Courtesy Photo | Harmonica pieces that were found at an archaeological site at Fort McCoy are shown....... read more read more
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Archaeologists with Colorado State University’s Center for the Environmental Management of Military Lands investigated a site near the Sparta/Fort McCoy Airport in summer 2019.
A wide variety of artifacts were recovered from the site, and most date from the end of the 19th to the middle of the 20th centuries. Four pieces of an old harmonica were found among nearly 2,000 total artifacts recovered from a single excavation unit.
Researchers studying the site in question suggested that this area may have been used as a dump by multiple landowners. The age range for the artifacts recovered correlates with the time of highway construction connecting Tomah and Sparta. Aerial photographs of this area taken in 1939 show multiple structures in the vicinity of the site’s location.
The harmonica fragments comprised the two exterior plates and a pair of reed fragments. Lettering on the exterior plates reads “The Friedr Hotz” and “Made in Germany.”
The history of the harmonica begins thousands of years ago in China with the sheng, a large free-reed instrument that bears little resemblance to the harmonica we see today. The modern harmonica originated in Europe and was most commonly attributed to German instrument maker Christian Frederich Buschmann, circa 1820. The Friedrich Hotz Co. began manufacturing harmonicas in Knittlingen, Germany, circa 1828.
Mattias Hohner is most often credited with introducing the harmonica to America in 1862. His company was so successful that they were able to purchase several competing European harmonica factories, including the Friedrich Hotz Co.
It is likely that the harmonica recovered from Fort McCoy was used to play songs that we would recognize today. Finds like these show that modern residents of the area share some of the same interests and activities as those people who lived here 100 years ago.
All archaeological work conducted at Fort McCoy was coordinated by the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.
Visitors and employees are reminded they should not collect artifacts on Fort McCoy or other government lands and leave the digging to the professionals. Any person who excavates, removes, damages, or otherwise alters or defaces any historic or prehistoric site, artifact, or object of antiquity on Fort McCoy is in violation of federal law.
The discovery of any archaeological artifact should be reported to the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch at 608-388-8214.
(Article prepared by the Colorado State University Center for the Environmental Management of Military Lands.)
| Date Taken: | 11.19.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 11.19.2019 16:40 |
| Story ID: | 352423 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 685 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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