
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 14, 1994                   TAG: 9409140092
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                 LENGTH: Short

VA.'S `PAUL REVERE' LEAVE ANY CLUES?

The owner of a Louisa County estate wants archaeologists to survey her home to see if it rests on ruins of a tavern where Jack Jouett began his historic ride to save Thomas Jefferson.

``There's bound to be artifacts down there, shards and things,'' said Jane Pendleton Wootton, owner of the 150-acre Cuckoo estate.

In his dead-of-night ride, Jouett traveled from the tavern through 40 miles of backwoods trails to Monticello to warn Jefferson and the Virginia General Assembly that the British were marching toward Charlottesville.

Some historians consider the ride more significant to the American Revolution than Paul Revere's more famous ride in 1775 to Lexington, Mass., to warn patriot leaders of the advance of the British troops.

No one has positively identified the tavern site where Jouett sat June 3, 1781, and saw British troops passing on the main road from Cuckoo to Charlottesville. The tavern later burned down.

Wootton, a Richmond doctor, said any archaeologist or architectural historian who wants to poke around her home to try to solve the mystery is welcome.

James Deetz, professor of anthropology at the University of Virginia, said he may take students to Wootton's home early next year. He said the survey wouldn't cost her anything.

``But it might mean knocking a hole in the wall,'' he said.

by CNB