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Cornell University

Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory

New York State and NE North American Dendrochronology Project

New York State and NE North American Dendrochronology Project

The Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory is working to date historic buildings and build tree ring chronologies as far back in time as possible for Northeastern North America. The project was started and carried out for many years under the direction of Dr. Carol Griggs, and began with late glacial wood excavated from mastodon sites around New York State and expanded to many other dendrochronological projects from the Pleistocene to the present in NE North America. Sadly Carol passed away in 2023. The Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory continues to work on dendrochronology in NE North America and especially with a focus on the dating of historic buildings and studying forest environmental history. An introduction to the project and a field trip for sample collection are now part of the introductory dendro course at Cornell. In addition, the project provides many research opportunities for anyone interested in dendrochronology and all its associated sciences.

For an example of recent Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory project work at the LeRay Mansion in upstate NY, see this short report.

Carol Griggs, Brita Lorentzen and Sturt Manning coring hemlock near Ithaca, NY, in 2006
Joshua Oliver taking a core (white pine) from a timber at the LeRay Mansion, Fort Drum, NY for a Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory Project started in 2023.

We are interested in all wood from the present back to the late Pleistocene. This ranges from historic houses and buildings and structures in New York and Northeast North America to old to very old wood from excavations, ponds, lakes, road cuttings, etc. We have so far worked with oak, hemlock, pine, spruce, elm, larch, ash, maple and beech (and we are happy to try other species). We can arrange to carry out the sampling where appropriate. For historic buildings we can use small cores taken from timbers, and these can be filled and “hidden” if requested. Please see our submitting samples page for more information.

Over the past decade the Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory has been a partner in the Dating Iroquoia Project investigating timelines and histories for peoples of the longhouse in the areas of modern southern Ontario and Quebec and in upstate New York. This work has been supported by two National Science Foundation awards. Example publications include Manning et al. 2018; 2021; Birch et al. 2021; Manning and Birch 2022.

Carol Griggs at work measuring a sample

Some Example Relevant Publications from work led by Carol Griggs:

  • MILLER, N. G. and GRIGGS, C. B. (2012) Tree macrofossils of Younger Dryas age from Cohoes, New York State, USA. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 49(5):671-680 URL
  • THOMPSON, W. B., GRIGGS, C. B., MILLER, N. G., NELSON, R. E., WEDDLE, T. K. and KILIAN, T. M. (2011) Associated terrestrial and marine fossils in the late-glacial Presumpscot Formation, southern Maine, U.S.A., and the marine reservoir effect on radiocarbon ages. Quaternary Research, 75: 552-565 URL
  • GRIGGS, C. B. and KROMER, B. (2008) Wood macrofossils and dendrochronology of three mastodon sites in upstate New York IN: Allmon, W. & Nester, P. Mastodon Paleobiology, Taphonomy, and Paleoenvironment in the Late Pleistocene of New York State: Studies on the Hyde Park, Chemung, and Java Sites.
Dr. Carol Griggs

The addresses below are links to recent reports on the dendrochronology of historic buildings as of spring 2016 from work led by Carol Griggs.