The evidence from modern archaeological excavations generally supports the historical accounts with some interesting variations. Both lines of evidence testify to the ingenuity of Lieutenant Colonel Bailey. The excavations revealed that the crib framework was constructed of hand hewn 4-by-10-inch timbers, which is strong evidence that the lumber was from nearby buildings. The ends of these timbers were notched so that they fit tightly together at the corners of the cribs. The corners were supported by smaller vertical wood posts. However, in the cribs excavated by the archaeologists, there was no evidence of the iron support bars. Furthermore, there was no evidence of machinery parts in the cribs. Instead, they found that the cribs were filled mostly with sand and mud and only capped with a layer of loose brick and stone. A metal fragment of a large sugar kettle was also found among this brick and stone. A sugar kettle was just the kind of loose but heavy object that could be quickly transported to the cribs for anchoring material. On the east (Pineville) bank, there were no town buildings to strip for lumber but there was, quite conveniently, a forest. With abundant trees available, Bailey constructed a “self-loading” tree dam. According to historical diagrams, trees were stacked lengthwise with the flow of the stream. The upstream treetops were anchored to the river bottom with stones. The downstream trunks were raised higher than the upstream tops by alternating layers of other logs running perpendicular to, or across, the stream. This technique presented a dam face of logs angled upward with the stream flow. As the river was held back by the log face, the water pressure actually made the dam stronger or “self-loading.” [Illustration: Sketch of tree dam which accompanied Colonel Bailey’s report (U.S. War Department 1891-1895:Plate 53-3).] The archaeological investigation of the tree dam was completed in a manner similar to the excavations at the crib structures. But here a trench excavation unit was dug. This trench was 22 feet long and 5 feet wide, and it was positioned parallel to the flow of the river. During these investigations, the river began to rise, and when the excavation unit was finally abandoned, the archaeologists were working about 2 feet below the water level. The field crew was successful in reaching that depth only with the aid of a water pump. Archaeologists had hoped to excavate a slice of the dam completely down to its base, but attempts to excavate deeper were halted when the pump could not keep out the incoming water. [Illustration: Archaeologist David Kelley drawing map of logs uncovered during the tree dam excavation.]