Down in the Trenches: A New Chapter in the Exploration of Fort St. Joseph

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

After 20 years of excavation on the Fort St. Joseph floodplain where archaeological evidence of six structures has been found, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project investigators turned their attention to exploring the southern boundary of the site. There are no known historical documents or maps that detail the extent of the fort, highlighting the significance of this research focus. Fort St. Joseph, an eighteenth-century mission, garrison, and trading post located along the St. Joseph River in present-day Niles, Michigan, has only been known archaeologically through excavations conducted in an area bounded by the river and twentieth-century landfill. During the 2019 field season, three backhoe trenches were dug through the landfill to search for deeply buried deposits. Preliminary coring identified eighteenth-century materials prompting more intensive survey to establish the integrity of the deposits. We report on our findings and their implications for the next 20 years of Fort St. Joseph archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 320