PHOTO STORY: Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Open House draws hundreds

Published 1:39 pm Monday, August 5, 2024

By Max Harden

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NILES — A local archaeological project offered visitors a chance to travel back in time to learn how the “City of Four Flags” came to be.

The Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Open House was hosted over the weekend at the site of Fort St. Joseph, an 18th-century trading post, mission, and garrison located on the St. Joseph River in Niles. The project is a collaboration between Western Michigan University Archaeological Field School and the City of Niles, with support from the greater community. 

“A lot of the local community has come out. Returning visitors have also come,” said Fort St. Joseph Field Director Dr. Erika Hartley. “It’s fun to see everyone wearing their Fort St. Joseph T-shirts.”

From its founding in 1691 until its abandonment in 1781, the Fort was controlled by three European countries: France, Britain, Spain, and was also occupied by several Native American groups, including the Potawatomi. That distinction is why Niles is known as the “City of Four Flags.”

For more than twenty-five years, WMU archaeology staff and students have worked to reveal the history of Niles’ Fort St. Joseph. More than 300 visitors came out to see the site.

“People think that with archeology, you have to travel far away for it and you don’t – it’s everywhere,” she said. “You can do archeology wherever people are living. It tells us about the past, our human history. It’s really nice to be able to do that locally and have people learn and connect. This is my history, this is what I’ve learned. Now I can also go to this archaeological site and they can show me directly where some of the evidence for that knowledge is coming from.”

Guests were invited to tour the excavation area where display tables of artifacts were provided. Sarett Nature Center offered rides on a 30-foot replica voyageur canoe along the St. Joseph River. 

In addition to touring the site, guests were able to engage Fort St. Joseph re-enactors who portrayed “people of the post” and offer fun activities and demonstrations. Attendance and all of the Open House activities were free though donations were accepted to support the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project. Sponsors included Support the Fort, Inc., the City of Niles, and Western Michigan University.

The dig season was an eventful one for students and staff. A trailer storing archaeological equipment was stolen from the site in June. Thanks to the generous equipment donations from the Niles community and beyond, the students and staff were able to resume digging in short order.

“There were so many people that were like ‘what do you need,’ ‘where do I send them to you,’ ‘I have this extra shovel,’ ‘I have the kitty litter buckets,’” Hartley said. “It was amazing – I don’t even know how to explain it any better than the fact that people saw that we were in need. They knew how important our product is and what it can offer to both the public and the broader community.”

When the fort site was flooded, the team was able to transition to learning about the curation of artifacts.

“We were able to look at the old collections and show students the importance of curation and how you can do collection-based research,” Hartley said. “We showed them how to take core samples and the importance of trying different strategies, depending on what the weather is, to really get out your research questions. It was a nice addition – unexpected, but nice.”

According to Hartley, the theme of this year’s archaeology season is “Connections – Exploring Early France and New France.”

“What we’re hoping to do is just highlight those connections and how we can learn something from the people of the past and how we can connect it to today and the history that’s happening in both places. It’s a really nice way to demonstrate how vast the trade networks were.”

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