18th-Century Fort Excavated in Maine

WINDHAM, MAINE—Archaeologists from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission have uncovered remains of Province Fort, a wooden structure built on a hilltop near the center of the colonial-era frontier English settlement of New Marblehead, according to a report in The Portland Press Herald. The fort, which had was covered by modern roads, was constructed to protect about 60 settlers from Massachusetts who lived along the Presumpscot River in the mid-eighteenth century, during a period of tension between English colonists and Native Americans, who were French allies. Surrounded by a palisade of posts, the fort is thought to have been 50 feet by 50 feet, though it may have been larger in order to accommodate all of New Marblehead’s residents. Inside the fort’s walls, the excavators have found traces of building and chimney foundations but only a few artifacts, such as pottery fragments and gun flints. A bed of stones may have been covered by a wooden boardwalk to provide mud-free passage. In 1782, the fort was sold and dismantled, and the scant remains provide only clues as to its original layout. "It becomes really complicated," said archaeologist John Mosher. “But it's a fun puzzle. Every day we seem to generate more questions than answers.” To read about earlier forts on Maine's south-central coast, go to "Off the Grid: Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site."