Article Latewood Ring Width Reveals CE 1734 Felling Dates for Walker House Timbers in Tupelo, Mississippi, USA Thomas W. Patterson 1, * , Grant L. Harley 2 , David H. Holt 1 , Raymond T. Doherty 3 , Daniel J. King 2 , Karen J. Heeter 2 , Ashley L. Chasez 1 , Alyssa C. Crowell 1 and Ian M. Stewart 1   Citation: Patterson, T.W.; Harley, G.L.; Holt, D.H.; Doherty, R.T.; King, D.J.; Heeter, K.J.; Chasez, A.L.; Crowell, A.C.; Stewart, I.M. Latewood Ring Width Reveals CE 1734 Felling Dates for Walker House Timbers in Tupelo, Mississippi, USA. Forests 2021, 12, 670. https:// doi.org/10.3390/f12060670 Academic Editor: Daniele Castagneri Received: 31 March 2021 Accepted: 17 May 2021 Published: 25 May 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 School of Biological, Environmental and Earth Sciences, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA; David.H.Holt@usm.edu (D.H.H.); Ashley.Chasez@usm.edu (A.L.C.); Alyssa.Crowell@usm.edu (A.C.C.); Ian.Stewart@usm.edu (I.M.S.) 2 Department of Earth and Spatial Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA; gharley@uidaho.edu (G.L.H.); djking@uidaho.edu (D.J.K.); kheeter@uidaho.edu (K.J.H.) 3 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS 38677, USA; dohray@gmail.com * Correspondence: thomas.w.patterson@usm.edu; Tel.: +1-601-266-6077 Abstract: Dendroarchaeology is under-represented in the Gulf Coastal Plain region of the United States (US), and at present, only three published studies have precision dated a collection of 18th–19th- century structures. In this study, we examined the tree-ring data from pine, poplar, and oak timbers used in the Walker House in Tupelo, Mississippi. The Walker House was constructed ca. the mid- 1800s with timbers that appeared to be recycled from previous structures. In total, we examined 30 samples (16 pines, 8 oaks, and 6 poplars) from the attic and crawlspace. We cross-dated latewood ring growth from the attic pine samples to the period 1541–1734 (r = 0.52, t = 8.43, p < 0.0001) using a 514-year longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) latewood reference chronology from southern Mississippi. The crawlspace oak samples produced a 57-year chronology that we dated against a white oak (Quercus alba L.) reference chronology from northeast Alabama to the period 1765–1822 (r = 0.36, t = 2.83, p < 0.01). We were unable to cross-date the six poplar samples due to a lack of poplar reference chronologies in the region. Our findings have two important implications: (1) the pine material dated to 1734 represents the oldest dendroarchaeology-confirmed dating match for construction materials in the southeastern US, and (2) cross-dating latewood growth for southeastern US pine species produced statistically significant results, whereas total ring width failed to produce significant dating results. Keywords: dendroarchaeology; tree-ring; Chickasaw; longleaf pine; cross-dating 1. Introduction When the age of a historical structure is unknown due to a lack of documentary records, applications of tree-ring science (i.e., dendroarchaeology) can provide accurate information regarding the harvest dates for timbers used in these structures. These harvest dates establish an earliest possible date of construction and provide evidence to estimate the true age of a structure [1]. Precision dating of historic structures in the southeastern United States (US) has flourished in the last decade [2–11]. Within this region, the Gulf Coastal Plain remains under-represented aside from three published studies [12–14]. Dendroarchaeology in the Gulf Coastal Plain is challenging due to the natural factors of wood preservation. The Gulf Coastal Plain region is located within the humid subtropics (ca. 30–35 ◦ N) and supports 1.3–1.8 m of annual precipitation [15,16]. Concurrently, the Gulf Coastal Plain region hosts the highest density of wood-destroying termites in the US [17]. Furthermore, species-specific reference chronologies, against which remnant timbers are cross-dated, are sporadic along the Gulf Coastal Plain region [18], and multi- century reference chronologies are typically limited to mesic and wetland species. However, Forests 2021, 12, 670. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12060670 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests