One hundred fifty years ago, when MSU was still known as Michigan Agricultural College, students were required to perform manual labor as a part of their education.

This summer, an anthropology class is carrying on that tradition of hands-on learning by excavating the building that those first students called home.

This dormitory, dubbed "Saint's Rest" by its residents after a popular devotional of the time, was destroyed by fire December 9, 1876, during winter break.

The archeological dig, which kicked off Monday morning with a groundbreaking ceremony, is taking place in the open area east of the MSU Museum. Previously, the dormitory had been marked by a flat stone with a faded inscription listing the dates it was built and burned.

People walk over the stone every day and never notice it, said Marietta Baba, dean of the College of Social Science.

"Starting today, we're going to find out what lies underneath it," she said.

Today, the area around the marker is protected by a fence surrounding the dig site.

The excavation area was divided into a grid, and students got to work digging on the first squares immediately after the groundbreaking ceremonies were completed.

Criminal justice and anthropology senior Kate Thomson watched as several of her classmates sifted through the dirt on their hands and knees with trowels.

"I kind of just want to get my hands dirty," Thomson said. "It's nice that it's on campus, it's local, so I can stay in my apartment."

About 35 students applied for the dig, but only 21 were selected to participate, said anthropology Professor Ken Lewis, who is supervising the excavation with anthropology Assistant Professor Jodie O'Gorman.

Students will work from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The class, Field Methods in Archeology, is offered every year and past projects have included excavating the Marquette Mission in St. Ignace, Mich.

Excavating Saint's Rest has been a topic of discussion in the anthropology department for several years and for a number of different reasons, O'Gorman said.

"No archeology has been done on campus before," she said.

O'Gorman pointed out several shards of brick strewn across the broken topsoil - the first findings discovered in the dig.

"I think we'll find a lot of artifacts. I don't know what condition they'll be in," Lewis said. "We want to find out, once we get inside, how much of the original remains are still intact."

But the process of making those finds can be tedious.

"Digs are always interesting because 90 percent of the time, you're just moving dirt," said Marcus Shapley, a telecommunication, information studies and media graduate student, who is keeping a video record of the dig.

Lewis added that the process of cataloging and analyzing the finds in the lab takes numerous hours away from the dig site.

"We spend a lot of time being very careful because, when we do it, we only have one chance," he said.

When the excavation is complete, MSU museum studies students will prepare an exhibit of the findings.

The dig will be completed by July 15, and Lynne Goldstein, chair of the anthropology department, said a public display of the site and the artifacts found is scheduled for July 9-10. Goldstein said she didn't know when the exhibit would be ready for display, as it would be based largely on the types of artifacts found.

But the excavators already have quite a bit of knowledge about Saint's Rest and its inhabitants from university records.

"We can supplement it with the archeology and answer some of the questions that can't be answered through the archives," said anthropology graduate student Heather Mustonen, who is also a teaching assistant for the class, as she helped students filter units of dirt through large screens.

Probes into the ground revealed that at least some of the walls are still intact, Lewis said.

He said he didn't know much else about the condition of the site, but it could have been affected by landscaping or construction over the years.

But if the site has been left undisturbed, Lewis said, it's possible not much has changed over the past century, and artifacts could be hidden just inches below the surface.

"It's odd - people don't know how close these things are to them," Lewis said.

MSU students will be unearthing, documenting and analyzing whatever lies underneath the site, and Shapley reaffirmed the value of that experience.

"That whole idea of practical education, that's what made Michigan State unique," Shapley said.

Bob Darrow can be reached at darrowro@msu.edu.