Foreword
In the spring of 1974 when the directors of the Beaver Area Heritage Foundation and the Beaver Memorial Library joined forces in planning a combined historical park and a museum at the site of Fort McIntosh (1778-1788) as a Bicentennial project, they set in motion a train of events that was to result in one of the most important archaeological and historical finds in the history of Western Pennsylvania.
A part of the proposed plan was to include a stone tracery of that portion of the fort still lying within the park limits; historical architects, Charles M. Stotz and James K. Hess requested that the actual outlines be pinpointed exactly. This began an archaeological exploration that was to take five years, instead of the six or seven weeks originally contemplated, and the documentary research extended beyond the libraries of the United States to those in Scotland, Canada, France, and England.
Mr. Robert Bonnage, a dedicated field-trained archaeologist from Beaver Falls, PA with fifteen years of prior experience in excavations of prehistoric sites, led the exploration. He was to spend not only every Sunday, spring, summer, and fall for the next four years at the site, but night after night in identifying and cataloging the thousands of artifacts which were retrieved.
Six members of the team he recruited were to stay with the project until it was halted in 1978. In all some twenty local workers took part in the dig, but the six who stayed with it were Ed Lackner, his son Bill, Bernard Catalucci, Dick Carland, David Hilliard and Bob Stone, along with this author. Peter Hahn put in five years before leaving for college. In addition to these, a team of Pitt students led by Ronald Carlisle worked thirty-one consecutive full-time days in late April and May of 1975.
In 1975 the search came under the overview of the Department of Man of the Carnegie Museum, with Gerald Lang replacing Carlisle as associate director after the Pitt students returned to classes. Dr. Donald Dragoo, Dr. Stanley Lantz, and Dr. James Swauger of the Museum provided consultative support, as did Ivor Noel Hume, Director of Archaeology at Colonial Williamsburg, and Jacob Grimm, Curator of the Fort Ligonier Museum. Invaluable assistance in historical research was given by Edward G. Williams; Col. John B. B. Trussell of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Col. Albert S. Britt Jr. of Savannah; William E. Meuse, Curator of the Springfield Arsenal; Dr. James Gidney of Kent State University; Dr. Hugh Rankin of Tulane University; Mrs. Helen Wilson of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania; Mrs. Lilla Mills Hawes, Director of the Georgia Historical Society; Mrs. John D. Lane of Clemson, S.C.; Ronald Carlisle, Editor, Cultural Resource Management Program, University of Pittsburgh; and of course, the historical architect, James K. Hess. Col. Max A. Janairo, then Chief of Army Engineers, Pittsburgh District, made an invaluable contribution in reconstructing the profile of the Ohio River as it was in 1778.