Friday was a busy day at the Black Jack Battlefield site with two projects under way.

A team of battlefield archeologists returned to the site of the battle and a crew hired by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment was clearing tons of illegally dumped trash from the area.

The KDHE effort is massive. The illegal dump site contains hundreds of tires, countless refrigerators and washing machines, and just about any other type of junk. It has been estimated the site could have been used for 100 years, but the majority of the trash has been put there in the last 50 years, said Bob Medina, an environmental scientist in KDHE’s Bureau of Waste Management.

“We’re estimating that there’s 100 tons of trash there,” Medina said. “It’s amazing what all is in there.”

It is expected that the contractor will have all the trash moved by next week, said Kerry Altenbernd, a member of the Black Jack Battlefield Trust. Cost of the project could be up to $20,000, which KDHE is paying for because it represents a potential health hazard when the battlefield site becomes a national park.

Prior to the 150th anniversary of the battle in June, the same team of archeologists searching the site used metal detectors to search the battlefield for bullets and other signs of the struggle. So far, nothing has been found.

“They’re looking again, plus some of the people who found things with metal detectors back in the ’70s are supposed to be here today to show them where they found what they found,” Altenbernd, who participated in both searches, said.

The archeologists arrived in Baldwin on Thursday and searched half of the site then and the other half Friday. Today, the crew will move across the road to the area where the ruts from the Santa Fe Trail can be seen to search it.