While putting in hammock poles at Michigan State, crews make historic discovery

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The symbol of summer blossoms at Michigan State University — and not the floral kind.

Little neon orange flags dot the grassy landscape of campus, indicating it's finally construction season.

Stacey Camp, the associate professor of anthropology and director of campus archaeology program, would know. Her office is right next to the bulk of it.

"If you look around this landscape, you see a parking lot. There's lots of utilities that have been mapped out. There's a basketball court, picnic tables, there's a building behind us," she pointed out all the projects surrounding her.

They're building something new. No one expected to discover something old.

“I think this is the most exciting find that I've experienced in the six years I've been here," Stacey said. 

The tiny triangle of campus grass between trees outside Stacey's office building has somehow been spared from a shovel. Until May 2023. 

"They had been putting hammock poles in this landscape and they hit something," she said. 

Underneath just two feet of dirt — history, unearthed. 

“We discovered a map that demonstrated the first observatory on campus was right behind me, and it dated to 1880," said Stacey. “It was literally below our feet.”

As most buildings do, this one started with a Carpenter.

“There was funding secured by Dr. Rolla Carpenter, who was a professor of astronomy and mathematics and engineering. He was going to teach a course on astronomy, and he needed an observatory," she said. 

Carpenter secured the cost of building supplies and an extra $450 to buy a high-end telescope. He and his class got to work on construction. 

"During this time period, students were building the buildings on campus," said Stacey. 

But in 1915, the building was vandalized. There was no record of the observatory after this. Even the telescope disappeared for decades, until it was found in a campus building basement in the 1970s. 

After the discovery in May, Stacey wasted no time. Constructed by students 150 years ago, who better to do it again?

Elliott Wheeler, a junior majoring in anthropology at Lansing Community College, is one of the lucky few given a chance East Lansing is so rare to offer.  

“It's pretty spectacular," they said. "This is just right under our feet, right by Mary Mayo Hall, just a few blocks out of where I live."

Madison Brown, a senior anthropology major at MSU, is similarly bewildered. 

“It feels almost surreal for me,” she said. “I've been so excited about it just through textbooks. And just to get my hands dirty, is just another level of excitement for me."

Students typically would have to go outside the country for a chance like this. At this site? They can still make it to their next class. 

“This is a great opportunity for Michigan State University students to get experience doing archeology without spending a lot of money," Stacey said. 

But they're not just digging up a building. 

“We have a lot of nails, we have a lot of bricks. But we also have found personal effects, and those are always exciting, because they link us to the people that were here in the 1800s," Stacey said, holding up fragments of buttons from students' clothes in an examination bag. 

“It's a different kind of connection you almost feel because you're experiencing what they experienced, just in a very different time," said Madison. 

At a construction site turned more, they didn’t find anything shiny, nor gold. Instead, something better — treasured and old.

“Students may have built this, and now we're students digging that up and trying to learn about them ourselves," said Madison. 

At the place where the future, makes history once more. 

"It just makes you wonder what's under your feet," Madison said.