Digging up history
Archaeological study to help develop historic island into tourist attraction
» John Schroeter never knows what’s going to turn up next.
The Thurman resident spent his summer cleaning and processing artifacts students and adult volun- teers found during SUNY Adirondack’s Archaeological Field School on Rogers Island.
Fort Edward and Fort William Henry in Lake George were closely linked during the French and Indian War, and digs have been held previously in both communities.
“It’s fun,” Schroeter said. “You don’t have any idea at the start of the day what’s going to come in. Sometimes, diggers don’t know what they’ve found.”
The focus of this year’s work was identifying the location of dozens of barracks, huts and tents where more than 15,000 British soldiers camped on Rogers Island each summer during the late 1750s. It’s hoped this will eventually pave the way for developing the property as a major tourist attraction.
This year’s six-week project concluded recently, with efforts taking place on 30 acres of virtually undeveloped property where a series of pits were dug in a search for clues to more than 260 years of colonial American history.
The land was sold to the town and village of Fort Edward in 2014, with funding from the state. The challenge now is deciding how best to tell the Rogers Island story and coming up with the additional
funding, through public and private sources, to make this possible.
The military history of Ticonderoga and Lake George were told by reconstructing forts in the early 1900s and 1950s, respectively. At Rogers Island, officialsrecognize the need to present history in a way that’s more relevant to 21st century visitors, rather than simply looking at artifacts on a shelf.
Plans such as interactive displays and interpretive walking trails are being considered. This year’s field school was critical in achieving that goal because by finding the exact location of dwellings, visitors will have the most historically accurate experience possible.
Every fragment of flint or glass helps solve the puzzle. Items ranging from porcelain to butchered animal bones were found. These things, specifically, indicate where officers probably lived because they hadmore creature comforts at their disposal. Animal bones tell soldiers had fresh meat, in addition to the more common salt pork and salted beef.
One of the musket balls found this summer was scarred by teeth marks. Previous theories suggested this might have been done by a soldier chewing down while receiving a flogging, or that soldiers did this to make musket balls spin when they hit someone, inflicting greater damage. The latest research says a lot of teeth marks were probably made by pigs chewing on them because swine would have been kept as a source of fresh meat.
David Starbuck, a seasonal Chestertown resident and professor of anthropology at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, directed the field school.
“There are great military sites already, such as Saratoga, Crown Point, Fort William Henry and Fort Ticonderoga,” he said. “How does Rogers Island take its place with the big boys? They all have great stories they’ve developed for over a century.
“This is one of the ultimate places to tell the story of daily life for 15,000 men who were here for several months each year. They bivouacked here, trained here, probably fished here and were perhaps put to the whipping post here. Those are the stories that aren’t told at other sites. These are the real stories of real people, just plain folks who have come to the frontier, stories that aren’t told in detail else- where.”
Starbuck said Rogers Island probably won’t become a state park, but the state office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation is expected to help guide local officials and provide expertise for creating a townand village-run attraction. The next big step is developing a master plan.
“Now that we know New York state is advising and watching, we have the incentive to get plans done and start implementing them, not just talking about them,” Starbuck said.