Dreamstrands Archaeology

I have had a lifelong interest in archaeology and paleontology and have worked/volunteerd for several museums and universities. But the most fun I had was with an outfit called FEVER RIVER RESEARCH. Wow! The chance to actually make a living at something I enjoyed!

With a focus on historical archaeology, Floyd Mansberger operates Fever River out of his offices (and usually his home too!) in Springfield, Illinois. He is one of the most intelligent and dedicated people I have ever met, and by far the busiest! It always seems like he has 50 projects going at once all over the state of Illinois. I joined up with Fever River in the summer of 1993 at a place called Morris, Illinois to work on a site called 'Jugtown'. After... was it 1 week or 2? the heat still makes everything hazy.... of gruelling but interesting and fun work, we all headed back south to Springfield, and I was hired on full time.

As you can see, I spent a lot of time in pits. This picture shows part of the drainage system for the village and 3 firing kilns at Jugtown. Jugtown was a mid-nineteenth century pottery works located just north of Morris, Illinois. It consisted of both pottery works and tileworks factories and operated for approximately 20 years before being abandoned.

Dr. Richard Eell's House in Quincy, IL. You can see a section of what was an exterior brick walk that extended from the back of the original house. The significance of this house was its role in the underground railroad. This is a bulkhead-entrance cellar that could bely the site of a mid-to-late 19th century tavern (Hickory Point Tavern) near Metamora, IL. That guy in the picture is Chris, lifetime member and co-founder of the BBS (Benevolent Brotherhood of Screeners).

Every year we made a pilgrimage to The Church of the Holy Family in Cahokia, IL. Originally a French mission, the church was built in 1799. It is the oldest church between the Alleghany Mountains and the Rockies. And yes, they still hold services in it! Every year there is a festival/street fair held on the grounds of the church and the Jarrot Mansion which is next door. The festival includes walk-through tours of the church and mansion, demonstrations of blacksmithing, and other colonial activities, and archaeology. We usually dug between 3-5 test plots, mapped them, screened the backdirt and saved the artifacts. The fun part was that anyone who wanted to could join in and help out! It was a volunteer thing and great fun for all involved. I lost count of the number of kids who left after helping out vowing they were "...gonna be an arkeelogist!"

If you want more information about anything here, would be interested in purchasing any of the final reports written about the numerous sites that Floyd has worked on, or maybe you just want to volunteer for a few days in the summer field season, you can e-mail Fever River Research and get the info from Illinois Floyd himself. You can also reach him via telephone at: (217) 525-9002.

Or if you want me to answer questions for you, E-me.

people have travelled down the Fever River.


Dr. Richard Eell's House in Quincy, IL. You can see a section of what was an exterior brick walk that extended from the back of the original house. The significance of this house was its role in the underground railroad.		This is a bulkhead-entrance cellar that could bely the site of a mid-to-late 19th century tavern (Hickory Point Tavern) near Metamora, IL. That guy in the picture is Chris, lifetime member and co-founder of the BBS (Benevolent Brotherhood of Screeners).