Nine students from LSU Baton Rouge excavated part of the original site of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, the precursor of Louisiana State University, in Pineville on June 13. The dig, a fitting way to celebrate 2025 Archeology Day, is the result of a collaboration between LSU, LSU-A, and The Forest Service, who owns the land where the site is situated.

The students are excavating the cistern from the school’s main building. When the campus was destroyed by a fire in 1869, the cistern was filled with debris from the destroyed buildings. The students used ground penetrating radar to locate the remains of the structures and are digging through the debris with small shovels and sifting through the materials looking for artifacts. It is hot and painstaking work but has already unearthed quite a few items that tell the story of LSU’s early days.  Dr. Matthew Helmer, an affiliate professor of anthropology at LSU-A, is supervising the excavation. The nine LSU students and Conan Mills, an LSU Master’s degree student who is doing his thesis on the history of the Pineville site, enjoyed the hospitality of the LSU-A campus where they will be staying during the dig.

In addition to the main building, the students will also be excavating the site where Col David F. Boyd, the head of the school in Pineville at the time of the fire, had his home. There are no surviving buildings from the old Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, only the evidence of foundations and waste pits.

The site features a walking trail and historic markers that explain the site’s history. The area is on highway 71 next to the forest service building and across from the VA Hospital. One has to wonder how different our region would be were it not for an inoperative fire in 1869.