Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508070052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: AMSTERDAM LENGTH: Long
As mounds of dirt started piling up, he moved closer for a better look.
"Look at the damn artifacts," he remembered saying.
For the next couple of hours, Crotty sifted through the soil. He left with four pockets full of arrowheads and primitive tools.
Each day for several months, Crotty, who now is writing a book about the travelers who came through early Amsterdam, continued to dig. Each day he came away with his pockets full of apparent artifacts. Crotty, a novice in archaeology, was even able to persuade heavy-equipment operators to keep turning the dirt so he could search further.
"Mine wasn't a scientific dig," Crotty says. "It was a quick rescue."
Some discoveries bordered on the grisly. He found what is believed to be remnants of stones marking graves in a family cemetery that had been buried about a foot beneath the ground.
Over time, he has unearthed more than 1,000 artifacts, some dating as far back as 10,000 B.C. His collection and the sites from which they came now are registered with the Archeological Society of Virginia, which authenticated the objects.
Now, Crotty's find has renewed relevance. His digs involved sites both near and on the land of the old Greenfield Plantation, the proposed site of a new Botetourt County park that will include a recreation area, school and industrial park.
The county paid more than $4.5 million for the land last month.
Crestar Bank, which was handling the sale of the property for the estate of Mary Blount, has told residents living in several houses on the land to vacate the premises by Sept. 1.
Crotty, who is opposed to the project, originally became concerned about development 10 years ago as he searched the dirt pile for hidden historic treasures. It was rich with artifacts because it had a spring on it, he said.
"It upset me no end," Crotty said. "Primitive man could have lived by that spring."
Crotty, a retired accounting professor at Virginia Western Community College, worries that a rush to develop could destroy what he believes is a significant archaeological discovery. He contends the artifacts he found give a glimpse of life in Botetourt County nearly a hundred centuries before the birth of Christ.
Crotty says some of the artifacts he found are made from rock not native to Botetourt County, giving rise to a belief that even prehistoric man traveled along the mountains and streams. The early settlers followed ridgetop trails that had been created by buffalo.
While he started his dig on a site just outside the boundaries of Greenfield, he later moved to the other side of the creek. There he found tools made from rock such as hammers and cutters that were used to skin prey.
"It must have been a delightful place to sit down, pitch camp and stay for a while," Crotty said. "If the weather was bad, there were limestone caves to stay in."
Hundreds of decades later, European settlers moved onto the land, which had been cleared by Native Americans who had been farming it, Crotty said. The settlers called it Great Meadows.
That was the period in which Col. William Preston, a protege of George Washington, and his family settled into the Greenfield Plantation. By the 1770s, Preston had accumulated more than 2,000 acres, on which he built a fortress to defend his family from Indian attacks.
Crotty said that fort never has been found, and the archaeological remains may still be somewhere on the site of the proposed industrial park.
While the Greenfield mansion burned in 1959, the kitchen and slave quarters for the house remain on the property. There are at least three other log structures on the site.
Despite Crotty's concerns, Botetourt County Administrator Gerald Burgess said the proposal for a multiuse park doesn't mean historical resources on the plantation site will be destroyed.
He said the Virginia Department of Historic Resources has offered to evaluate the property's structures, an offer the county plans to accept.
"There are assorted buildings that may or may not have historical value that have not been identified as historical," Burgess said. "That issue will be addressed prior to development."
The problem facing the Board of Supervisors is how to meet those needs while bolstering the county's ability to sustain economic development.
"Arrowheads have been found all over the county and all over the region," Burgess said. "It is hardly atypical."
The county did have an environmental assessment done on the land before purchase. In that assessment, a report from the Department of Historic Resources identified only one historical structure on the property, the old Greenfield mansion. The county's consultant pointed out that the mansion had burned down, Burgess said. It made no mention of the log structures still standing.
Leslie Giles, an architectural historian for the department, said the state's inventory of historical structures is spotty at best.
"It's not comprehensive," she said. "By no means has every building with historical significance been documented."
Giles said the state looks to localities for help. For instance, Franklin County, using a state grant, is identifying its historical structures to protect them.
On the other hand, Botetourt County has an incomplete inventory of historical structures. A case in point was the 18th century cabin that once belonged to Amsterdam founding father Michael Cloyd. That cabin was slated for destruction until rescued by a Fincastle shopkeeper last month.
Giles said the county has no zoning restrictions to protect historical structures and no tax incentives to encourage private owners to preserve them.
Giles worries the county may be leaving the U.S. 220 corridor, from Interstate 81 to Fincastle, open to development that would detract from the area's historical character.
"Now that Botetourt County is growing so quickly, it can no longer rely on the thought that `This is the way it has always been,''' she said. "The comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance do not take into account the historical resources the county has."
Fincastle has been designated a historic district by both the state and federal governments. But the historic designation does not mean it will be protected, Giles said.
"It is an honorary designation," Giles said. "Having a property on the register does not afford a property any protection, unless the federal funding or permitting is involved."
Giles said county planners need only look at current development patterns to understand the future.
"The type of development going on in Botetourt County is not conducive to village life," she said. "It is urban sprawl. It is imperative that the county take some precautions to protect against that."
Burgess said that may be easier said than done, given the dilemma government faces in trying to balance the competing interests: restricting the use of land without infringing on individual property rights.
To Giles, the choice is clear:
"If the history is not enhanced, if that heritage is not protected, if visitors get off the interstate and see only a jumble of fast-food restaurants, they are just not going to be interested."
by CNB