Our Return to Mission Escambe: Field Work from the UWF 2025 Summer Field School

This summer's field school marked our return to the site of Mission Escambe after a 10-year hiatus to focus on field work at Pensacola's Luna settlement site, discovered in 2015. We decided to start right where we left off in 2015 and further examine the incredible findings from that year, specifically the wall trench and square linear post hole features, which indicated a Spanish structure. 

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The field school this year was split, with 3 weeks spent at each site. Learning to conduct fieldwork in the sandy soil at the Luna site with a nice breeze from the bay left many students nervous for the infamous mosquito-ridden conditions at the mission site in Molino. Students quickly adapted to the new conditions, however, and could confidently walk around the site without frequent mosquito bites, largely in thanks to our trusty fires maintained by field director Case Draughn.

Case making fires using the same smoke

pot from 2015

Due to the short 3-week time frame and the dense clay, we decided to open up 1x1 meter units this year. Three units were planned at the beginning of the summer in Area C, where features associated with a Spanish structure were found back in 2015. This structure was thought to potentially be the mission church.

Unit C-18 was placed just south of the probable corner of the structure in hopes of catching additional post holes from the western wall.

 Posthole from unit C-17 in 2015

 Supervisor Elizabeth with Des, Tim'mearra, and Cayla excavating unit C-18

                                             

While this unit did not yield any features associated with the post holes and wall trench found in 2015, several artifacts related to the mill period and the Spanish mission here were uncovered. Artifacts from the mission include pieces of light olive-green glass, and a Leon check-stamped sherd. 

Light olive-green glass

                                   

Unit C-19 was placed farther south than the other two units, where the interior of the structure would have been. With the thought that this may be a church, we did not expect a high artifact density in this area.

Sydney, Grant, Lia, and John excavating and taking notes on unt C-19

Several ceramics typical of the Apalachee residents at Mission Escambe were found in C-19, including brushed grit-tempered pottery and a Lamar incised rim from a carinated bowl. Several iron objects were found here as well, including a barrel band in the corner of the unit. As of right now, we cannot determine if this barrel band dates to the 18th-century mission period or the late 19th-century sawmill period here. 

Grant holding the incised sherd

Lamar incised rim from a carinated bowl

Supervisor Jessie and field director Case holding the barrel band they excavated

Brushed pottery

And finally, unit C-20 was located east of three linear post holes running east-west, found in 2014, in hopes of revealing the eastern corner of the mission church 

Post holes found in 2014

Jack, Tim, and Jonah mapping level 1 of unit C-20

          
This unit, like the other two, produced pre-contact, sawmill period, and mission artifacts. One very exciting artifact from this summer was the honey-colored gun flint!

Honey-colored gunflint

Supervisor Kate mapping with Jack

During excavations, a darker spot was observed in the southwest corner of the unit. After it first appeared, it was assumed to be a post-hole, but after further excavations, it became evident that this was likely a soil stain from bioturbation or a root.

Feature 700 after excavation

Our little root stain in unit C-20 was the only feature present in area C this summer. The lack of any post holes makes it difficult to determine what the structure actually was, and may indicate it was still under construction and never finished. 

A lighter-colored clay in the north and east walls of unit C-18 was thought to be associated with a wall trench similar to that in unit C-17 in 2015. With the idea that the unit had been placed just slightly too far east to catch post holes running north-south, the unit was extended 50 cm west into unit C-21.

Light colored clay in west wall of unit C-21

Cayla excavating unit extension

                                   
Despite our hopes, no feature was found. Still, the unit provided valuable information on this area of the site and yielded interesting artifacts, including a 6 mm buckshot and a piece of extra local grey chert, the same material used for gunflints or fire strikers, likely sourced from Europe.

Grey chert, possibly sourced from Europe

6mm buckshot

Unit C-20 was wrapped up with a lot of time to spare, so Jesssie's group was able to start another 1x1 meter unit over in area G, just north of unit G02 and northeast of unit G01, which were excavated in the 2014 field school. This unit was opened with the intent to find more postholes that align with unit G01 to establish the circular pattern associated with an Apalachee round house. 

This unit yielded several artifacts associated with the mission, including various Native American ceramics, dark olive-green glass, majolica (plain and puebla blue on white), and beads. 

Jessie excavating a post hole feature

Shards of dark olive-green glass, clear blown glass

Apalachee potsherds, and blue on white majolica

More exciting discoveries were made when two features became visible at the very bottom of this unit. Feature 701 was interpreted to be a post hole, which may be associated with the post hole feature in unit G01 and the hearth feature from G02. Feature 702, located in the northwest corner, is likely the remnants of a smudge-pit. 

Potential smudge pit (FEA 702) before excavation

Post-hole feature (FEA 701) before excavation

After everyone had finished excavating their units, we were able to complete several shovel tests during the last week of field school to fill in the gaps on previous surveys. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were out for blood in these woods without our fires. 

Students learned to pace themselves in 10-meter increments and how to orient themselves along a transect using a compass. In total, we completed 19 shovel tests in the last few days of field school. From these shovel tests, we were able to paint a clearer picture of the site boundaries. 

Students learning to pace out 10 meters

Students digging a shovel test and getting Munsell 

colors of the stratigraphy

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Special thanks to the Marlow family for being so gracious this summer and allowing us to continue digging at this incredible site. 

Stay tuned for more updates as we plan to return next year and do more excavations in area G in the potential Apalachee round house! 

If you'd like to hear more about the results from this field school, come to the free PAS lecture on March 10th! The link for more information on this lecture is below.

https://pasfl.org/meetings/

It's a wrap: Finishing up the 2015 season at Molino

Official group photo for 2015, taken overlooking Spring Lake.

Friday marked the last official day of the 2015 Colonial Frontiers summer field school, and all but one of the excavation units at Molino have been completed and backfilled.  This year's fieldwork at Molino was unquestionably successful, and provided important new clues to both the mid-18th-century Mission San Joseph de Escambe and the late 19th-century Molino Mills sawmill, although many questions of course remain.

Excavations in Mission Escambe on the site's upper terrace provided new clues as to the probable corner of a mission-era rectangular structure that may be the mission church, as pictured in the photos below.

View to SE of sand lens in E-W trench, with lens on S profile where the trench cornered.

Kelsey and Emma working on bisection of trench feature.

Floor-cleaning from three angles.

View of S profile with substantial post below sand lens.

Other excavation units to the north were designed to catch wall posts or interior features of a predicted circular Apalachee residential structure, and although a total of three units were opened here this summer (two 1x2m and one 1.5x2m in size), only a few posts were found, only some of which were deep enough to have been probable wall posts or roof supports.  Initial inferences regarding a large circular structure some 10 meters in diameter were not supported, and although more units will be needed next year to confirm a pattern, the possible residential structure here presently seems to be most probably in the neighborhood of 6-6.5 meters in diameter.  A good amount of residential debris was found in these units, however, as well as a probable smudge pit.

Jillian and Melissa pause while helping start a larger unit adjacent to the unit Olivia is sitting in.

Kayla takes an overhead plan view shot while Jillian steadies the ladder.

Kayla shows off fragments of Spanish majolica she has just found in her unit.

Tyler takes a photo of a feature profile with Jillian holding a metric rule.

Final plan view photo showing the base of two finished units, mostly demonstrating where posts (hence walls) are NOT located.

Kelsey makes notes on the profile of one of the units in the area of the possible southern wall of the round house.

A pretty fragment of hand-painted blue majolica from the house area.

Below the upper terrace, the two excavation units in the floor of Molino Mills were slowed by an over-abundance of architectural features and building debris, but provided considerable information about the Reconstruction-era sawmill.  Our uppermost unit located on the bluff slope exposed the southern edge of a brick floor feature first identified in a shovel test last year, and revealed that the floor had been laid in on a level platform carved into the bluff itself, and was bordered along the bluff edge by a drainage trench somewhat lower than the elevation of the bricks, with water-lain sand and a central gully subsequently covered by burned wood and nail debris when the mill burned in 1884.

Caroline celebrates the completion of one stage of the trench feature excavation.

Caroline, Kristin, and Darby revel in the completion of unit backfilling.

The most distant excavation unit, located in the humid, mosquito-infested lower terrace area adjacent to the active swamp-bottom, proved to have been situated on the northern edge of some sort of excavation associated with the emplacement of what appears to have been sawmill machinery, and included considerable brick and mortar debris in the southern half, underlain by clay fill, burned debris, and underlying sand deposits, bordered on the north once again by some sort of drainage trench lined by boards that appear to have charred in the ground when the mill burned.  A large iron bolt had been set deep within a trench next to the excavated area under the machinery it was probably attached to.

Jen, Darby, and Melissa pause during the excavation of the middle layers of the unit.

Jen and Olivia carefully excavate around the bricks and trench/board features near the bottom of the unit.

Kelsey, Jodi, and Olivia work on mapping the board-lined trench while Chelsea works on unit paperwork.

Tyler and Kelsey display the striking results of a day of intense waterscreening through muddy clay.

An unrusted bent cut nail recovered among the debris in this unit.

The entire crew rallies around the last of the waterscreening during the last hour of the last day as rains begin to fall.

In the end, the summer field school of 2015 turned out to be a fun and successful sixth season at the Mission Escambe site, including new work on both the Molino Mills sawmill there, as well as testing at a nearby Second Spanish mill, providing important new information on all sites and time periods represented.  We are especially grateful to Richard Marlow and his family for continued support and help to the project, and we thank Josh Pope, William Cox, Neal Collier, and particularly Dr. Elizabeth Benchley and the UWF Archaeology Institute, including Karen Mims, Norine Carroll, Jen Melcher, and Jan Lloyd and her lab staff, as well as our many volunteers at the site this summer, of course including our wonderful student crew.  We look forward to continuing laboratory analysis of all our finds this summer during the fall and winter, and we hope to be back once again next year with more discoveries for 2016.

A change of pace: fieldwork at a Second Spanish Period sawmill community

For the past week and a half, the Colonial Frontiers field school crew has been conducting a shovel test survey at a completely different archaeological site, a water-powered sawmill dating primarily to the Second Spanish Period (1781-1821) located along a creek feeding into the Escambia River from the west.  The site has received limited archaeological surface survey in the past, but is now the focus of master's thesis research by one of this year's field directors, Jillian Okray, and so our students have just wrapped up 8 days of shovel testing at the site.  Here, along the broad, gently sloping ridge bordering the remnants of the mill dam, we have found clear evidence for the small mill community founded here during the late 18th century, including several concentrations of what appears to be residential debris dating to the time period of the mill.  Apart from a total of 74 shovel tests completed across the site in an attempt to define and bound the occupation, one narrow test trench was excavated in an area that appears to have a collapsed brick structure, either a wall or pier or chimney base.  Despite intense heat and humidity over the past few days in the field, students learned the basics of shovel test survey and simultaneously provided us a great new window into the Second Spanish community located at the site.  We hope to return to the site in the fall in order to explore a few questions left unanswered during our short stay at the site this summer, but for the moment, a series of photos below will show some of our activities and finds at the site.

Olivia and Tyler work on a shovel test next to one of the site datums.

Volunteer Nikki Mauro shaps a picture of a shovel test with some help; also pictured are Melissa, Tyler, Kayla, and Jillian.

Jen uses a coring device to explore stratigraphy while Kelsey looks on.

Olivia and Caroline excavate in the trench while Jillian and Melissa sift.

Darby and Tyler work on a test next to the lakebed.

Kelsey and Tyler hold a massive root they conquered while digging a shovel test.

Volunteers Kristin Parrish and Chelsea Randall help Jodi and Kayla excavating and sifting.

View of the brick wall and associated scatter when originally identified.

Careful excavation around the bricks in the trench.

Volunteer Michelle Pigott helps Olivia and Jodi excavate the brick wall feature.

View of the brick wall and collapsed scatter after excavation.

A charred board found within a pit feature containing poorly-fired handmade brick rubble.

The entrance to the natural gap in the ironstone peninsula where the mill raceway may have been located.

Jillian, Kayla, and Emma exploring the raceway trough.

Kayla, Emma, Jillian, and Dr. Worth in the raceway, as viewed from the bridge above.

View of what appear to be chisel marks along the base of the stone raceway, apparently where Spanish mill owners straightened a portion of the natural stone trough.

Jillian examines a vertical notch carved into the stone wall at the base of the raceway, presumably made to emplace a wooden structural element.

A blown glass stopper for a cruet or similar container.

Side and end views of two of the glass beads found on the site.

Front and back views of a brass button with attached wire loop.

The neck of a handmade bottle.

Another handmade bottle neck with applied strip.

Some ceramics from the site.

Surface finds near the mill raceway, including an iron "log dog."

Brushed pottery, probably associated with Creek Indians either during or just prior to the mill occupation.

A transfer print sherd.

A large, bent wrought iron nail.

A large sherd of a shell-edge plate.