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Only one historic period site (44OR364) discovered in the 1993 - 1994 survey contained above-ground structural remains , that of a stone chimney fall . Numerous other nineteenth- and twentieth-century sites with above -ground remains were recorded in the various Duke Forest tracts located along and south of New Hope Creek , as well as in Hillsborough . Four cabin sites have been more extensively tested (Daniel and Ward 1993 a Hargrove 1995 ) . 31Or292 may be typical of many of the early farmsteads in Orange County . Dating from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries , this structure appeared to have been a small log cabin with a stone chimney (Hargrove 1995) . It had been seated on a ridge top overlooking the west fork of the Eno River and within several miles of Cedar Grove, which had become a recognized community by the time a post office was established there in 1823 (Powell 1986) . Testing at yeoman farms such as these cabin sites provides information on the lower and middling levels of society ; groups of people largely invisible in the documentary record . Although the county has been predominantly agricultural throughout its history , the topography and drainage make it particularly suited for the use of water power along its many rivers and streams . The first mills were established along the rivers and creeks of the county in the mid-eighteenth century (Engstrom 1983 ) . There is evidence that settlement locations were often first chosen by European-Americans because of their suitability for harnessing waterpower ; for example , the Quakers early on established mills along the Eno River . There , stores , post offices and the like sprang up in association with the mill , forming social and commercial centers for local fuming populations . Waterpower was harnessed in Orange County for converting a range of raw materials into useable products , and there are documented examples of sawmills , grist nulls , and oil mills (Anderson 1979 , 1989) . There was a surge in industrial activity in the mid- nineteenth century , and following a hiatus during the Civil War and Reconstruction, there was a brief revival in industry around 1880 (Lefler and Wager 1953 : 271 ) . Four mills from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been recorded in the western portion of the county (Ward 1978) , and small-scale excavations were conducted at the site of Warren ' s Mill (310601 ) . Although the machinery had been removed from the mill and no standing structures remained , the outlines of the mill , the race , and the dam of this late nineteenth century facility were established (Hargrove 1995) . Another important establishment in the county was the University of North Carolina , located in Chapel Hill . In the 1990s , two projects conducted on the oldest part of campus provided insight into late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century campus life . The Eagle Tavern , located near Morehead Planetarium , served at various periods as a tavern , hotel , boarding house , and dormitory . Excavations there revealed an abundance of plain, sturdy dishes and table glass , appropriate equipment for feeding over 100 hungry students daily in the mid4800s (Samford and Davis 1998) . The Poor House , privately built mid- nineteenth-century student housing , was one Chapel Hill entrepreneur ' s answer to the constant housing shortages that plagued the University . The Research Laboratories of Archaeology excavated this structure , whose existence had been forgotten , in 1997 (Jones et al 1998) . Large quantities of broken window glass , alcoholic beverage bottles , and ammunition from both the campus sites most likely reflects student mischief. 7