More camp stories

Hi everyone,

After a long day at French Market, on site, and enjoying a lovely dinner hosted by Fred and Diane, two longtime supporters of the project, I thought it would be nice to also post some of the remaining stories from last week's campers this morning. A lot of folks inquired about the camps at the French Market today so it sounds like we may be filling up for next year as well! Here is what one camper had to say:

"The first week of working on the site has been a real leaning experience for us. Using centimeters was very foreign to me, but we have all caught on fast. Each of the units is a little different depending on the soils and artifacts which have included bone fragments, seed beads, metals, flint, coal, and more.

On site staff and students were very helpful and informative...nothing but good to say about this week between the morning lectures and the afternoon spent on site. We really enjoyed going out and getting dirty while finding artifacts! What a wonderful experience!"

Another camper, Dennis, adds:

"Having been to all of the Open Houses at the end of summer as an onlooker I have often wondered how students reached the point in the dig to show the public what they had found. Well, on Monday our class found out. We were taken out to the site and shown three units that needed to be excavated. As a group we started taking turns digging the whole week! We have had a lot of fun digging as we head off and the new group of campers enter. I hope to see something at the bottom of the new unit we started at the Open House!"

Camp teach Tim Bober explains a unit.

This week the middle-school-aged campers have been hard at work in those units and at the screens. If you want to see the progress they are making as well as the rest of the units come by today at 2:00 for a site tour. We have some impressive features (like building foundations!) beginning to appear, and we always have "fresh from the dirt" artifacts to show. Hope to see you out there!

Kelley









Photo credits Amber Strick and Cathrine Davis

Hi all,

I hope it has been a restful weekend for everyone, especially the hardworking campers and students. To begin today's post let's hear some more from our campers. One writes:

Dedicated campers!

"As first time archaeological campers this was a week of new experiences for many of us. From shoveling thick alluvial soil to gently troweling around sherds of bone, we all got down and dirty (literally!). Our days generally begin with history lessons. Tim, our coordinator, was a wealth of information who obviously loves his work.

Later, in the afternoons, we joined the students on site for lunch and then toured their units to hear about their progress. The campers had three units of our own that were rotated between us. We found areas of ash/charcoal, bones, beads, and some metal. Our time was also spent helping the students with wet-screening and cleaning artifacts."



Another camper, Therese, adds:

Pit tours.

"What we learned at camp was how to look at things differently. When we first opened the pits they didn't look very interesting, but after we learned how to look and what to look for suddenly each unit became fascinating with many stories to tell. It's pretty exciting to be the first person to see these things in 250 years. Archaeology camp was dirty but fun. It will be great to come back next year and see what else shows up."

It is great to hear that I am not alone in the thrill of finding bits and pieces from Fort St. Joesph!

The screening brigade.

Onto an update about one artifact in particular. Some of our wonderful public has come forward with suggestions to deciphering the lead bale seal I wrote about last weekend. The 18th century French word "graine" does not necessarily mean seeds of a plant but could refer to a type of fabric with a bumpy surface or items that could have been referred to as coming in the form of a grain such as beads. Also the word is related to the word "grenette" which could mean "seeds of Avignon" and was a name for buckthorn berries dyers. These berries were used to produce particular colors of dye and, while it may be a bit of a stretch, we do know that vermilion, a bright red/orange pigment, was a trade item desired by Native Americans. Vermilion does not come from buckthorn, but we should not overlook the possibility that this lead seal marks dye products. We still are leaning towards the idea that this was a particular type of fabric given Lille's notoriety as a place of textile manufacture, but archaeologists must entertain all the possibilities!

The shirts look even better in person!
Click for a close-up.

Finally, exciting news! The new Fort St. Joseph t-shirts have arrived and are lookin' good. They are available in sizes S-XXL and come in four colors: glamorous gold, colonial blue, sage green, and charming charcoal (okay, I may be exaggerating with those descriptors, but they are lovely colors!). We will have them for sale at the lecture this Wednesday, French Market on Thursday, and at our upcoming events. Thanks to Alyssa who did  the design for the shirts this year which features the French flag and a pair of voyageurs in a Montreal canoe...perfect for our Fur Trade theme.

Artifacts fresh from the wet screen.

Well, that is about all for this weekend. We are getting down to occupation-level layers in the units which means lots of artifacts, careful mapping, and hope for foundation features. Remember, if you are interested in chatting with any of the students of checking out some of our finds from the excavation we have several opportunities throughout the week. We will have our third lecture of our Summer Speaker Series this Wednesday at 7:30 in the Niles Library, a table with information and some of our artifacts at French Market from 9-2 in downtown Niles on Thursday, and a site tour at 2:00 on Friday. Come to one or all, we look forward to meeting you!

Hope to see you out there,
Kelley












Photo credits Erica D'Elia, Cathrine Davis, and Kelley Walter

Friday Site Tours

Part of the hard-working crew.

Hi everyone,

This is a reminder that site tours are on Fridays (that means today!) at 2:00. If you are interested in seeing how our excavation is going mosey on over to the intersection of Fort and Bond Streets where the St. Joseph River Park is located. If you would like to visit but are avoiding the heat that is no problem--we will be out there for Friday tours until our Open House on August 13th and 14th. Hope to see you out there!

Stay cool,
Kelley



Photo credit Cathrine Davis

Greetings from N30 E23

Working through alluvium.

My name is Greg Savage and I’m one of the archaeologists working on the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project here in Niles; North30 East23 is the coordinates of the excavation unit my pit partner Amber and I are assigned to. We were a little apprehensive on day one, because unlike the other excavation units which were assigned based on previous area finds, our unit was an “exploratory unit” to see what might extend into this area. I did what I could to remain optimistic and began to refer to our unit as the “Lewis and Clark” excavation unit.

We shovel skimmed our way through 20 cm of thick alluvium – Nothing! Dr. Nassaney says “take it down to 30 cm and let’s see how things look." 30 cm – Nothing! 35 cm – Nothing! 40 cm….40 cm changed everything! We had conquered the alluvium and were now in the old plow zone where history was unfolding before us with every skim of the shovel and cut of the trowel. Bones, beads, blacksmith-cut nails, lead shot, fire cracked rock, things which have no monetary value but to archaeologists and other scientists prove invaluable for the information they yield. Yes indeed! “exploratory unit” N30 E23 is exactly where I was meant to be as an archaeologist this summer.

The Lewis and Clark unit.

Today was also special as I was able to provide a site tour to a visitor who has been a lifelong resident of Hartford, MI. He had heard about the project and wanted to stop in to see for himself what we are doing. At the conclusion, our visitor thanked me for providing the tour and for the work we are doing in historical recovery and preservation right here in his “backyard.”

I would like to invite you all to come out to the site and see for yourself what we’re uncovering in YOUR backyard. If you can’t make it to the site continue following our progress here on the blog as we sweat it out digging into the past, not only learning about Michigan history but American history and the role Fort St. Joseph played in it.

Chao,
Greg Savage

Photo credits Cathrine Davis