Scott Stull, lecturer of anthropology, addressed the campus community Dec. 2 with a presentation entitled “An Archeological View of Ithaca’s Early Industry,” about the archeology of Ithaca during the 19th Century. Staff writer Julissa Treviño spoke with Stull about his lecture, and archaeology.

Julissa Treviño: How did you present about Ithaca’s early archeological history?

Scott Stull: It was an illustrated slide lecture, if you will, showing historic photographs, current photographs of the buildings in the area, historic maps and some artifacts that I could find images of that would be of interest to the audience. … I did get a very good selection of images that really tell the story of the industry at Ithaca, part in the area of Fall Creek, because that was one of the centers of industry in Fall Creek.

JT: What were the most impressive or interesting things that you found?

SS: The most impressive is certainly the series of water-powered industries around Fall Creek that came from the tunnel that was constructed by Ezra Cornell in 1830. The tunnel was still there. There was water feeding down in the troth, if you will, as recently as 15 or 20 years ago.

As an archeologist, the remains of the buildings that are there are quite remarkable to see. There’s a great cast iron pipe in a ruin stone wall and that’s from the Fall Creek flower mill, which is right there, right on Lake St. and the intersection of Fall St. that’s very easy to see if you’re just walking down the sidewalk. And so that’s really neat. What I found just amazing is that the original wooden dam Ezra Cornell put in is still in place. So that’s 170 years old.

JT: When did you begin studying and researching the area, and what kind of data were you looking at?

SS: I moved to Ithaca in 1985 and I started my interest in finding out about Ithaca in that same year. So, it’s been something I’ve been working on, on and off, for a very long time. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular to start with. In the late ‘80s, maybe early ‘90s, I had a friend who lived in the little brown building at the corner of Lincoln and Lake St. Before I found out that was the Ithaca pottery built by Ezra Cornell for his father and the kiln revenants are still there. I heard there was an archeological exploration done by some people at Cornell in the ‘70s and I’d been interested in finding out about that ever since I knew about it. And I’m still tracking it down. I’m still just looking and looking to find as much as I can. I have a long way to go before I’m even close to satisfied, because there’s just so much to know.

JT: What do you hope students will take from the presentation you gave?

SS: My goal was to get people to look at the things they go by in town and see them with a new understanding for what it is and an appreciation for the remains so that they do get preserved and aren’t just lost as history erodes them away.

There were at least five different industries right at Fall Creek and they were fed by the tunnel built by Ezra Cornell. The only remaining building, or complex, really, is Ithaca Gun Factory. And that’s being demolished even as we sit here in this warm office. And it’ll be gone. Without people knowing what the history of Ithaca was, we won’t really understand how Ithaca came to be the way it is today, and a way to get a better appreciation for the things that are still there so it’s not completely lost.

JT: How did you become interested in the field of archeology?

SS: I’ve always had an interest in history and as I went to college [Washington University], I began to learn more and more of how they work together. I took a field school between my sophomore and junior years and I said, “Yeah, this is something that I would like to do as a career.” So that really was the turning point. … It was something that I had been interested in for a very long time and then just a series of life changes that took me into doing this ever since.