Finding a Bank with a Backhoe

Then and Now: Archeology at Fort Stanwix

Archeology Home		Finding a Bank with a Backhoe When archeologists begin to work, they are never quite sure what they will find, even if they knew some of what was there before. Read more to see what we found in one part of the excavation.
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	We began our day by using a backhoe to go through the many feet of earth and rubble spread over the site when Fort Stanwix was reconstructed. At the bottom of that trench, we found some bricks that were still in place.
We made a drawing of what we found. The bank floor is Feature One, visible at the bottom right of the drawing. Click here or on the drawing to see a larger version of the profile.
		Then we looked at the historical maps to see what we had uncovered. This is from the 1924 Sanborn map, showing the corner of James and Dominick Streets, and shows the bank. James Street is on the left and Dominick on the top of the image.
During the second phase of our work, we looked again at the bank, and exposed as much of the brick floor as we could. The stone foundation wall of the bank can be seen at the bottom of the photo. We found a plastic ball point pen just above the floor, so we know that this was open during the 1970s demolition.