Blue Ridge Country November/December 2021 - 43

3 Things Kristen de Graauw Loves about Being
a Dendroarchaeologist
MEETING THE PEOPLE. Dr. Kristen de Grauuw says one thing she loves
about her job is the new friendships she develops as she works. " I love getting
out in different communities and meeting people I wouldn't otherwise meet. "
Some of those relationships have developed into lifelong friendships.
FINDING THE HIDDEN SURPRISES. She often finds surprises as she
examines the " nooks and crannies " of a structure. She sees things " that most
people don't get to see or don't notice. " For example she's discovered old
bullets and buttons lodged in logs.
SHARING THE JOY. While de Grauuw doesn't always have the date that a client
is looking for, when she has good news it's joyous. " I've seen tears of excitement
over a date and it makes me feel like I've done some good in the world. " -GN
they discover will either support or supplant
local oral histories. As he explains
it, " the stories change a bit with each
telling, but the science tells the truth. "
And, as de Graauw works to help them
date the barns, she is adding to her own
research about ancient forests.
Today, de Graauw is collecting samples
from the James Wellard barn near
Forestville, Virginia. Drilling a hollow bit
into extremely old oak is hard work. As
de Graauw backs the bit out to cool it off,
the air is rich with the smell of charred
wood. The cores are hot to the touch
when they drop out and de Graauw is
sweating from her effort.
She will collect 20 samples from various
log walls within the barn. When she
compares these cores to those from other
buildings in the area they will hint at the
story of the forest where the logs grew.
Each line from a log's revealed rings tells
about the tree's birth and life before it
was cut and placed in the barn. It's like
looking at ghostly fingerprints.
" Few scientists are using logs from
buildings to reconstruct ecological
events, " she says, " but from these logs
we can see when trees in a forest started
growing, and what ecological events
they experienced as they matured. "
De Graauw discovered that many of
her sampled logs, from Monroe County
to Hardy County in West Virginia as well
as those in Highland County, Virginia
began growing around the same time:
from 1670-1690. She wonders why.
What events made that happen? Was it
indigenous land management or a severe
drought? This is a new field so the answers
to these questions may not be discovered
in her lifetime, but her data will
help provide clues.
If you would like to get up close and
personal with an old forest and some of
de Graauw's work, then visit the Airbnb,
Loafer's Glory, in Pendleton County,
West Virginia. Once the Ananias Pitsenbarger
homestead (circa 1840), this
farm is now on the National Register of
Historic Places. The current owners, Teresa
and Jeff Munn, say that de Graauw's
work there was illuminating. Her samples
showed that the double-cribbed log hay
barn was started about five years before
the house. This would imply that settlers
found it more important to take care of
livestock before building a house for family.
Perhaps they lived above the barn
while the house was being completed.
There's a log apartment available at
the Airbnb which was part of de Graauw's
research as she drilled into the history of
the farm and the original forest around
it. If you stay there for the night, you
will be sleeping inside a story. One told
to anyone who knows how to listen.
Each line from a log's revealed rings tells
about the tree's birth and life before it was
cut and placed in the barn. It's like looking
at ghostly fingerprints.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 43
KRISTEN DE GRAAUW
KRISTEN DE GRAAUW
Blue Ridge Country November/December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country November/December 2021
