Explorer Bill, the Archaeologist

Here I am in 1963 sitting in a re-excavated prehistoric pit iron furnace with my old mentor, Arlington H. Mallery, on the left. We're sitting in a re-excavated iron furnace pit out in Ross County, Ohio near the village of Austin.

I have been a digging archaeologist since 1990 and my field work has been mostly in the countryside around Chillicothe, Ohio my hometown. I've achieved most of the goals I set for myself in trying to solve the mystery of the prehistoric small pit iron furnaces, including the one most important -- the excavation of a complete pit iron furnace from the surface on down. The boy followed to the site that day from a nearby farm house and left before we could get his indentity.

The details of my field work are to be found in my website "America's Mysterious Furnaces." There's no need to list the URL, it's been online since 1997 and it comes right up by just putting the title in a serach box. I couldn't have accomplished all this by myself. Those who joined in the work are to be found depicted and/or mentioned on the site.

Chillicothe and the countryside around the town is an archaeological wonderland. It was the hub of two prehistoric mound builder cultures, the Adena and the Hopewell. I believe evidence I and others have found and studied provide certain proof these furnaces were the work prehistoric European visitors to America who survived for a while until eliminated by native Americans.

The full details of all this I hope to provide in my book "Iron Age America," which has yet to be published. My completed manuscript still awaits a willing publisher.