Interesting Finds                           

                                Lawrence                                  

An interesting discovery they made was finding the bones of a mule.  The mule was tied to a piece of sawmill equipment.  When the excavators first found the mule, they thought it was a horse.  They later found an article printed in a newspaper saying that the owner of the mule tried to save the mule, but the mule was too stubborn.  They found out this story was not true, because the mule was tied to the sawmill equipment.  When the Arabia sank, the mule had not panicked until the water level was up to his nose.  Then it began thrashing wildly; by then it was too late.  They named the mule Lawrence.  They named the mule Lawrence after a movie they heard about.  The movie was named “Lawrence of Arabia”.  His bones are currently at the museum.

             Charlotte                  

The story about Frozen Charlotte was told in a poem or song.  A frozen Charlotte doll was found in one of the carpenter’s toolboxes, wrapped in a woolen sock.  The doll had no clothes on, except for a bonnet and mittens, because the children would make the clothes for the doll. This is the story of Frozen Charlotte:

     It was New Years Eve and it was very cold outside.  Charlotte was waiting in her new dress for her boyfriend, Charles, to take her to the village inn for a New Year’s Eve party.   Finally, Charles’ sleigh came.  Her mother asked her to put a blanket around her so she wouldn’t be too cold.  But Charlotte did not want to crinkle her dress, so she did not take the blanket.  The village inn was 15 miles away.  They had gone five miles when Charlotte said she was cold.  Charles made the horses run faster.  Five more miles they rode when Charlotte said she was getting warmer.  Finally, the village inn was in sight.  Charles jumped out and called her many times.  Charlotte did not move or say a word because she was frozen. Then he came over to her and felt her hands.  They were very cold.  He now knew that Charlotte had frozen to death.  He rode Charlotte back to her cottage.  Her parents were very sad.  Charles was very upset, too.  He died of a broken heart.

                    First Artifact                             

    During the excavation, the excavators found thousands of shoes and boots, so it is not surprising that the first artifact they found was a shoe.  The shoe was discovered next to the timbers of the huge wheel.

     Practical Joke                   

            A funny thing they found, before the shoe, was a golf ball.  They soon found out that Jerry's two sons, Greg and Ron, hid that ball a day earlier as a joke.

 Tasty  Finds

On January 4, 1989, they found bottles of bright green pickles.  Jerry actually tried some.  He really liked them, and said that they tasted like regular pickles.  Some of the other excavators wanted to try some, but wanted to see if Jerry survived.

Perfect Cents

The last object found from the site was an 1856 one-cent liberty coin.  It was in mint condition.  But, the very last thing that came out of that excavation site was the stern of the Arabia herself.  They hauled it out on February 9, 1989, when the excavation ended.