In early 2001, the State of Illinois began construction on the Library component of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. In March of that year, Fever River Research initiated the archaeeological survey and testing of the Lirary project area.

While the archaeological investigations were being conducted on the site of the Library, buildings were being demolished at the site of the adjacent Museum, located immediately across the street to the north.

The Phase II archaelogical testing at the Library site consisted of the excavation of a series of long backhoe trenches. The objective in excavating these trenches was to detemine if subsurface archaelogical features dating from the nineteenth century might be preserved beneath the existing asphalt parking lot.

The excavation of the backhoe trenches indicated that, altough relatively deeply buried buried beneath a variety of nineteenth and twentieth century fills, the circa 1820s ground surface was undisturbed in much of the project area.

The Phase II archaeological testing also documented several middle nineteenth century features (such as this well) that were associated with the early ground surface. Based on the presence of these features, this archaeological site was determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.