Next week I'm headed to an island in the Hudson River that was inhabited by Native Americans as early as the 1600s followed by the Dutch in the 1700s and 1800s. There were settlements as well as a couple very large ice houses. Over the years as the Hudson was dredged, all evidence of human activity was buried under tons of silt. Does anyone have any experience digging in areas like this? The historical texts I have read about the area lament the fact that no artifacts can be found. But I wonder if there are areas like the immediate shoreline where one might have a better shot at finding a few things?
Dredging and Digging
- Thread starter jk666
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Harry Pristis
Well-Known Member
You may have more luck with scuba gear. Look along the banks of the island deep enough to be below the area affected by river ice. Search all the way to the bottom. Look for depressions where artifacts like bottles accumulate. Let us know what you find.
RCO
Well-Known Member
I doubt nothing can be found relating to human activity , if the area was as busy a place as mentioned . its likely the easy to find items are long gone or buried under the sand but is likely still some items out there somewhere . did you have a metal detector or any ways to determine what was there buried underground ?
I have a metal detector. As I understand it there were initially three separate islands and dredging filled in the gaps to create one large peninsula. The land is largely undeveloped except for a handful of State Park buildings. I don't think digging on the island itself would be wise, but I will look on the shoreline and poke around a little.
new York city was notorious for using garbage and ashes to enlarge islands or fill in connecting estuary's. . I have dug in dredging's . the best was stuff from the embarcadero. San Francisco was putting in a building two blocks from the bay. in 1849. that was the bay. it was wall filled in 160 years ago. we followed the dump trucks to the dump site. behind candle stick park . we then would go in there at night , and dig till the sun come up. it was a great dig to . got my first and only crystal plaice soda. yeah , go check it out.
CreekWalker
Well-Known Member
Historical study , and pinpointing definite areas, then probing the site, after metal detecting and sampling nearby surface finds, as a start, keep notes. I have the same dilemma , here at the Mississippi river and , have to deal with , deep water, and 10 to 30 feet of fill, silt and sand. I check tributaries mouths and probe shorelines and sandbars. It's tedious, and not productive, but as luck would have it, I score good items on occasion. Good luck to you.
The was limited access to the shoreline from land, maybe next time I'll get a kayak and poke around more. There was one side trail recently cut in that took you to the bank where a lot of flotsam had washed up, most of it plastic and Styrofoam. I did find one screw top hourglass shaped amber bottle with embossed asterisk type stars on the top half. It's not old, but I'm curious what it held, I'll post a picture later.
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