Orange County NC Website
have been identified as specific sites, based on historic research. The function and time <br /> period of operation and/or occupation of some of these sites can be inferred from research <br /> ( e : g . , mill sites such as Berry ' s Private Mill) . In many cases, however, a site ' s date of use <br /> and/or function has yet to be determined . Some potential sites have been identified from <br /> historic maps (e . g . , Tate Map of 1891 ; 1918 soil map) that show that a structure was once <br /> located at a certain spot. If field and/or modern aerial photographic research reveals that <br /> the structure no longer stands, it has been interpreted as a potential site . <br /> Some of those potential sites were "ground-truthed" through an archaeological <br /> reconnaissance survey. If field reconnaissance revealed the presence of a site a North <br /> Carolina Office of State Archaeology site number was assigned to it . As a result, <br /> preliminary archaeological background research and field reconnaissance recorded <br /> additional 23 new archaeological sites (Table 2) . This includes three sites that are also <br /> recorded and/or numbered as part of the architectural survey, which are St. Mary' s <br /> Chapel and cemetery (no architectural survey number; 31Or496 * * ) , Ayr Mount <br /> Plantation (Or2 ; 31Or480 * * ) , and the Caine Roberts complex (Or673 ; 31Or486 * * ) . <br /> These three architectural sites have archaeological components identified during field <br /> reconnaissance. The Walker House (Orl455 ; 31Or489 * * ) received an archaeological site <br /> number because it had not been previously recorded in an architectural survey (e . g . , <br /> 19914 992) , but it had been visited by the archaeologist . The remaining 17 architectural <br /> survey sites have yet to be given permanent archaeological site numbers (Table 1 ) . <br /> Future systematic archaeological investigations of those properties will likely result in <br /> each receiving a corresponding North Carolina Office of State Archaeology site number. <br /> Based on preliminary research the archaeological and architectural inventories <br /> include sites dating from at least the eighteenth through twentieth centuries . Site <br /> functions include potential taverns, plantations, farmsteads, roadways, cemeteries, <br /> churches, schools , quarries, and mills (Tables 1 , 2) . These are briefly summarized below <br /> by functional category. <br /> Road Remnants- <br /> Description and discovery of portions and potential segments of the Old Trading <br /> Path have been an integral part of this project . It has been shown that the existing route <br /> of St. Mary ' s Road does indeed follow the course of the old Trading Path. It has also <br /> been demonstrated that the modern road deviates from the Trading Path in a few <br /> instances where the modern road noticeably curves to the north before joining the <br /> original alignment of the Path. In places the old path appears to have taken the straightest <br /> route across the landscape . The modern road appears to have veered northward from that <br /> route in certain sections, but always returns to portions of the original trail. This is <br /> particularly true in the area south of the Caine Roberts property ( Or6730 31 Or486 * * ) <br /> eastwards to the St . Mary' s Chapel intersection. Those places of deviation occur where <br /> the path must have become less useful, either too worn or too muddy for continued use . <br /> ( One Hillsborough traveler states in the early 1890s that in wet weather it could take him <br /> two hours to reach St. Mary ' s Chapel by way of St . Mary ' s Road, see St . Mary' s Chapel <br /> National Register Nomination form 1978 , page 8 . ) It is recalled that part of St. Mary ' s <br /> Road was worked on in 1915 (W. C . Walker, personal communication 1999) . St. Mary ' s <br /> road appears to already have its characteristic northward curves in 1918 (see 1918 soil <br /> map) ; they are also clearly evident in the 1938 aerial photographs . Local residents <br /> 41 <br />