By FREDERICK N. RASMUSSEN , fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com|August 09, 2009
Perhaps a herd of goats will help Gibson Islanders solve a mystery that was created when an ancient tulip poplar that blew over six years ago during Tropical Storm Isabel revealed several handmade bricks in its extensively tangled root ball.
Earlier this year, a Gibson Islander out for a stroll with his dog was greeted with a present of a handmade brick when his dog exited the thick underbrush.
A quick glance and the passer-by realized that it wasn't a typical run-of-the-mill Home Depot brick; it turns out it harks back to the 18th century.
The tree and bricks are thought to be part of a grave site, with the identity of its occupant or occupants unknown.
They are located in an area dense with vegetation on the 925-acre Anne Arundel County island that juts into warm Chesapeake Bay waters and was settled in 1640.
"Believe me, you don't want to go up there this time of the year," said Jim Morrison, a retired NASA official who worked in the agency's international office and is president of the Gibson Island Historical Society. "In addition to the vegetation, there are plenty of ticks and chiggers."
Morrison and other volunteers, who had been joined by an archaeologist, spent three days recently probing the site, and despite the difficulty caused by the extensive layers of vegetation, think they've discovered a below-ground, brick-lined burial chamber.
"The site is about 10 feet long with the grave about 4 feet below the surface. When we discovered coffin nails, we stopped. In order to dig in a grave site, special permits are needed," Morrison said the other day.
After Morrison learned that a herd of goats was chewing its way through the invasive vegetation that had become a problem at Hancock's Resolution, a pre-Civil War farm that is now an Anne Arundel County park, he thought goats might be able to solve the vegetation problem at the Gibson Island grave site.
Last Monday, a herd of 29 goats owned by Eco-Goats, a Davidsonville company, entered the rarefied gated confines of Gibson Island, where residents are proscribed from keeping cats.
Their mission is to clear about an acre thought to be a post-Colonial graveyard.
Eco-Goats is a partnership between Dr. Richard and Shannon Garden and licensed forester Brian Knox, who supervises the goats.
Knox explains that using goats to clear sites of vegetation is fairly new to the East but has been used for years out West for fire control.
