To Dig or Not To Dig...

At Fort St. Joseph Museum

In the ballroom at City Hall

            We woke up this morning to rain pounding on the roof and dark ominous clouds lingering over Niles preventing us from going into the field. The morning ended up being occupied with watching “From Moccasins to Main Street,” a movie about the Great Sauk Trail, known as US-12. Dr. Nassaney makes a movie debut in the film. Fort St. Joseph Museum was next on the list of rainy day activities. Wandering through all the artifacts collected, there were actual pictographs drawn by Sitting Bull. There is a good collection of Fort St. Joseph artifacts on display along with a possible diagram of what the fort may have looked like. The Chapin Mansion, also known as City Hall, was next on our tour. The Chapin Mansion was erected in 1882 and was later bought by the city for $300. The mansion has beautiful stain glass along with a ballroom we were able to explore.

Calvin and Jon filling a pit

         

   The rain gods were kind to us and in the afternoon we were able to go into the field and inspect our pits. Most pits are being closed and filled once the paperwork is complete. The paperwork includes a full summary of who, what, when, where, and how of each pit. It includes the soils, artifacts found, the methods, etc. Two pits are still digging; one pit is still finding flakes! My pit, we are pretty sure, has reached the sterile zone. We are just leveling at 50 cm below datum then closing it up.  Once a pit is filled, the next pit at Lyne can be started which we are hoping to start soon. Campers made their appearance later in the afternoon to lay out their pits. The campers this week are life-long learners. It will be nice to be able to give them tips like were given to us the first week of our field school.

Tabitha and me leveling our pit 

At Lake Michigan, Weko Beach

 For dinner, we were hosted by Barb and Craig Schwaderer, who take part in history reenacting. A delicious meal of smoked chicken with bean salad was provided and thoroughly enjoyed. To our delight, they live about a ten minute walk from Weko Beach. Soccer ball in hand and swimsuits on, we headed to the beach to enjoy the beautiful sunset on Lake Michigan. The water was so warm and a large group played free-for-all with the soccer ball. Once the sun has set, a trumpet plays taps to signify the end of the day. A wonderful way to end a busy day. 

Cassie

Public Lecture 7/25!

Remember to join the Fort St. Joseph Archaeologists at our lecture series. Tomorrow night's presentation will be by Larry Horrigan titled "Firearms of New France" which will discuss the history and use of flintlocks in the 17th and 18th centuries. Larry will also have replicas on display. The talk starts at 7pm at the Niles District Library, we hope to see you there.

Third Week's The Charm!

Tabitha and Cassie demonstrating proper mapping techniques

Today marks the beginning of the third week of the 2012 Fort St. Joseph Archaeological school.  We had a lovely drive into Niles from Kalamazoo this morning and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect.  When we arrived in Niles at 9:15am it was 85 degrees, sunny, and starting to prove that it couldn’t have been a better day to be out in the field.  Everyone is starting to understand that they can’t bring everything they own and that made packing the van extremely painless for the first time. 

Doctor Nassaney conducted our weekly meeting and everyone is starting to really open up to each other. This field school has been great so far because we get to actively learn while being outside of the classroom.  In a classroom setting, the teacher is the “head honcho” and is responsible for presenting the learning material.  Out in the field, everybody is able to bring their own knowledge to the table.  This creates an environment that is judgment-free, open to anyone’s opinion, and really lets an individual come to their own conclusions.

Mary Ellen and I working hard on mapping our unit's profile

We are all currently in the stages of finishing up our first units and completing all the necessary paperwork.  My pit partner was unfortunately unable to make it today, but she was still with us all in spirit (WE MISS YOU SUE!).  I had the pleasure of working with Mary Ellen today and we were able to complete a lot of our paperwork today.  We always arrive to the field Monday mornings a few hours later than we do the rest of the week so it was a short work period before lunch today.  Mary Ellen and I were able to finish up most of our unit’s profile today.  A profile is a way to capture exactly what an individual unit’s stratigraphy looks like.  This is important because it is an exact replication of what we are looking at so if someone in the future wants to know what we did, they are able to look at our data and be able to re-create/envision exactly what we were looking at.  This takes a lot of careful mapping and descriptive writing.  Every little detail counts and it’s very important to be as precise as possible.

Dr. N showing us alternative uses of a trowel

Lunch was a real treat today because Dr. N showed his field school exactly how dedicated of an Archaeologist he really is.  If most of us were lacking a spoon and had some yogurt to eat, we’d probably save it for later. Not Dr. Nassaney; not our field school leader.  A trowel is an archaeologist’s most important field tool, and Dr. Nassaney proved today it also works great as a spoon!

The campers checking out the Lyne site

After lunch, we all headed back to the field to finish up our work for the day.  Today starts the first week of our summer camps and we had the pleasure of meeting our life-long learners today.  They were an upbeat group that is eager to learn and I can tell it will be a great experience to be able to work with them this year. They will be joining us in the field tomorrow and we can use all the help we can get! Time went by way too fast, as usual, so our day ended quicker than I wanted it to.  This is also our first five day week so there is plenty of time left this week to get some more experience in the field.  As long as the precipitation avoids Niles, we will have a big group of happy archaeologists. 

-Jonathan VanderLind

Open House Schedule is Now Available!

Hello Everyone,

We just finished up another busy week in the field. We had some adverse weather conditions (heat, rain, humidity...) but our crew handled it like pros with few complaints.

We're also working on preparations for our Open House which will be held at the dig site in Niles, August 11-12, 10am-4pm. Here's a sneak peak at the schedule of events and all of the fantastic living history participants who will make this event something to remember. Mark your calenders, we hope you'll be joining us.

-Erica

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Open House Schedule 2012

Saturday, August 11

10:00 AM

Opening Inspection and March to Fort Site          Location: Encampment

10:30 AM

Dr. Michael Nassaney-Archaeology Update         Location: Stage/Stage Area

11:00 AM

Colonial Dancers                               Location: Stage/Stage Area

Voyager Run Competition            Location: Encampment

11:30 AM

Kevin Gladysz-Guns of New France, 1700-1759                  Location: Stage/Stage Area

12:00 PM

Celtic Trio-18^th Century Music     Location: Stage/Stage Area

Artillery Demo                                   Location: Encampment

12:30 PM

Dr. Michael Nassaney-Archaeology Update         Location: Stage/Stage Area

1:00 PM

Women’s Sewing Circle                 Location: Fort Site

Tomahawk Competition                               Location: Encampment

1:30 PM

Celtic Trio-18^th Century Music     Location: Stage/Stage Area

Women’s Sewing Circle                 Location: Fort Site

2:00 PM

Kevin Gladysz-Trade Knives and Axes of New France         Location: Stage/Stage Area

2:30 PM

Colonial Dancers               Location: Stage/Stage Area

3:00 PM

Militia Recruitment         Location: Fort Site

3:30 PM

March from Fort Site to Encampment                     Location: Stage/Stage Area

Encampment Closed for the Day

4:00 PM

Event Ends for the Day

Sunday, August 12

10:00 AM

Opening Inspection and March to Fort Site          Location: Encampment

10:30 AM

Dr. Michael Nassaney-Archaeology Update         Location: Stage/Stage Area

11:00 AM

Colonial Dancers                               Location: Stage/Stage Area

11:30 AM

Public Scholar, Kevin Gladysz                      Location: Stage/Stage Area

Team Tomahawk Competition                   Location: Encampment

12:00 PM

Celtic Trio-18^th Century Music                     Location: Stage/Stage Area

12:30 PM

Artillery Demo                   Location: Encampment

1:00 PM

Dr. Michael Nassaney-Archaeology Update         Location: Stage/Stage Area

Women’s Sewing Circle                                                 Location: Fort Site

1:30 PM

Celtic Trio-18^th Century Music                     Location: Stage/Stage Area

Women’s Sewing Circle                                 Location: Fort Site

2:30 PM

Colonial Dancers               Location: Stage/Stage Area

3:00 PM

Militia Recruitment         Location: Fort Site

3:30 PM

March from Dig Site to Encampment       Location: Stage/Stage Area

Encampment Closed

4:00 PM

Event Closed

Ongoing Activities

Fort Site

Archeological Dig

Artifact Displays

Faunal Analysis

Children’s Interpretive Archaeology

Tea Tent

Militia Sign Up and Drill

Children’s Area

18^th Century Children’s Games:

Ball and Cup

Stilts

Graces

Wizzers

Lucet

Checkers

Boat Launch

Canoe Rides by Sarett Nature Center

$3.00 Per Person

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM and 1:00 – 3:30 PM

Encampment

Militia Encampment

Demonstrations: Cooking, Distilling, Spinning

Merchants: Sheldon Pewter, Antiquity Period Design Ltd., Wm. Booth, Draper

Children’s Voyager Run

Saturday

10:30 – 11:00 AM

1:00 – 3:00 PM

Sunday

10:30 AM – 12:30 PM

1:30 – 3:00 PM

Fort Saint Joseph Archaeology Open House Living History Participants

The Northwest Territory Alliance – www.nwta.com

The Northwest Territory Alliance (NWTA) is an American Revolutionary War reenactment organization located in the Midwestern United States. It has over five hundred members from states as far west as Iowa, east to Ohio, north to the Canadian border and south to Tennessee. "We are non-profit educational organization that studies and recreates the culture, lifestyle, and arts of the time of the American Revolution, 1775-1783. We strive to duplicate the uniforms, weapons, battlefield tactics and camp life of the era as accurately as possible."

Sheldon Pewter (NWTA Member Merchant) – www.sheldonpewter.com

Pewter jewelry, buttons and reproduction coins

Antiquity Period Designs (NWTA Member Merchant) www.AntiquityPeriodDesigns.com

18^th Century American products and custom furniture

Wm. Booth, Draper, Paul & Laura Dickfoss, www.wmboothdraper.com

Wool, linen and silk fabrics, sewing patterns, knitting goods, notions, needlework kits, and books

Tart Town Tea Tent

Local Niles proprietor, Janine Frizzo-Horrigan, offers teas, tarts and light lunch fare prepared authentically and served in an 18^th century tea tent.

Celtic Trio

The Ann Arbor-based trio of Diana Ladio, Fiddle; Allison Haraburda, cello; and Fritz McGirr, percussion, will be providing 18^th century folk and dance music for the Open House.  In the 21^st century the trio is known as The Moxie Strings with Fritz McGirr – www.themoxiestrings.com - They perform their high-energy original sound throughout the state. This weekend their recently released CD of contemporary and traditional tunes is available at the Support The Fort table.  It is also available on iTunes.

Colonial Dancers

Stevensville resident, Noel Bash, mastered 18^th century dancing while working at Colonial Williamsburg. She has been teaching dance to this group of Berrien County students (and some parents) for the past 1 ½ years. This is their first opportunity to perform in public. The public will be invited to join in the dancing at the end of their performance.

Sarett Nature Center Canoe Rides

Sarett Nature Center– www.sarett.com - voyageur interpreters are offering rides to the public in their replica 35’ Montreal Canoe on the St. Joseph River. The interpreters will offer information about the voyageurs and the wildlife in and on the river.  Rates are $3/person for a half hour ride.

Sun, Rain, and Burial Mounds

The crew in front of the state marker for the Sumnerville Mounds       

Calvin fits comfortably in his unit.

         While today wasn’t as hot as yesterday, it was still pretty warm – especially in the late afternoon. The morning started off with sporadic cloudbursts, which were welcome at first, until the post-rain mugginess set in. Fortunately most of the crew preferred some rain and humidity to the blazing heat yesterday. I can honestly say both days were about the same, heat-wise, seeing as my unit is subjected to full sunlight from about 2:30 on. Despite the heat, digging continued, and Calvin and Scott’s pit was finally finished and ready for profiling. Tomorrow they’ll be drawing a profile map of one wall of their unit, to show off the different soil types they came across while digging. Then they get to fill it back up and move on to a new area and a new unit.

            Almost everyone else in the crew is ready to close up their units and move on to a new one. What with the hard, compact dirt of the B horizon (the layer where all of the dead plants and other organic material has leeched out) and the almost complete lack of artifacts from about 30 cm deep down, we’re all ready to start with fresh ground and a fresh chance to find something interesting.

            I did find a piece of lead shot today though, in a dark spot on the West side of my unit. Even though the soil stain probably came from a tree that was burned and decayed, finding such a tiny piece of lead shot was awesome!

Jordan posing for the camera.

            The highlight of the day by far was visiting Barb Cook’s house in Sumnerville. She fed us with some amazing couscous and some kind of brownie with white chocolate chips and cranberries (I don’t think it’s actually a brownie but I have no real words to describe it and its delicious flavors). Barb gave us a tour of the Sumnerville Mounds built by the Hopewell culture about two thousand years ago. She mentioned that Hopewell people may have lived around Cahokia, Illinois, where the famous mound-builders site is located. We saw two of the mounds, though there were six in total in the area, and she described how her husband, while flying above, saw a large horseshoe-shaped mound that had been plowed away. She told us the stories of two archaeologists that had excavated some of the mounds; one man, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, even stole many of the artifacts recovered and resold them. Thanks to Barb and local landowners, however, about six of the burial mounds have been preserved and remain unexcavated.

So many birds!

            After our tour of the mounds, Barb gave us a tour of her barn – and she sure has a lot of animals! Male peacocks, female peacocks, a gaggle of geese, a horde of ducks, two horses, and several cats. One cat, named Oso (Spanish for “bear”) was pretty chubby, and when anyone approached him, he immediately rolled onto his belly and begged with his eyes to be petted. He was very friendly and mellow, and allowed Erica to pick him up. When we were about to leave, he tried to itch his face with his back leg and rolled right over onto his back. If I’d had a camera I could have submitted it to The Planet’s Funniest Animals TV show.

            And last but not least, one of our crew, Sue, came back this morning with a van full of test cereals she brought for us. Three were international brands – one Spanish, and two from South Korea. While we were extremely grateful to Sue for bringing us this bounty, most of all we were a little too excited about cereal boxes with Korean writing and the toys inside.

Jon and Alex playing in the river.

That's all for this week. Stay classy, Niles!

-A.L.

Geophysical Survey

July 17, 2012  

By Tabitha Hubbard

Dr. Sauck conducting geophysical survey

       Today everyone was once again excited to get into the field. This morning Dr. William (Bill) Sauck of the Western Michigan University Department of Geosciences began conducting a geophysical survey of an unexplored area of the Fort site. Previously we cleared the area and placed stakes marking the perimeters of the survey site.  We had two squares for the survey; one was 10 x 10 meters and the other 20 x 20 meters.  Dr. Sauck conducted the survey with a magnetic gradiometer, which detects items with a magnetic reading under the surface. Some items that give off a magnetic reading are iron, fired pottery, and burned stones. Each member of the field school got the opportunity to assist with the survey. We marked out one-meter units across each square. Then Dr. Sauck walked the units with the gradiometer. He did get a few readings; one was specifically located near a tree. We will not know the exact details of the magnetic survey until the data is processed. He will prepare a map showing the results, which will help us to determine locations most likely containing features or large amounts of artifacts.

Stone Projectile Point

            While the survey took place, some people continued to clear the fort site. We still have some clearing to do, but we are steadily working through it. 

Although the temperature reached about 100 degrees today, we found ways to stay cool. The trees in the area mostly shade our site. My pit in particular receives a breeze from the river.  By the afternoon, Dr. Sauck finished the survey and everyone returned to the shade and continued excavating his or her pits on the Lyne site. The deepest unit is at forty centimeters below datum and the shallowest is approaching thirty centimeters. Most people have encountered fewer artifacts at these depths. The most notable find today was a stone projectile point, which dates to the Late Woodland period (A.D. 1000-1700). One group found a stone core at about 32 cm below datum; the stone appears to be the same as some of the flakes previously found.

Now, everyone is relaxing in the air-conditioning working in lab. Some people are washing artifacts from our excavations. Most of the groups have continued to sort artifacts into types, such as bone, flakes, and charcoal. The remaining people are either working on putting data into Past Perfect, which is our data management program. Finally, others are doing household chores, so we keep our living quarters tidy. 

I am looking forward to getting back to my unit tomorrow. 

A Hot Monday at FSJ

By Scott MacPherson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

July 16, 2012

Scott cleaning up his pit

Jordan thinks he found something special!

The first day of our second week began today, as well as the melting of the polar caps. Another hot day here in Niles, but for those of us working on the archaeological site at Fort St. Joseph it couldn’t have been cooler. We arrived this morning to the realization that it had rained in at least one location in Michigan; some of us had water in our pits. It was no big deal and actually turned out to be helpful. After a much needed weekend of rest a few of us realized that we had contracted poison ivy, some much worse than others. Archaeology is not for the faint of heart that is for sure and a rabid case of poison ivy is a small price to pay.

Aside from the oozing lesions and scalding heat, Monday got off as planned and before noon, we were already discovering cultural artifacts. We found a piece of lead shot, flakes from the production of stone tools, wire nails, fire cracked rock and  a couple more pieces of low-fired earthenware produced by Native-Americans. Today was a great way to start the week with the discoveries we have made thus far and we are eager to get out there again in the morning.

Dr. Nassaney talking with our host Stephanie Layman

This morning we all reflected on the previous week and several of us made comments about our thoughts over the weekend and one of the topics that kept coming up among us was how touched we all are by the way the community of Niles, Michigan has welcomed us to their town. The level of genuine kindness and enthusiasm is profound for what we are doing here at the fort site. The community of Niles has reason to be proud of their local history and heritage and they do not hesitate to show that pride. All of us archaeology students from Western Michigan University and beyond appreciate your kindness and hospitality.

Poison Ivy

                                                                                                                                  Thank You!