The 50-year-old National Historic Preservation Act requires agencies to take into account how their projects affect historic structures and archaeological sites. When a road-straightening project in Warren County, Ohio threatened to cut through the former site of a Shaker village, an archaeological dig was planned. In the summer of 2005, archaeologists and historians excavated the site of the North Family Lot of Union Village, the first and largest Shaker community in Ohio. A surprising find was the presence of many clay tobacco pipes, proof of their manufacture on an industrial scale. Document research tells us that tens of thousands of pipes were made and shipped to New Lebanon, New York, the main Shaker settlement in the United States. Use of tobacco by the Shakers was believed to be restricted to special meetings known as "smoking meetings" or "union smokes". Tobacco use fell out of favor by 1852, and clay pipe production ceased in Union Village.
—yortsnave