I became very anxious to see the region defined by Fleshman's Run and German Run. A look at a map showed there were no roads and little development in the area. So I contacted property owners and asked their permission to do a walking survey in the region. I also asked them to join in the walk.
Prof. Sanford (Center for Historic Preservation) and a few of his students came along. Several owners gave us permission but did not join us. Three individuals representing one property owner did join us. Prof. Sanford's advice had been to choose a day in October when the leaves were down and visibility was up. Also, the snakes will have hibernated for the winter.
Armed with our cameras and maps, we toured for several hours and held a discussion session afterwards. The weather, though initially chilly and windy, turned out to be delightful and I had one of the most enjoyable days of my life. In preparation I had been looking at a topo map and formed some preliminary estimates. On the site though, I modified my opinions.
An objective had been to see if we could locate an area which would have been appropriate for a settlement of "closely joyned" homes. There were many factors to be considered, including a water supply and an escape route to Germanna in case trouble would have developed. We did identify one likely area before calling it a day.
Later, and I did not participate, Prof. Sanford returned with several students and with the permission of one owner to conduct a survey beneath the surface. This consisted in digging small test pits, looking for unusual items in the soil. Apparently the estimate of what constituted a desirable area was correct, or at least it was popular with the Indians. But more to the point here, at least one test pit did disclose artifacts consistent with European origins in the eighteenth century. None of the fragments were against the idea of a settlement in the early 1700's. But it must also be said that nothing confirmed that this was the site of the Second Germanna Colony, though it remains a probable event. Possibly a better estimate of the extent might be through records in the courthouses. Joy Stearns recently sent information to the Germanna Colonies list of this type.
If I have hedged about describing more exact locations, it is deliberate because the property owners are not anxious to have people trespassing on the property. Success in archaeological explorations requires the cooperation of the owners. The best hope is that a responsible organization can conduct a search on the ground. Meanwhile, the bystanders can try to find more information to refine the estimates.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.