Tree Ring Dating of Revolutionary War (and some later) Buildings in PA and OH

crew3This summer the Wooster Tree Ring Lab is funded by the College of Wooster’s Center for Entrepreneurship to date buildings of historical interest using tree rings. The crew in this endeavor is shown above and includes – Dr. Greg Wiles, students Kelly Aughenbaugh and Colin Mennett, and Nick Weisenberg who is a timber-framer and works in building restoration. The demand for our service has been excellent and is concentrated in the Pittsburgh area, locally in Kidron, Ohio and now in the Cincinnati area. We can use our archive of tree-ring data and lots of hard work by our staff to tell homeowners, folks at historical sites, historical archaeologists etc. the year timber was cut prior to building the structure. The tools of the trade are shown below. We will tell you a bit about the results of our work soon.

Below: The gear pile includes standard powertools and generators along with specialized dry wood bits. Nick illustrates the proper coring technique. This historic building is Woodville PA – the oak beams that he is coring were cut in the fall or winter of 1785.

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2 Responses to Tree Ring Dating of Revolutionary War (and some later) Buildings in PA and OH

  1. Peter Pozefsky says:

    We need to figure out a way to integrate this technology in a history project of some sort. It sounds extraordinary. Very impressive Wooster geologists!

  2. Mark Wilson says:

    Excellent post, Wooster geologists! I’m looking forward to reading more.

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