2002 SCRAP Field School The Ponds and Lakes Survey of the Great North Woods

Richard A. Boisvert
New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources 2002

The 2002 SCRAP summer field school attempted an ambitious survey in the northern part of the state. Our effort was divided between the Jefferson and Randolph region in the first session and the town of Pittsburg in the second and third sessions. This year we structured the field school as three blocks, each ten days long, with four day breaks between the sessions. This was to accommodate the Fourth of July holiday and the long distance most of us had to travel to get to the field camp in Pittsburg. The field camp for the first session was at Camp Dodge, and Appalachian Mountain Club facility south of Gorham we were comfortably housed and very well fed. We began our fieldwork with a tune-up on the Jefferson V site (27-CO-46) in the Israel River Complex. Previously identified in 2000 and expanded in 2001, we chose to return to the site in order to instruct new students on shovel test pitting techniques while simultaneously exploring the boundaries of the site. After two successful days there we moved to a site previously identified by Paul Bock on Cherry Pond (27-CO-57). Here we devoted three days of shovel test pitting to expand upon the two previously excavated pits. Nearly all the STPs were positive, producing over 700 lithics including a fragmentary quartz triangular point and a chert point tip that had been reworked into a scraper. These diagnostic items suggest that the site is Middle Woodland. Interestingly, the suite of raw materials from this site are distinctly different from the materials found at the Paleoindian sites of the Israel River Complex, located nearby in Jefferson. Work at this site was facilitated by Dave Govatsky of the NH Audubon Society, who encouraged our research at the site and Bob Spoerl, if the NH Department of Resources and Economic Development, Trails Bureau who obtained a special uses permit so we could drive to the pond and relieved us of more than two miles of daily hiking. The final five days were spent conducting survey at Pond of Safety in Randolph. The pond is part of a parcel recently acquired for inclusion in the White Mountains National Forest. Consequently we were joined by several Forest Service personnel including Karl Roenke, Forest Archeologist and Karen Mack who was brought on as a temporary employee. Karen began her career in archaeology as a student on the 1988 SCRAP field school and has now come full circle as a field school leader. The survey at Pond of Safety required significant hiking through the woods with field gear and an olfactory assault by a moose that had died the previous fall in the vicinity of our primary survey area. After a few false starts we located a small lithic scatter, thus registering the first site at Pond of Safety and the first habitation site in the state at an elevation over 2000 feet. Concurrent with our work at the prehistoric site, we also verified the location of an early 20th century camp. The second and third sessions were based out of the campground at the Lake Francis State Park campground where we were provided with our own reserved area by Sandy Young, the park supervisor. Our focus in Pittsburg was on the streams, ponds and lakes. Previous discoveries were situated near the contemporary shores of the Connecticut Lakes and we hoped to build upon those finds. We began our survey at Boundary Pond, located near the northernmost tip of the state and we were rewarded with the identification of a small lithic scatter near the shore of the pond. Only flakes were found and it was not possible to estimate the age of the site. It did, however, displace the Pond of Safety site as the highest recorded site in New Hampshire and also claimed the status of the northernmost. (This might be more significant if the prehistoric people were aware that they were in NH). This discovery was the highpoint of the Pittsburg survey in more ways than one. In the subsequent three weeks we were not able to discover any additional archaeological sites. Several very sensitive areas were tested to no avail. One part of the explanation is that severe and extensive erosion has occurred which has scoured portions of the landscape, effectively removing any sites that might have been present. One of the clear successes of the field school was the application of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology. Earlier this year the DHR acquired a Trimble GeoExplorer III GPS unit with capabilities to obtain corrections while in the field. This allows us to map to within one meter a position in the field. We field tested the unit prior to the field school and then used it to precisely map the sites and survey areas. Mark Greenly has become SCRAP's mapping master and he learned to use the system and then taught the rest of us how to use it. We now can place mapping points on topographic maps and aerial photographs with tremendous accuracy. The field school ended on July 31 and laboratory work has resumed at the Airport Road facility. We continue to carry our laboratory work, principally on Wednesday afternoons and evening and additional help is always welcome.

If you would like more information concerning SCRAP excavations , please attend the NHAS Fall Meeting to hear Richard Boisvert speak on the subject.