It all started with a mystery of historic proportions: Who actually planted Poplar Forest's iconic boxwoods? "There's always been a debate about whether they were truly part of the Jefferson design or not," said Jeffery Nichols, President and CEO of Poplar Forest.
Jack Gary and his group of archaeologists solved the mystery with science. "Throughout the excavations we strong-minded that the boxwood bushes that were here were not part of that scenery. They were planted probably in the 1850s," said Jack Gary, Director of Archaeology and Landscapes at Poplar Forest.
Jack and Jeff made history, by making the shrubs history, but it wasn't easy. "Removing such a long-standing visual effect of the house was difficult," said Nichols. Changes that big had to be OK'd by Poplar Forest Staff, an advisory board, and the Garden Club of Virginia. After they got the green light to get rid of the greens, Gary and his team started deeper excavations.
"It's through the archaeology that we find the exact locations, exact sizes. So then we match up the archaeology and Jefferson's records and we come up with a very accurate plan for what it would have looked like," said Gary. "We're not just removing these and leaving it open with a field of stumps here. Rather we're going to be restoring it back to Jefferson's vision," said Gary.
"In the end it's going to be absolutely the right decision and the only one we could make to move forward here at Poplar Forest," said Nichols. Jack Gary says they will be excavating until the end of this year. Then they'll start testing the samples they've collected.
After that, they'll take all that information and make maps of what the property used to look like, then use the maps to re-landscape the property as close as possible to Jefferson's original design.

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.