LAKE GEORGE, NEW YORK—The AP reports that a team led by Plymouth State University archaeologist David Starbuck is digging at Lake George Battlefield Park, a stretch of ground south of Lake George that saw significant military action during the eighteenth century, particularly during the French and Indian War (1755-63). In 1755, Colonial troops and their Mohawk allies fought a battle there against French detachments, successfully fending off an ambush and subsequent attack. In 1757, British and Colonial troops camped at the site during the French siege of the nearby Fort William Henry. After the surrender of the fort to the French, the colonial forces began a retreat from the camp, but were ambushed by Indians, who killed some 200. The infamous massacre inspired James Fenimore Cooper to write the "The Last of the Mohicans." Starbuck hopes to find evidence related to both the 1755 battle and the camp associated with the massacre. So far, the team has uncovered mainly fragments of eighteenth-century wine bottles.
