The archaeological excavation of Fort Richmond is wrapping up in preparation for the construction of a new bridge connecting Dresden and Richmond across the Kennebec River.
Staff from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, volunteers, and students have been excavating the site of the over 250-year-old fort since last April, following an initial archaeological survey of the site that took place in 2010.
Leith Smith, an historical archaeologist with MHPC and the lead for the Fort Richmond dig, said his organization regularly does cultural resource surveys for the Department of Transportation to see if any prehistoric, Native American, or historic sites are impacted by DOT projects.
The initial survey was conducted to see if the proposed route of Route 197 to the new bridge, planned for just north of the current bridge, would have such an impact, Smith said.
Through historical documentation, Smith said it was known Fort Richmond was located somewhere in the area of the new route, but some estimations put the site further upstream and downstream from where it was finally found.
As it turned out, a marker placed by the Maine Society Daughters of the American Revolution in a small park on the southern side of Route 197 in 1937 correctly indicated the site of the fort.
Excavation showed Route 197, which crosses the Kennebec via the current bridge, actually bisects where Fort Richmond was located, and the new route would go through a then still buried portion of the fort.
As a result of the initial survey, it was determined the site was eligible for listing on the National Historic Registry, Smith said. Fort Richmond set a precedent as the first of the Kennebec River forts, and was the first fort in the early 18th century to set a foothold on the eastern frontier, Smith said.
Because of the historical significance of the site, DOT had the option of moving the road as to not damage the site or provide funding for the archaeological dig, Smith said. DOT opted for the dig, and allotted about $350,000 to fund it, he said.
The southern portion of Fort Richmond (south of Route 197) will remain unexcavated for this particular project because it is not impacted by the bridge project, Smith said.
The dig has provided architectural remains, artifacts, and details about the two incarnations of Fort Richmond from 1723 to 1755, and the home of the Parks family, who built and lived on the site from 1775 to 1827.
The first version of the fort came about because a group of Boston businessmen known as the Pejepscot Proprietors – who Smith described as the real-estate developers of their day – went to the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts and said they could not settle along the Kennebec without a fort to protect them, Smith said.
The court initially said no to building a fort, but agreed to provide soldiers if the Proprietors built a garrison house for them, Smith said. The garrison house was built in 1721, and was subsequently built into Fort Richmond in 1723 as the result of attacks from Native Americans, Smith said.
The garrison house became a corner blockhouse of the fort, and its orientation determined the orientation of the rest of the fort, he said.
In 1740, due to the threat of war with Spain, Massachusetts upgraded all its coastal defenses and the original Fort Richmond was found to be in such disrepair that it was torn down and rebuilt, Smith said.
Fort Richmond was finally decommissioned in 1755 as it became obsolete due to other forts along the river. Twenty years later the Parks, a well-to-do family, settled on the footprint of the fort, Smith said.
Many of the artifacts recovered during the dig are from the Parks family, who used existing cellar holes from the fort buildings as a place to dump their trash, Smith said.
Artifacts found on site include food remains, ceramics from England, Germany, Holland, gun flints and bullets from both Fort Richmond and the Parks family, part of an exploded cannon, some wooden sills from the second fort, Smith said.
Both the artifacts and the architectural remains uncovered in the dig help paint a picture of what life was like at Fort Richmond, Smith said. There were basic descriptions of the construction of the fort, but the dig has revealed the first fort was a cluster of buildings packed within a palisade and the second fort was more spacious and had a long building very similar to Fort Western in Augusta, he said.
“There’s all kinds of research questions associated with both the fort and the Parks family that we’re able to address,” Smith said. “The other thing that we’re trying to do is create a whole context, a historic context for the fort.”
With historical documentation, knowledge of the English, French, and Native American people, and the new artifacts and information uncovered in the dig, “basically you’re bringing together all the possible sources of information and putting it together to kind of create a story of what life was like at that time,” Smith said.
Once the dig is complete, MHPC will create a technical report about the dig and will give public lectures and presentations about the findings, Smith said. There are plans to have some form of an exhibit at Fort Western where artifacts uncovered will be displayed, and very likely an exhibit at the Maine State Museum, Smith said.
There will also be signage installed in the small park on the southern side of Route 197 which will have some maps and information about the site and what has been found archaeologically, Smith said.
The current deadline to complete the dig is the end of June, Smith said.
Construction on the new, high-level, fixed bridge could start as early as mid-June and the current swing bridge will remain open to traffic, according to Talbot.
The new bridge is expected to open by July 2, 2015. The existing bridge will be removed by Dec. 31, 2015, Talbot wrote in an email May 20.
The current bridge, which was built in 1930-31, has already been rehabilitated twice and has “very little remaining service life,” according to Talbot. “The new bridge will have lower maintenance and operation costs.”
