Claudus Birdsong looks over tombstones in the old Crawford family cemetery located on his property in Appling. Crawford Plantation was once passed by Washington Road before the road's path became skewed toward Lincolnton. JIM BLAYLOCK/STAFF

Mr. Birdsong reached into the dirt and pulled out a piece of rusty metal. Time had made it so misshapen that he couldn't make out what it was, but it looked like a piece of a plow.

That was 32 years ago. In the decades since, Mr. Birdsong, 62, has unearthed at least a hundred artifacts from his property, usually with lawn mower blades or a gardening hoe, he said. Some appear to be bolts, pins and pieces of machinery.

"You're all the time finding stuff like this in the yard," Mr. Birdsong said, holding up a metal ring and what appears to be a harness buckle.

He and his wife, Sara Ann, live near Appling on land once part of the Crawford cotton plantation, which covered 1,900 acres and was home to governors and senators. About a dozen graves lie in a family cemetery enclosed by a rock-walled fence.

Washington Road, before its path was skewed toward Lincolnton, passed by the plantation's two-story big house. The house burned down in 1968, and only hints of the once-mighty plantation remain.

Such is the case with countless other sites along the original course of Washington Road. The years erased towns, plantations, mills and homesteads. Some have been rediscovered; others remain lost.

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.