5.1. SR 09-22-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY Department of Revenue Building, (Dahl House), St. Paul, Minnesota. Construction of the new Minnesota Department of Revenue Building required archaeological excavation to mitigate effects to the William Dahl House, a nineteenth-century domestic site in downtown St. Paul. In this high profile and fast-paced project, the construction contractor was liable for a $6 million fine if the project was not completed on time. The 106 Group archaeologists, contracted by the project's environmental consultant, Braun Intertec, worked nights and weekends during early winter to ensure that no project delays occurred due to archaeological data recovery. Our close coordination with the construction contractor and environmental consultant ensured successful, on-time completion of the project. Science Museum of Minnesota, Washington Street Residential District, St. Paul, Minnesota. In the spring of 1997, one of Minnesota' s most exciting archaeological sites, the Washington Street Residential District, was uncovered during construction of the new Science Museum of Minnesota. The 106 Group spent one month recovering archaeological artifacts and recording structural finds from an entire city block of St. Paul's infamous nineteenth century red-light district. Excavations focused on the remains of Nina Clifford's bordello. The mitigation recovered over 6,000 artifacts that, when combined with the results of historical documents research, helped to tell the story of the bordello's workers and clients. The results of this work generated tremendous public interest and media attention, including radio and television reports throughout the country and Canada. In addition to communicating daily with the press, The 106 Group created a volunteer assistance program to help with excavations and the processing of artifacts, presented a paper at the national meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology, and spoke at numerous public meetings. Anne Ketz led one of the classes at the Science Museum of Minnesota Special Class Series: Digging Archaeology. The class was entitled Anatomy of a Dig.