Investigation into the history of the boat-building industry of Mathews County was conducted by trained archaeologists, Ned Lawless and Wyatt Vrooman. They started working around 1999, from records in Wyatt’s possession that indicated areas in the county where shipways had been in operation. At that time they identified a dozen or so sites, but had not done extensive digs at any of them. And so, in 2001, official digs began. One such site was located on Blackwater Creek.
Ned and Wyatt were the founders of the Mathews Maritime Foundation.
