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Archaeologists Strike Out In Effort To Find Old Burrows Home in Zephyrhills

Tribune photo by FRED BELLET

Karen Schedin of Tampa sifts dirt that was dug from beneath the surface at an archeological dig at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Eighth Street in Zephyrhills.

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 14, 2009

ZEPHYRHILLS - The sides of the rectangular pit revealed a cross-section of earth: grey and lumpy on top, smooth yellow sand underneath.

What the pit didn't reveal was more important, though. It didn't show signs of the house that had stood for nearly 80 years at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Eighth Street on the edge downtown.

"This pit tells us we didn't find what we were looking for and most of this site has been disturbed," said archeologist Jeff Moates, who lead his colleagues from the the Florida Public Archeological Network in a demonstration dig as part of Zephyrhills' annual Founder's Day festival.

Moates didn't let the lack of artifacts deter them. They continued to dig, tossing shovelfuls of sand into sifting screens on the slim change the sifted sand might give up an artifact nonetheless.

Moates had hoped to find an edge of the foundation of the former Burrows home, which stood in Zephyrhills from the 1920s. The city bought the property in 1999 and demolished the house for a parking lot.

The remains of that demolition – bits of mortar, pieces of shingles, handfuls of nails – were the most obvious signs that something had once stood where Moates now dug his straight-edged pit.

Zephryhills' founding as a retirement community for former Civil War soldiers means the older parts could one day yield historically relevant artifacts, Moates said.

"There's plenty of potential here," he said.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

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