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Over the Fall Break, graduate students Grant Harley and Alex Dye accompanied Henri Grissino-Mayer to Fredericksburg, Virginia, to collect samples from a dismantled crib dam built in 1854 that was once across the historic Rhappahannock River. The massive logs represent old-growth pines (although we don't yet know which species) that once grew in the region and could potentially push our record of climate for this area back to the time Columbus arrived in the New World. The story is titled "Timbers from dam hold record of past: Wood salvaged from Fredericksburg's 19th-century crib dam may hold clues to pre-Colonial climate," and also also features a video of Dr. Grissino-Mayer talking to reporters about the significance of the wood collection. Visit http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/102011/10022011/655354. Many thanks to Tim Kelly of the Woodwright Co. in Fredericksburg for making this trip possible. For more pictures of this incredible wood collection, visit Tim's site here.

Grant Harley (right) and Henri Grissino-Mayer inspect a section of old-growth pine wood sampled from a historic crib dam in Frederickburg, Virginia. Notice the chain saw cut right through an oak peg used in the mortise and tenon joining technique.