State archaeologists this week began surveying one of Windham’s earliest settlements on River Road for historical artifacts prior to a forthcoming road construction project in that section of town.
Leith Smith, historic preservationist with the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, and his team of archaeologists began a three-week process Monday to determine what lies beneath the soil at the site of the 1764 Province Fort, which is located on the property of the 18th-century Parson Smith house near the intersection of River and Anderson roads.
While early Windham settlers built homes on long, narrow plots of land extending from the Presumpscot River to what is now River Road, the fort, built atop a hill, served as refuge against American Indian attacks. So far, the preservation group has uncovered an array of artifacts, such as remnants of early pottery, buttons, nails, a 1700s cuff link, flint from an old flintlock pistol, a path of flat stones and more from shallow pits they dug on the property within 40 feet of the roadside.
According to Smith, Phase 2 of the survey, which began Monday, involves digging a series of shallow, square-shaped test pits with a shovel to identify any cultural remains not visible above ground.
Meanwhile, officials from the Maine Department of Transportation are facing concerns from the Windham Historical Society and local residents about the upcoming construction project, which calls for widening and flattening River Road in the oldest section of Windham, including the Province Fort site. The roadwork, set to begin in two years, is part of a long-planned, multi-year, $8.4 million road-widening project to make River Road safer for drivers.
In the historic neighborhood on River Road, which features 18th-century homes such as the Parson Smith house, the Elder house and the Anderson/Lord house, the state plans to lower a hill by Anderson Road by 4 feet and add 5-foot shoulders.
At a Windham Historical Society workshop attended by transportation department officials in late September, residents expressed a variety of concerns, including that the construction plans could degrade the historical integrity of the neighborhood.
That meeting was prompted by a letter that Linda Griffin, president of the Windham Historical Society, wrote to the department in the summer after learning about the specific construction plans. In addition to the potential impact the roadwork could have on the old Province Fort site, Griffin said, she was concerned that widening the road would encourage higher speeds closer to the historic homes.
“Right now there are a lot of accidents that happen, and it’s not a good situation,” Griffin said last week.
Ernie Martin, transportation department project manager, did not respond to several calls prior to the Lakes Region Weekly’s deadline Wednesday. During the historical society meeting last month, however, Martin and the department’s historic coordinator, Megan Hopkin, ensured residents that the state would do its best to maintain the neighborhood’s historic integrity. He also said the department would hold a final public hearing in January to address residents’ concerns.
“Whenever there is a project we have to make sure that we do our due diligence with historic properties, including archaeology, to make sure that we can avoid or minimize our impacts on anything historic,” Hopkin told the Lakes Region Weekly.
Griffin said dropping the road by 4 feet in that section of Windham could damage “sensitive archaeological finds” associated with the fort that might exist under the tar.
“We knew they were widening the (road), but we didn’t know about taking the hill down, so when we found that out, we wrote letters to Augusta explaining that was the site of our first and only fort,” Griffin said. “We wanted to alert them that there might be something there.”
“At first, we were really upset,” said Griffin, “but now it sounds like this might be our only opportunity to discover what is under that road.”
Smith said archaeologists performed preliminary testing, or Phase 1, at the Province Fort site in 1979 and 1981 and discovered some artifacts, such as old brick, that indicated the fort was there. But they did not find any architectural features such as foundations or chimney bases. By digging a series of test pits every 15 feet across the project area and screening the soil, which is standard procedure, Maine Historic Preservation is hoping to unearth architectural remains as part of the second phase, Smith said.
“Our job is to define the site limits – where the fort is actually located – and search for features,” Smith said. “We’re responsible for about a 40-foot-wide swath along the road that could be impacted (by the roadwork). Most of our testing will focus closer to the road. We’re really trying to give the Department of Transportation an idea of what’s here for their longer-term planning. In other words, if we can tell them that indeed we found the fort and it extends under the road, then they will know we will want to monitor (the initial phases) when they do the work on the road, to see if there is anything underneath.”
Next spring or summer, Smith added, “We may come back for a Phase 3, the final phase, to do more intensive excavation in the area that will be impacted.”
If the archaeologists identify any architectural remains on the Parson Smith property, where the fort is located, he said, they will start surveying the land on the opposite side of River Road to determine whether the fort extends beneath the asphalt.
According to Smith, the group’s discoveries won’t disrupt the Department of Transportation’s timeline for the project.
“I have been doing this all my life since the 1970s, and I don’t know a single project that has been impacted,” Smith said. “We’re here way ahead of the project.”
Smith said as part of Phase 3, or data recovery, the department of transportation would provide funding for the commission to monitor the first phase of construction, “to be on hand to document or record any important features that may be left underground” before it gets bulldozed.
“Basically, it’s our responsibility to document everything as best we can, knowing that it will then be totally removed,” said Smith.
“Ideally, it would be great to be able to leave (the fort) in place, but in this case, there is no way they can move the road. It’s such a major road.”
According to transportation officials, reconstruction of the section that runs through the historic neighborhood is expected to begin by the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018.
Archaeologists from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission found several artifacts, including this old hand-forged Rosehead nail, while surveying the site of the 1764 Province Fort in Windham on Monday.
State archaeologists, from left, John Mosher, Ammi Mitchell and Leith Smith, sift through the soil at the site of the 1764 Province Fort in Windham on River Road Monday to find historic artifacts.
An old piece of ceramic
Leith digging
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