alamo cannons

[boba]

I just finished reading a excellent and informative book by James Woodrick "Cannons of the Texas Revolution".In it he details the discovery and unearthing of the spiked and disabled Alamo cannons which were buried on the property of Sam Maverick who built a home in the n/w corner of the former Alamo courtyard.The cannons were buried in ditches inside the footing of the west wall.My question is were they buried in the dry aqueia or trenches within the castenada houses ?. Also do the present day structures along the west side of Alamo plaza contain basements where other remains of the west wall might be?.Has Ground penetrating radar ever been used to determine wall locations at the Alamo?The cemetery wall between the south end of the L>B and the kitchen might be detectable as it seems one of the least disturbed areas of the compound.Any future digs being planned?Just wondering......bob

[Rich Curilla]

Bob, the inside of the building where the cannon were found was the site of the current Indigo Hotel on the N.W. corner of Houston and Alamo Streets. This location would have almost absolutely been between the northern and southern Castaneda houses, not in one of them. In addition, the acequias would have been east and west of the building where the guns were dug up. This was, however, within the Alamo compound, just east of the west wall of the fort. Of course, there were no doubt all kinds of trenches in that area as defensive measures that simply never got recorded on any plat.

As I understand it, all the modern buildings along the west side of the plaza have basements, thus totally eliminating any sign of footers of the west wall or houses. The reason the archaeologists had their eye on the location where they finally did the dig that unearthed the west wall at the south end was because the two buildings that were being razed to put in the river linkage walkway and waterway were both above ground structures without basements -- the only two such properties on the west side of the plaza. Rick Range, who has been doing minute and thorough research on the Alamo's measurements and artillery (and who made major contributions to Woodrick's book) did do some successful ground penetrating radar to locate the exact location of the west wall where it crossed Houston Street. This was the missing link for determining the precise bearing of that portion of the wall. All this will be in the book that I hope he someday finishes and publishes. I agree that the cemetery wall would be a possibly revealing place for a dig. Even more revealing might be both sides of the connecting wall between the church and the long barrack. And everywhere in the convento courtyard and cattle pen. Hopefully, now that the GLO is in complete charge, some of these steps will finally be considered. The kitchen area would be west of the cemetery wall and thus on city property under the street, which would have totally obliterated everything 100 years ago.