MCB Quantico -- Historic buildings and archaeology aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico sheds light not only on the Corps’ history, but also on family ancestry, regional history and the story of American colonization.
“We have family members and genealogists contacting us all the time, looking for their relatives, and a lot of them are on the base,” said Anita Dodd, chair of the Stafford County Cemetery Committee. “The land that was taken to enlarge the base in the 1940s is a pretty big chunk of Stafford County, and a lot of Stafford history is contained in that chunk,” she said, adding that some of the area’s earliest settlers lived on property that now belongs to Quantico.
To investigate that history, her group has been exchanging information with the base Cultural Resources Manager and archaeologist, Catherine Roberts, and they plan to coordinate a cemetery study and maintenance project in early fall of 2013.
“My job is to manage all the cultural resources on the base,” said Roberts, noting that these include buildings, cemeteries, homesteads and archaeological sites.
The base didn’t always have an archaeologist, though, and Dodd said the partnership between the base and her committee was “a long time coming.”
Now, Quantico’s second archaeologist is not only a liaison to the communities that have history in common with the base, but she has become an integral part of base operations, said Maj. Russell Strange, outgoing deputy of Quantico’s Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Branch.
“Federal installations are required to care for cultural resources on their base,” Strange said.
This installation contains the remains of Civil War camps around the golf course, Native American foraging grounds along Chopawamsic Creek and old homesteads scattered throughout, and a large portion of the main side is a nationally registered Historic District , so almost any facility-related project, from additions to Marine Corps University to the demolition of Larson Gym, requires historic building and archaeological evaluation.
“It’s more of a mixed bag here than in either forest I’ve worked in,” said Roberts, who arrived at the base about a year ago after working as a district archaeologist in Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada, where the primary cultural resource was the presence of abandoned gold and silver mines. Previously, she was an archaeologist with Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania.
The cultural resources pertaining to any area or building on the National Register of Historic Places, such as the main side of Quantico, or eligible for the register, such as the area along Russell Road and Chopawamsic Creek, have to be documented before they’re worked on, Roberts explained.
Construction projects often bring some of the past to light, whether it’s Marine Corps history or ancient history. For example, the archaeological dig being carried out now in preparation for the widening of Russell Road is unearthing Native American relics dating back thousands of years.
After documenting a site’s historical features, Roberts works with the State Historic Preservation Office to ensure the impact a project has on cultural resources is as minimal as possible. On the main side of base, for example, “anything you do to the outside of a building, whether it’s windows, doors or anything else, it has to be replaced in kind,” she said. This means the improvements being made to Barrett Hall have to retain the slate roof and custom-milled wood trim of the original.
Many of the buildings on Mainside are considered historic because they illustrate a formative period in the Marine Corps, when it established a university to train its officers and noncommissioned officers, and founded its Officer Candidates School as a sort of boot camp for prospective officers.
The historical significance of the base lies in “World War II and World War I and the development of the Marine Corps into what it is today,” Roberts said.
The base hired its first archaeologist about 10 years ago, and Strange said it’s a position that’s as specific and technical as it is critical to cultural preservation.
“You wouldn’t bring in a chef to do law enforcement,” he said.
“She’s looking at what this area has meant to history, and the base itself has now become part of the local history,” said Strange.
That’s where Roberts’ interests intersect with those of historians in the surrounding areas.
“To have those relationships with our neighbors is very important for the future of the base,” Strange said, noting that Quantico needs to cooperate with local jurisdictions to preserve its mission.
Dodd noted that the cemeteries her group is documenting on base, with Roberts’ help, offer more than just names and dates, but also cultural information and local settlement patterns.
Roberts said public outreach is one of her favorite parts of the job.
The civilian public can have a one-dimensional view of the Marine Corps, but it’s a service that makes a priority of preserving its history and heritage, she said. “If I can make a contribution to that, that’s a good thing,” she added.
“It’s intellectually challenging, it’s fun, it’s a lot of hard work, but it’s all worth it.”
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com