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FERRY FARM YIELDS SECRETS Years of searching yields the site of the boyhood home of George Washington
RELATED: Discovery took years to achieve
Multimedia: Related multimedia, photos and more stories
BY CLINT SCHEMMER AND RUSTY DENNEN
Archaeologists have just blown centuries of dust off the least-understood part of George Washington's life. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine broke the news yesterday afternoon at Ferry Farm that researchers have found the remains of the southern Stafford County home where the first president grew up. Before a battery of TV cameras, Kaine and a host of state and local dignitaries praised the years of dogged effort that led archaeologists to the house site. Kaine said the nation will learn much from the ongoing work at the National Historic Landmark, which is owned by the George Washington Foundation. Pointing past the dig site, he said, "Directly across the Rappahannock, George Washington could see the bustling trade center of Fredericksburg, which enticed his sense of adventure. It was here that his ambition to be excellent began to be nurtured and grow." With the find, Ferry Farm will become a must-see for visitors from all across America, said John Hennessy, chief historian at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. "It is a legitimately big deal," he said. "The two big stories here are the Civil War and George Washington. Now, George Washington goes from being an idea to being a place where people can touch, understand and see" his early roots. Archaeologist Julia King, an associate professor at St. Mary's College in Maryland and one of several outside consultants tapped to review the findings at Ferry Farm, said there's no doubt about the discovery's significance. "Here's a man born in the coastal plain, and he's part of the [nation's] westward movement," said King, a former president of the Society for Historic Archaeology. "If youthful experiences form the man, Washington's boyhood and teen years at Ferry Farm need to be understood. "It's so important for that reason. Ferry Farm will allow people to focus on, 'Who was this man who was so important to our history and how was he shaped?'" A LONG-SOUGHT PRIZE Locating and excavating the Revolutionary War hero's boyhood home, the holy grail of Fredericksburg-area historic sites, had been the goal of many groups over many years.
Date published: 7/3/2008
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