By DAVID ROSS
His house has lain in ruins for over 80 years in a remote property
halfway up Palomar Mountain.
For three weeks an archaeology professor and his students systematically
excavated the site of that stone house. The crude hut, a mere 12 feet
by 15 feet, was once occupied by Nate Harrison, the “first white
man on the mountain” as he called himself, and San Diego’s
first permanent black settler.
Dr. Seth Mallios and his San Diego State University field school in
archeology’s 11 students had virtually a virgin field to excavate.
There have certainly been visitors to the site where Harrison lived
from before the Civil War to 1920. But the Nate Harrison grade, named
after the old pioneer, is a rough road, one that brings to mind a washboard.
There’s not much tourist traffic on the private land where Harrison
lived, and provided fresh, cold Palomar Mountain water to weary, hot,
visitors who made the trek to the top. This helped keep the low-lying
pile of stones untouched.
Two weeks ago Dr. Mallios gave a press conference during which he talked
about the exciting find his team uncovered in the few weeks that they
were there.
“It’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said the 32-year
old Dr. Mallios. “I had no idea that we’d have such good
findings,” he said.
They unearthed over 2000 artifacts. Many confirm notions that people
have had about Harrison, such as that he smoked a pipe. That one’s
not much of a revelation, since he is shown with a pipe in several photos.
Another find was a nickel watch fob. Harrison was photographed several
times with such a fob visible.
There’s also large pieces of Whiteware pitchers most likely used
to bring water to thirsty travelers.
Numerous oral histories mention the old pioneer, who, he claimed, lived
to be more than 100. Most reports say that the cabin began falling apart
in the 1930s, about a decade after his death.
One of the finds, a graphite pencil, calls into question the long-held
belief that the old man, born a slave in Kentucky, couldn’t read
or write.
“Does that mean that he was definitely literate?” said Mallios.
“No, but it questions the notion that he was illiterate.”
They found a buffalo head nickel, dated 1916, and “fairly fancy”
silver plated eating utensils. They found a skeleton key, gears from
a clock, dozens of square headed nails and remnants of a leather boot
and a horseshoe.
One item that definitely helped to date the house was a container that
once held Murine eye wash, dating from the 1870s.
“It is worth noting that this product reflects an age of frontier
settlement and bottled elixirs,” said Mallios.
It wasn’t always an easy task. Archaeology is a very dirty business—literally.
You can’t do it without getting caked in dirt.
In addition, excavators found themselves dodging a rattlesnake that
lived in the hut’s walls, poison oak, scorpions and other pests.
They used the latest technology, such as laser transits. Mallios believes
that they are still several feet above where the actual floor of the
hut was.
The dig was made possible by the enthusiastic help of owners Jamey &
Hannah Kirby, who purchased the property about four years ago.
The previous owner was a private man, who wasn’t interested in
having many people tramp on his land.
The Kirbys don’t mind a few more people knowing about where Harrison
used to live. They are excited about the archaeological activity. They’d
like to see a museum of sorts in his memory, near the site where he
spent so many years.
“They let us dig here, they let us camp out here, they even built
a latrine and outdoor shower for us to use,” he said.
Mallios would like to return with a student crew for an even more extended
dig. “I’d like to come back every summer.”
He believes there is much to be unearthed, such as the nearby spring,
the yard and trash heap, believed to be some distance from the house,
that could reveal clues about the way that Harrison lived.
He believes the site could provide students with a rare hands-on opportunity
that could prepare them for careers in archaeology.
“New stuff is popping up all the time.”
One of Mallios’s students, Sarah Stroud, is doing her master’s
thesis on the project.
He also sees this as an example of San Diego’s “multi-ethic
history.”
The professor previously did some work on free black settlements in
Virginia. When he first heard about the Nate Harrison site, he wondered
if other free black settlements were similar.
“In my mind, this road is a trade route,” he said, pointing
to the Nate Harrison Grade. “He may well have traded for a lot
of the items that he had.”
That could account for the fact that they have discovered no matching
sets of things like eating utensils. They include a spoon and three
forks.
Mallios was surprised by the number of artifacts that have so far shown
up. He hypothesizes that this is because Harrison occupied the site
for so long, and it remained relatively undisturbed.
|
Previously unpublished photo of Nate Harrison courtesy
of the Valley Center History Museum. |
