Vt. bridge project yields archeological prize

CORNWALL, Vt. -- The replacement of a concrete bridge on a winding road through farm land has yielded a fascinating find. Archeologists are unearthing spear points and remnants of fire pits showing Indian populations used the river plains for at least the last 6,000 years.

"This is a multicomponent Native American site. It means people came back here over thousands of years," said Michael Brigham, an archeologist with the University of Maine at Farmington, which won the contract to excavate the site.

The discovery is delaying the project, but could help preserve the past.

Scanning what's now farmland, it's hard to understand why the flat stretches along the Lemon Fair River, a tributary of Otter Creek, would have been favorable for early Americans.

Archeologists have long known that Otter Creek was a popular site.

"It so happens that the Otter Creek was very adaptable for early people, for people to live on," said Duncan Wilkie, an archeologist with the Vermont Agency of Transportation. "It has a lot of resources."

Swampy areas yielded filters to clean water and bird and animal life, he said.

"If that's your food source you're going to be happy. You're not going to be on top of Mt. Mansfield looking for it," he said.

Although scientists are unsure of what drew people to the Lemon Fair River, Brigham said they probably settled there seasonally.

Once cleaned, analyzed and dated, the artifacts, fragments of burned rock and plant material, charcoal and stone tools, will offer hints to how people lived and what they hunted and cooked.

But that doesn't satisfy some in town frustrated by the delay and the cost to taxpayers.

"There's been talk of replacing the bridge since I've been in government, since the 1980s," said Selectboard Chairman Roth Tall.

"It's like a sore ankle. You bring it up and you don't talk about it anymore," he said of the bridge, noting that it's structurally sound.

The site encompasses a far larger area than will be affected by the road construction. But archeologists are focusing on the zone in the path of the bridge replacement and road realignment and removing any artifacts in the way.

Wilkie expects the bridge to be replaced in 2009.

The university has been awarded a $600,000 contract to finish the archeological work, on top of $100,000 for the initial excavations, Wilkie said. The federal government picks up 80 percent of the cost.