Excavation on MSU's campus uncovers years of history dating back to 1800's

• Built by students years ago, Michigan State University's first Observatory now sits uncovered, Nestled in the corner of north neighborhood.
• Video shows MSU's campus excavation site.
• “The observatory was constructed in 1880 and built with student labor," explained Director of MSU campus Archaeology program, Stacey Camp.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

Following a recent excavation on campus, The MSU Archaeology program uncovered yet another part of the university’s history.

“The observatory was constructed in 1880 and built with student labor," explained Director of MSU campus Archaeology program, Stacey Camp.

Built by students years ago, Michigan State’s first observatory now sits uncovered, nestled in the corner of north neighborhood, "We got an email from Infrastructure Planning and Facilities here at Michigan State stating that they hit a concrete pad," said Camp.

After getting word about a potential underground structure, MSU's campus Archaeology program conducted an excavation, digging a little deeper into campus history, “An excavation is a below ground study of a site or a household," explained Camp.

Not far underground, they stuck gold, "We found the building for one," exclaimed Camp.

Along with the foundation, Director of MSU's Archaeology program, Stacey Camp and her students, found one of the observatory’s most hidden treasures,"This is a pedestal that the telescope would’ve sat on, and this is a separate foundation from the rest of the building. We were able to bring the telescope out to the site and put it right next to its original pedestal," described Camp.

After completing the dig, the team brought their findings back to the lab to clean, catalog, and curate, "We look at these artifacts and determine how they impacted this site and what they were a part of," explained MSU Ph.D student, Gabrielle Moran.

"Hopefully next summer we’ll run a field school again and students can enroll in it and get experience doing Archaeology and we can find answers to researchers questions and potentially trace out more of this foundation," said Camp.

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