The 2021 Fort St. Joseph Open House!

 Hello everyone, my name is Reid. I’m a senior anthropology major at Michigan State University, with a concentration in archaeology. I’m interested in historical archaeology in the United States between the 1850s and the 1950s, and I’m specifically interested in how the politics of memory affect the way our society does archaeology, conservation, and the presentation of information regarding sites that have experienced a genocide or other violent conflict. You might remember me from the garbology blog post from mid-July. Now I’m back with a second installment, this time focusing on the open house that was held on August 7th and 8th.As an archaeologist, living up to the image presented by Indiana Jones is an impossible task. The fact is that in real life archaeology there are no bullwhips, rampaging boulders, or booby traps. It’s just a lot of dirt, hard work, and tiny bone fragments. When you put it like that, why would anyone turn off Raiders of the Lost Ark in favor of driving out to an actual archaeological site?

Public archaeology and community service learning are two key components of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project. The community involvement with the project has helped shape its research design and make the field school that runs alongside it unique. The open house that usually runs for a weekend towards the end of the field school is perhaps the best example of the public facing dimension of the project.

The open house has been carefully designed and improved over almost 20 years to provide an authentic and interesting archaeological experience. Students stand by open excavation units to explain what, why, and how the dig is being conducted, as well as answer questions about the history of the site and how the fort is incorporated into the history of Niles. We also have an incredible group of living history reenactors that come for the weekend. They provide a glimpse into the past, displaying crafts like blacksmithing and fiber arts, educating about French colonial food ways, and offering the opportunity to ride in an authentic birchbark canoe. This is where the open house really shines-- the blending of an education and entertainment. (And it’s free! Come visit us next year!)

Every iteration of the open house goes through little tweaks and changes from year to year. For 2021 one of the biggest changes that was made was site accessibility. Three volunteers (Gary, Lynn, and Niel), the field school lab coordinator (Lucy) and a field school student (Ashley) spent a Saturday clearing vegetation and creating gradients for the paths leading to and from the floodplain. This meant that for the first time there was a wheelchair and motorized accessible route around the whole site. These changes were a big step towards making Fort St. Joseph accessible not just to the general public, but to the whole public. We hope that you’ll come and visit us next year!

Students and staff enjoying a birchbark canoe ride
after the open house!

Students creating an artifact case for the open house!

Teaching kids about Archaeology at Fort St. Joseph

On August 3rd, we had the Summer My Way Kids that consisted of 4th and 5th graders come out to see Fort St. Joseph! They were broken off into two groups because there were so many kids that came to see us. While one group got to go a fantastic walking tour with Erika, the other group got to tour the units and try some hands-on wet screening with Lucy!

Lucy wet screening with some of the kids!

The students got to see Father Allouez's grave and check out the commemorative boulder, and the other half of the students got to experience wet screening and check out the units. At the wet screen station, Lucy, myself, and a couple other students got to teach the kids about the purpose of wet screening and some demonstrations. They stood around the stations and watched us as we sprayed the dirt away. Even some of the kids were willing to get soaked and muddy for the experience of finding something in the wet screen. Many of the kids asked some excellent questions during the whole process, such as "How do you know its bone" or "What is an artifact." We would explain that the color, texture, and weight are things we look for, and I had mentioned that once you start something new, you can become good from practice. I liked the kids who had the imagination to ask questions like, "do you find dinosaur bones or gold," or the ones who would get very involved in finding artifacts. A lot of the kids would look extensively into the screens and point to a possible artifact, and I even had one kid find a seed bead in mine! In addition, they got to check out all the units in the floodplain and trenches, as other students described their hard work and answered more questions.

Jim Clark explaining his unit to the students

One of the many great things about archaeology are that children are always curious and can carry that curiosity as they grow older. When I was a child, I did not have this particular experience, but these kids do and maybe this will spark their interest in the camp or field school. Curiosity keeps the passion and project alive for all ages to lead to discoveries and teaching moments. Overall, the kids had some fantastic experiences, and everyone enjoyed being a part of it at Fort St. Joseph.

Developing an Interest on Fort St. Joseph

Ever since I was young, my dad got me interested in local and world history. One of our interests was in the local history of the people living in the area during the 1700s-1800s. We would drive by the Fort St. Joseph commemorative rock and Father Allouez cross, visiting them every month when we would take trash to the Berrien County dump. Around 1965, we began stopping at the Fort St. Jospeh Museum in Niles after we unloaded our trash. My dad and the museum’s curator Mrs. Johnson at the time didn't know exactly where the location of the fort was, but we knew it was on the east side of the St. Joseph River, north of the rock.

Rex washing artifacts from the 2021 field school!

Four years later, while in Jr High School, I asked my history class teachers the question I had always wanted to know the answer to, “Who knew the exact locations of the Fort?” And I always got the same answer, “We don’t know.”

This made me more determined to know more about the fort and its location. At the time, you could look across from the rock monument to the west side of the river and see the high cliffs that would have kept enemies and harsh weather out. The cliffs stop as you approach downtown Niles where the Pawating crossing is. Native groups used this crossing to walk across the shallow part of the river. I thought the Pawating crossing would have been a good place for the fort because it could be accessed from all directions land or river. However, the actual location of the fort (just upstream) makes more sense to me now.

The Jesuits arrived in the area now known as Fort St. Joseph in 1680s when the French government allowed them there. Jesuit Priests traveled with trappers and traders from France. The Catholic Church authority in France wanted to convince the Native American Tribes in the entire territory that they didn't want war for land, but a trade policy. I learned later, from French documents, that missions and Jesuit priests were relocated to many French territories on every continent.

Some questions that remained in my head were: “Why was the Fort St. Joseph after so many years not built over, and at the same time, not important enough to seriously look for? Did the distance from lake Michigan and the affect of the seasons on the water have an answer to the location of the Fort? Did the amount of time it took to get from Lake Michigan to the Fort matter?” For 10 plus years, I have rowed on the local rivers and creeks and in the dark almost everything in the water or near it is more visible. Did this impact the fort’s location?

It was the Native Americans in the area, and throughout New France, that controlled the trade and who could live near them. The history of Fort St. Joseph and the occupants’ relationships with the Native Americans are what interested me the most first. Tribes in this region, like all others had truces and their own boundaries and borders all throughout the land. Local native tribes moved often, so did the French use this to establish the fort’s location? What changes happened to all the people involved?

I read a lot of books, articles and historical documents before this class even began. Pictorial pictures of the great lakes had images of the French king during the fort years and his copy of the map of this French territory. His map had drawn the fort on the east bank of river about 20 plus miles south of Lake Michigan, before the south bend. The river could be traveled north, where it empties into Lake Michigan or south in order to reach the Mississippi. So, who would desert a fort with that proximity and the routes even if the fur trade was declining? There was still a land trail to Detroit and all the portages going south after the Seven Years War. During almost 100 years of its use (1691-1781), I believe that someone would have recorded its correct location and the logic behind the decision made at that time.

Now, 330 plus years later, the Project is excavating the fort site in its original location.  At last, the city of Niles has a serious partner that cares about this history. I hope that one day it will become a National Historic site with an exhibition the shows the artifacts recovered from where it was constructed.

Work Cited

H. Hatcher, Eric Walter. Pictorial Pictures of the Great Lakes

Joseph Peyser. Letters from New France