Feature 1

As the result of indications that the project team had stumbled upon an exposed wall or foundation feature potentially related to the Old Mission water well that was rumored to have been located at the heart of the mission complex, excavations were initiated at site Unit 12n2w, Feature 1. The recovery of an old hand-forged copper handle of that type used to tether ropes over loads on 19th century wagons led to a focus on the excavation of the old well constituted by site Units 12n2w and 12n0w (thereafter designated Feature 1). Early project efforts were directed to the exploration of the Feature 1 rock-lined water well from the Fall of 1995 through to the Spring of 1996. Much of the material recovered from Unit 12n2w consisted of materials ranging from mid-19th century British porcelain transfer-wares through to broken bottle glass dated to 1925. Primary exceptions to the more common body of roof and floor tile, glass and porcelain, included the recovery of a Native American abalone shell cross, lead works and scrap materials, fragments of oxidized and melted metals and coal and coke fragments (of that type used in the forging of metals), and much architectural debris and kitchen midden. Recently, the volunteers of the Gabilan Conservation Camp facilitated both the reconstruction of the sandstone well feature, and the construction of a tile and timber roof so as to permit the well to remain open for public viewing during the Old Mission's bicentennial celebration. Currently excavated to a depth of some 1.75 meters, or nearly five feet, the well contains midden deposits spanning the period from the 1860's through 1925 (the date contained on a beverage bottle from that portion of the top of the well left undisturbed). Preliminary indications suggest that this well went dry in the late 1860's or 1870's, at which time the empty well became a trash midden and was used as such for a period of well over fifty years. Other indications confirm that in the early 1960's, two workmen at the mission excavated to a depth of approximately two feet and promptly reburied materials recovered at that time. Along with those items that were reinterred in the well cavity, the workmen deposited an early 1960's Hamms aluminum beer can which was recovered intact within the first twenty centimeters of backfill at the top of the well.