He said logs from the North Third Street log cabin are not a typical species for tree-ring research, therefore he was not able to get a match between living tree records and the logs from the local cabin, he wrote in a letter to Crabtree.
"We will have to wait until more records are created closer to the bluegrass, especially records from different species. We have the best network of tree-ring records in eastern Kentucky, up to seven now. Unfortunately, it is not enough to complete this work," Pederson said.
Pederson, Ryan McEwan and others in Pederson's lab are working to collect more samples from old buildings in the bluegrass region, hoping that this will help with the local cabin and other structures.
Pederson said some of the logs are Dutch elm and American chestnut, which were hit by a disease several years ago. He needs samples from those woods to help date the house, which he estimates are pre-1790, Crabtree said.
log house committee to meet
Crabtree said the Heart of Danville, along with others on the Save the Log House Committee, plan to meet soon to discuss the future of the logs.
"We hope to have the structure reconstructed in three years," she said. "We're still raising money to rebuild the log cabin and hope to get an educational grant to help with the estimated $160,000 it will cost for the reconstruction project."
Handmade brick and hand-quarried limestone from the house also have been salvaged and stored away.
"We believe the first chimneys were made of brick because of a town ordinance that stated a house had to be a certain size and have brick or stone chimneys," Crabtree said.
The ordinance was for brick or stone chimneys in 1787 when the town was incorporated. Mills said by the appearance of the chimneys as he took them down, he believes they were brick rather than stone.
Little evidence was found at the log cabin site that will help date the structure, Crabtree said. A brass fleam - a sharp medical instrument used for opening veins or lancing gums, along with a two-prong fork made of iron and deer antler or bone were found between a wall and floor on the southwest corner of the log house.
