Artifacts help pinpoint key Hatfield-McCoy battle

The Associated Press, Tuesday, January 1, 2013, 7:09am (PST)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Artifacts recently unearthed during the filming of a new National Geographic Channel show appear to pinpoint the location of a turning point in the yearslong feud between the Hatfield and McCoy clans.

On New Year's Day of 1888 in eastern Kentucky, the Hatfield clan set Randolph McCoy's cabin ablaze and gunned down two members of the rival family.

Excavators have found bullets believed to have been fired by the McCoys in self-defense, along with fragments of windows and ceramic from a cabin.

Kim McBride, co-director of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey, also says the deed to the land was traced back to Randolph McCoy.

The property is owned by Bob Scott, a Hatfield descendant who suspected for years the land was the site of the attack.