Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY AUG 12

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SCIENCEWednesday 12 August 2015

Feuding U.S. families help pinpoint historic battle site

BRUCE SCHREINER cially poignant. dig,” McBride said. “With cials promote tours of feud “The characters are just so
Associated Press “When I was digging more work, we were able sites on their website. amazing and so complex
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) through the mud and big to confirm that suspicion. The Hatfield and McCoy and so human,” said feud
— The names Hatfield and chunks of burned wood We think the house sat a Heritage Days from Sept. expert Bill Richardson, an
McCoy are synonymous started coming out, it just little bit further back.” 24-26 in Pikeville, Kentucky, extension associate profes-
with feuding in the U.S., made it so real,” he said The back corner of the will include a Hatfield-Mc- sor for West Virginia Univer-
etched in American histo- this week. “I had to actu- homestead was the area Coy paintball tournament, sity. “They have all those
ry for their famous deadly ally pause for a moment. I least disturbed by devel- music and local crafts. human faults — greed,
fights. So it was an unlikely
sight when descendants of In this Nov. 19, 2014 photo made available by Bill Richardson, shows the descendants of the Hatfield and Mc Coy families
both clans worked side by
side to help archaeologists clearing the homesite of Randall McCoy in Pike County, KY.
unearth artifacts from one
of the bloodiest sites in the Associated Press
feud.
The leader of the dig says just could not believe I was opment, McBride said. Across the border, West Vir- jealousy and lust. Honestly,
they have pinpointed the
place where Randolph being able to literally dig In a region slammed by ginia tourism officials also it’s like a Shakespearean
McCoy’s home was set
ablaze in the woods of into my family’s past.” a slumping coal industry, are trying to capitalize on play but it’s true.”
eastern Kentucky during a
murderous New Year’s at- A 2012 dig had given exca- better identifying the Mc- interest in the feud. The families now share a
tack by the Hatfields.
Many believe the feud was vators some understanding Coy homestead could A 2012 History Channel kinship, said Eddie McCoy,
rooted in the American
Civil War of the 1860s, but of the McCoy homestead. help lure visitors. miniseries about the feud who lives in South Carolina.
the bitterness was perpetu-
ated by disputes over tim- The team decided the ac- The property is owned by helped stir up new inter- During the dig, he said, a
ber rights and even a pig.
The fighting claimed at tual site wasn’t quite where Hatfield descendant Bob est. And the National Geo- Hatfield descendant apol-
least a dozen lives by 1888.
The feud officially ended in they thought it was, said Scott, who would like to graphic Channel series ogized for what her family
2003, when descendants
of the families signed a Kim McBride, co-director build a replica cabin on “Diggers” will focus on the did to his ancestors.
truce.
Two McCoys were gunned of the Kentucky Archaeo- the same spot. feud and the most recent His reply: “You can’t be
down in the 1888 ambush
on Randolph McCoy’s logical Survey. She led the “We’re trying to preserve dig in an episode airing apologetic for what hap-
homestead. It marked a
turning point in their battle archaeological teams on the heritage of the Hat- Monday night. pened in the past and
waged in Kentucky and
West Virginia, led by family both digs. field-McCoy feud,” he said. The saga even included what your ancestor did,
patriarchs William Ander-
son “Devil Anse” Hatfield “We had some suspicions “People like to get off the an ill-fated love affair be- because my ancestor did
and Randolph “Ole Ran’l”
McCoy. that we weren’t quite in beaten path sometimes.” tween Johnse Hatfield and bad things to their family,
The 10-day excavation fo-
cused on a back corner of the right place at the first Pike County tourism offi- Roseanna McCoy. too.”q
the homestead. Archaeol-
ogists and volunteers — in-
cluding descendants from
the two families — uncov-
ered charred timber, shell
casings, nails, a pulley and
fragments of glass and ce-
ramics.
Eddie McCoy had made
earlier pilgrimages there,
but he said sifting through
his ancestral soil was espe-