Bowens Road III(18CV152)

Site 18CV152, the Bowens Road III site, is the location of refuse disposal area associated with an early to mid-20th-century farmstead northwest of Prince Frederick in Calvert County, Maryland.

Interviews and research reveal the site is debris from a former house likely built by the Buck family, who owned the property after 1904. It was used either as their dwelling or as a tenant structure and later sold to the Boyd family in 1916. The house was located near a capped well and tobacco barn. A structure is present on a 1910 USGS map and a 1938 USGS map, suggesting the structure was likely built by the Buck family, shortly after their 1904 purchase. The Boyd family reportedly lived in the house from 1916 to 1926 and then housed tenants there until it was torn down. The Boyd family had an orchard, pig pens, chicken coops, and other farm animals. A fence separated the house yard from the rest of the farm complex. Tobacco was the main crop in cultivation for years, followed by soy beans. Corn was cultivated as animal feed.

The site was first identified in 1981 during survey of the Patuxent River drainage basin. Site 18CV151 was discovered during a pedestrian survey through an agricultural field. Kitchen and architectural debris were recovered, suggestive of a late 19th- to 20th-century domestic site. The site was examined again in 1992 as part of a Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative powerline survey. A total of 149 STPs were excavated in the survey segment that included site 18CV152. Surface features (a capped well, the level house pad, and a barn) were noted to the west of the site.

The site was again a subject of interest during a Phase I survey in 2004 as part of a natural gas pipeline project in Calvert, Charles, and Prince George’s Counties. This work entailed the excavation of 24 shovel tests. Positive shovel tests yielded 189 historic artifacts, 51 of which were temporally diagnostic. These provide a mean date of 1901 for the site with the date range of many of the bottles suggesting occupation during the early to middle 20th century.

Phase II testing was recommended, which was conducted in 2005. Investigations began with the excavation of 246 shovel test pits to refine site boundaries, identify artifact concentrations, and facilitate placement of test units. The testing revealed one significant artifact concentration in the center of the site (designated Cluster 1). Cluster 1 corresponded to a low-lying “catch-basin” on the terrace hillside. The large quantities of kitchen-related artifacts relative to architectural debris strongly suggested to researchers that the house site was not there. A total of 9 test units of varying sizes and one 1.5 X 6 ft test trench were excavated to sample locations of higher artifact densities.

As a result of the test unit and trench excavations, one historic feature was identified during Phase II testing. The feature was sandwiched between the base of the plowzone and the top of the subsoil and likely represents a localized buried plowzone within a low area of the hillside. Over time this depression was gradually filled with other colluvial deposits and secondary refuse from the nearby house and generally corresponds to the location of Cluster 1. Numerous gullies from water runoff were visible across the site landscape. In general, site stratigraphy consists of a plowzone containing artifacts, directly overlying sterile subsoil.

Site 18CV152 produced 6,311 historic/modern artifacts during the 2004-05 Phase I and II investigations. The assemblage included 691 activity items, 508 architectural artifacts, 121 clothing remains, 4,890 kitchen–related artifacts, 3 personal items, 11 arms objects, and 87 miscellaneous objects. The activity items include 2 musical objects, 2 recreation items, 194 lighting objects, 439 container parts (cans/tins), 3 farm implements, 1 hand tool, 46 machine parts, and 4 miscellaneous pieces of hardware.

The analysis of historic artifacts indicated that this portion of Site 18CV152 represents secondary refuse and possibly demolition debris discarded over the hill from the former tenant house. This portion of the site has been plowed and severely eroded.

(Edited from the Maryland Historical Trust Synthesis Project)