Long-lost homestead possibly found..

DoctorWhy

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Oct 26, 2016
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Island in Penobscot Bay, Maine
Yesterday was most likely the last hunt for the season. The ground has 6" to 9" of frost -- too tough for digging. The weather for the next week is forecast to have about 2' of snowfall.

For several months, I have been trying to locate a long-forgotton homestead on a 12 acre, uninhabited island connected by a sandbar to the much larger Maine island where I live. The homestead consisting of two buildings were shown on an 1770's hand-drawn map by the British map-maker Des Barre. On subsequent maps, there is no evidence of the homestead. Combining data from that map, an 1881 USCGS map, a 1983 USGS map and many years of Google Earth imagery, I thought I found the site. Clues were a prominent height of land on the center of the island with the terminal end of an overgrown cart path. Searched the area several times, despite a maze of tangled dense blowdown. Found nothing at this site -- not even 'iron' signals. Near the end of the day's vist to the island, I decided to bushwack the perimeter of the island just inland of the shoreline. Almost 3/4 the way around the island without a 'peep' from the metal detector, suddenly sparse 'iron' signals started to occur. In the midst of those signals, I had two 'high tone' signals about 3' apart. Fortunately, there was only about 3" of frost in the ground and I was able to dig without too much effort. I was rewarded with these two artifacts: a 'rat tail' pewter spoon and fragments of a small brass shoe buckle! Searching the nearby area, I found what looked like a small cellar hole, but no significant signals. A GPS waypoint was recorded for the site. It is on the 'wrong side' of the island and almost at the water's edge -- not consistant with the site locaton on the 1770's map, not at the height of land, and several hundred feet from the end of the old cart road. Perhaps an earlier site?

With 2' of snow forecast for the coming week, I doubt I'll be back there until late March. Glad I recorded a GPS waypoint!

Meanwhile, can anyone suggest an age for these artifacts? I am sure that they are pre-1770, but possibly how much earlier?

Happy hunting,
--Bert
 

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I don’t know the age of the relics but I can tell you from doing the same thing you are doing that the island on the map and the waters edge mean nothing. Shore lines and islands change so much you wouldn’t believe it. Where I live the shore of the river swings wildly sometimes more than 100 yards over the past century.
 
I was thinking the same about the shore line changing thus making it harder to locate an old site.

Great job on the research and searching which brought out a couple of great finds.

From the size and shape of the shoe buckle it seems to be 1690-1720 style.
The 1720-1790 style is larger with straighter sides and sharper (square) corners. BUT, even within eras styles can vary so very hard to pin down dates.

Check this reference.
http://www.ukdfd.co.uk/ceejays_site/pages/buckletitlepage.htm
 
I would also point out that it was a hand drawn map. So may be the person who drew it just put the house site as an approximation and not where it was actually located.

Is the island fairly big or small? If it was small, I think it would be an approximation but if it was large then the drawing should show the site closer to where it is located.

Ray
 
I was thinking the same about the shore line changing thus making it harder to locate an old site.

Great job on the research and searching which brought out a couple of great finds.

From the size and shape of the shoe buckle it seems to be 1690-1720 style.
The 1720-1790 style is larger with straighter sides and sharper (square) corners. BUT, even within eras styles can vary so very hard to pin down dates.

Check this reference.
http://www.ukdfd.co.uk/ceejays_site/pages/buckletitlepage.htm

Thank you for the link to a wonderful resource. I agree with your assessment that the buckle matches the 1690-1720 size and style.

The island is only 12 acres and is a 'typical' Maine island consisting primarily of granite bedrock or "ledge with mineral and organic soil overburden'. While I would agree that shorelines change over time, I suspect that with the granite underpinnings of this island and its granite ledge shoreline, there is probably little change over the last 200-300 years -- even accounting for any sea level rise.

The accuracy of a hand-drawn map is always in question, however, I have located several other local contemporary cellar holes and homesteads using that 1700's map, and they were fairly accurately positioned.

Given the location of these artifacts and possible cellar hole, I am suspecting that this may have been a 'starter cabin' preceding the construction of a more permanent (yet to be found) homestead on the nearby height of land. Looking forward to more field exploration in the spring.

Best,
--Bert
 
Ok, granite underpinning would probably keep the island in place.

I'm looking forward to your posting more finds this spring.
 
Thought I'd post a sequence of maps and my reasoning to the potential location of the homestead shown on the 1776 map. (If anyone is interested in this level of detail.) This property is held in our local land trust and I hope to bring this information to them in order to encourage a more detailed exploration of what might be a pre-Colonial site by the historical and archeological experts of our local Historical Society.

On all the maps in the sequence, the arrows with "A" and "B" indicate specific coastal features that are common, albeit a bit differently represented on the maps. The three maps are of identical scale. The GoogleEarth image is not.

The 1776 map shows two black rectangles (buildings) located between the A and B features and on the north slope of the representation of a mountain. The 1881 map shows the west half of the island has been cleared for pasture or agriculture.

The 1983 map shows a woods road terminating at the height of land on the island. That is approximately where I expect the homestead shown on the 1776 map to be located and indicated by the (*). The (x) a couple hundred feet to the south of the woods road shows the location of the found artifacts and what appears to be a shallow, rectangular but un-lined cellar hole surrounded by a berm. My suspicion is that this site is not the homestead found on the 1776 map, but perhaps an earlier 'starter cabin'...

The 2014 GoogleEarth image (captured near low-tide) shows the rocky outline of the island. The GPS waypoint (*) indicates the position of the found artifacts and cellar hole. The island is approximately 12 acres and longest N-S dimension is about 700 feet and longest E-W dimension is approximately 1200 feet -- not very big, but the blow-down is very thick makes navigation difficult and obscures lots of the ground features.

So, anyways, my excuse for all this work is that Maine winter evenings are long and dark...

Best,
--Bert
 

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This is all very interesting. Please keep us updated on any developments on your quest. Too bad about the blowdown, sure hampers a person’s ability to search.
 
nice research and finds. This is what is all about!
 
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