(Radio Iowa) – Volunteers have been digging at the Sioux City Railroad Museum. Museum spokesman Larry Obermeyer says it’s because long ago, workers lived on the grounds as they built a roundhouse to store and service locomotives. “They camped out here, lived here, worked 24/7,” he says. “That was between 1916 and 1918.”

Items like medicine bottles and tent pieces have been found during previous archaeological digs at the site. Heather Gibb is the deputy State Historical Preservation Officer in the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. “Hopefully we’re able to find some evidence that suggests where some of the different buildings may have been and what some of the different railworkers were doing when they were living in those camps and building the facility that we’re in.”

Wednesday’s dig was a pre-conference session for the Preserve Iowa Summit that runs today through Saturday at the Warrior Hotel in Sioux City.