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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Friday, October 2, 2009 10:25 PM CDT
OUR VIEW: New technology may help uncover history

By the JG/T-C Editorial Board
editorial@jg-tc.com

If Indiana Jones had access to a ground-penetrating radar, he might have been able to avoid all those snakes!

But Jones, of fantasy movie serial fame, was on archaeological digs in the 1930s.

Fortunately for supporters of the Five Mile House, ground-penetrating radar is available now.

So Eastern Illinois University geology/geography faculty and students today plan to see what lies beneath land on the property of the Five Mile House.

The original two-room brick section of the Five Mile House was built in the early 1840s, making it one of the oldest remaining buildings in Coles County. The house is located on Illinois Route 130 five miles south of the courthouse in Charleston.

The equipment that researchers will be using today is identical to that used in California in recent weeks.

Investigators working on the case of a woman who was kidnapped and held captive for 18 years have been using ground-penetrating radar to see what might be in the soil at her captors’ home.

But the emphasis here is on history.

Tom Vance, president of the Five Mile House Foundation, said they might find locations of features like outhouses, wells, root cellars and even graves.

Vance said the data collected by the radar will be used to pinpoint spots where archaeological digs can be conducted.

The ground-penetrating radar minimizes the amount of digging that needs to be conducted.

Without the “map” provided by the ground-penetrating radar machine, Vance said the foundation would have to go through the time-consuming process of digging many test trenches around the grounds to find hidden original features

An auction and dinner held last month helped the foundation raise the funds needed to rent the ground-penetrating radar.

Anyone can go out to watch the radar work today. Researchers will be there from about 9 a.m. to early afternoon, weather permitting.

Sunday is the rain date.

We look forward to seeing what the ground-penetrating radar and subsequent digging uncovers about this historical landmark.

JG/T-C Editorial Board

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