student visitors, present day)

At Town Creek, Joffre Coe would invent much of what would become scientific archaeology in the state and train two generations of archaeologists. After initial excavations wrapped up in the 1950s, the mound and several structures were carefully recreated exactly where they originally stood. The curious visitors that once trampled a farmer’s field are now welcome to explore a village situated much as it would have been a thousand years ago.

End Credits, 9:31

Script & Photography by Clifton Dowell
Narration & Music by Benjamin Brown

Duke Center for Documentary Studies / Anytown USA Project