Up until a few years ago, Steve Bridge, theology professor at Saint Joseph’s college, thought he knew “everything there was to know” about the campus.

For more than a decade, he had accepted the facts that the Sisters of Mercy bought Saint Joseph’s from the Verrill Family in 1955, and the Verrills had owned the land since 1905.

“No one bothered to ask who had it before the Verrills,” he said.

But a few years ago a conversation with the campus farm manager sparked that question for Bridge. In the spring of 2014, he started digging through property records and literally through the soil of the campus, to unearth the history of the school grounds.

His findings are in a new book, “Unearthed: Storied Artifacts & Remarkable Predecessors of the Saint Joseph’s College Campus,” which he is debuting at an event next week. He says those findings will surprise people.

The book launch will be held Wednesday, Nov. 30, at the Viola George Auditorium on the Saint Joe’s campus in Standish, and will feature a presentation and question-and-answer session with Bridge. The book will be available for purchase at the event for $30.

In searching through campus property records, Bridge followed the chain of ownership back to about 1773.  Land in the area was first set up in 100-acre lots and subdivided throughout history. The college now owns roughly 500 acres.

Through his research, he came up with 160 names of property owners. In digging in the dirt on-campus, shifts in terrain and artifacts served as clues leading to the discovery of roughly a dozen sites, some dating back to early as the late 1700s.

A theology professor by trade, Bridge said he has picked up archaeological tips and tricks during his travels to historic sites and as a self-described “amateur geologist.” His training as a theologist is also heavily rooted in a historical approach to religion, which was helpful for the project, he said.

His research ultimately shows “how connected we are to some really big names in U.S. History – in one way or another – through our predecessors, or artifacts left behind, or both,” he said. Those “really big names in U.S. History” include George Washington, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Rudolph Valentino, and Babe Ruth.

In his book, Bridge profiles 11 “of the artifacts with the neatest backstory and 11 of the campus’ most remarkable predecessors,” he said. “These are people who have really done some amazing things in their lives. They are people we had no idea were here before us.”

Bridge hesitated to delve too deeply into his findings, saying he didn’t want to “give too much away” before his presentation next week.

He said unveiling the mystery of the content is one of the reasons he’s looking forward to the presentation.

“No one on campus has known this history,” he said. “I think the college as a whole will be amazed and excited about some of the things that were there and some of the things left behind.”

He said the information will have an impact on the surrounding community as well, because it “lends a little more prestige to the area.”

His own perspective on the campus has changed dramatically because of his research, he said.

“I can’t look at it the same way,” he said of the school grounds. “Now I know what I know about it, when I walk onto campus, I see it through a different lens.”

Bridge said his research about the campus isn’t ending with the book.

What he’s found so far, he said, is “just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more research that can be done in terms of finding out who was here before us, (and) there may also be other sites I don’t know about yet. There’s a lot of work to be done but it’s exciting work, work I’m interested in and fascinated by.”

Steve Bridge, a professor at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish, is presenting the findings from his new book next week.