Did you have anything about Basse's Choice, in Isle of Wight County?  
A friend and I discovered it and I wrote to Ivor Noel Hume [having  
been unable to get any other archaeologists interested, they seemed  
to think we must have found a few old Coke bottles and studiously  
ignored us, so I decided to "go to the top"], who then looked into it  
and someone excavated it. I had moved away from Smithfield by then,  
so I never found out what sorts of things they discovered. I know  
there was a brick wall a few feet down and eroding out of the cliff  
above the river. We actually found several sites in that area where  
Pagan Creek emptied into the James, and the fellow who was sent to  
look at it [who shall remain nameless] never got in touch with us, so  
as far as I know the other sites were never located. I drew a map, I  
still have it, showing the sites we found [walking around the fields  
in the winter, no we did not dig anywhere, I know better than that],  
if the places haven't been developed and built over by now. If anyone  
wants a copy of the map, send me a snail mail address privately and I  
will mail you a copy.

I don't wish to offend anyone, but from the experiences my friend and  
I had, I can't help but wonder if those copper mines of Byrd's are  
out there, old ruins of homesteads, mills, who knows what, and the  
locals know all about it but the archaeologists won't pay them any  
mind. Maybe if they listen, they might find more. Our experience in  
this regard was very disappointing, we tried for years, beating our  
heads against a wall, ignored and dismissed, till I was so frustrated  
and so worried the place would be built over, I took a chance on Ivor  
Noel Hume. Thank heavens he did listen.

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Mar 8, 2007, at 4:19 PM, Lyle E. Browning wrote:

> I would echo the perception and the actuality of the problems  
> brought to the list by Mr. Vejnar & Dr. Levengood. I was formerly  
> the editor of the Archeological Society of Virginia's Quarterly  
> Bulletin. We were totally dependent upon outside submissions. We  
> had no control over who submitted what and from where and about  
> what. We were also criticized for not having enough articles about  
> historic archaeology, or prehistoric archaeology, or too much on  
> theoretical archaeology, or too many articles by professional  
> archaeologists, etc. but the drift is clear.
>
> I too did an article by article count and we were roughly evenly  
> divided, during my tenure, between the different time periods.  
> That's not to say that the perception has expired. Our articles  
> ranged in quality from excellent to otherwise. We aimed to cover  
> the spectrum and in some years, historic archaeology submissions  
> far outnumbered prehistoric and vice versa. I suspect that other  
> editors of journals with a scholarly bent will undoubtedly have  
> similar stories.
>
> This should not be misconstrued as a thinly disguised plea for  
> contributions to the Editor's Guild Body Armor Fund. ;>))
>
> Lyle Browning, RPA
>
>