Check out Dr. Stephen Brighton on this featured article "Archeological Dig Confirms Irish Village in Greenwood" from the Crozet Gazette Newspaper.

A cluster of what are now farm buildings on the Pollak Vineyard in Greenwood were dwellings for Irish workers who chiseled their way through Afton Mountain to build the Blue Ridge Tunnel in the 1850s.

A summer archeology field school led by University of Maryland anthropology professor Stephen Brighton methodically investigated the site and at a layer about 12 to 18 inches below the surface found evidence of habitation during the time frame of the tunnel’s construction. While they did not find a single “smoking gun” artifact, such as an intact small clay pipe of the type the Irish were known to favor, they found parts of one as well as other corroborating ceramics.  Read more...