Page 9 - RAGBRAI2009

DAY 5 - CHARITON TO OTTUMWA
Buxton and Historical Archaeology

Northwest of the 2009 route, on the Monroe-Ma-

haska county line is the site of Buxton, a coal mining

town founded in 1900 and owned by the Consoli-

dation Coal Company. Buxton was notable as a

flourishing town with a 55% African-American pop-

ulation, most having moved to Iowa from Virginia.

The minority

white population

were immigrants

mainly from Swe-

den and Slovakia.

While most of

the workers were

miners, the town

Buxton Wonders baseball team, also boasted many
courtesy Dorothy Neal Collier. African-American
professionals, in-

cluding a doctor, lawyers, pharmacist, educators, as

well as business owners. Buxton was home to five

schools, a YMCA, churches, Masonic lodges, a town

band, and even its own baseball team, the Buxton

Wonders, who played teams from Kansas City and

Chicago. The town, called a “Black Utopia,” closed

in 1923.

In 1980-81 archaeologists from Iowa State Uni-

versity, led by Dr. David Gradwohl, excavated the

former townsite. At the same time historians con-

ducted more than 70 oral history interviews which

gave detailed insights into the town’s structure,

mining industry, and

social life.

Buxton excavation, ISU Coal Chute Hill in Buxton, Want to learn more about
archaeological crew, courtesy Iowa State Historical Iowa archaeology? These and
courtesy David M.
Gradwohl. Department. other great titles are avail-
able through University of

Iowa Press at:
www.uiowapress.org