Residents Meet Their Colonial Neighbors

On a Saturday afternoon when many teens were hanging out at the mall, 16-year-old Katie Ingebretsen unearthed several porcelain shards at the site of Colonial Colchester in Lorton.

Katie was one of many volunteers working alongside staff archeologists at yesterday's Colchester Archeological Research Team open house. C.A.R.T. is excavating what once was a vital port town on Mason Neck, and will soon become Colchester Park and Preserve.   

C.A.R.T. Prehistoric Field Director Kathleen Lowe explained that Fairfax County purchased the 135 acres along the Occoquan River in 2007,  just as it was about to become a housing subdivision. Fairfax County's Park Authority funded $480,000 for the Colchester Archeological Research Team. Five full-time staff with the volunteer help of the Northern Virginia Chapter of the Archeological Society of Virginia, the Friends of Fairfax Archaeology and Cultural Resources (FOFA) and interested citizens, will spend two years studying the site. This will be followed by public forums to plan the future of the park and preserve. 

"Volunteers and public involvement are crucial in the entire process in order to promote stewardship of the land's cultural and natural resources," said Lowe.  Anyone interested in volunteering may visit the group's blog Close Encounters of the Colchester Kind or email CART.volunteers@gmail.com.

Staff archeologist Elizabeth Paynter, excavating what may be the foundation of a Colonial building, said that volunteers multiply the manpower of the project.  "Volunteers can choose what they would like to do, and we train them," she said.  Jobs range from digging to washing artifacts in the lab, to inputting information into the site's database. "We teach the basics of archeology and what we do," she said.  For those interested in more, there is a training certification program.

Standing alongside what may be an old well, staff archeologists Stefan Woehlke and Alisa Pettitt explained the historic and prehistoric significance of the land.  "Based on the number of features were indentified since we started in October, we're  hoping to find very early 17th century artifacts to help confirm contact sites between John Smith and the King of the Dogues," said Woehlke.

Writings and maps by Smith indicate that he explored Mason Neck in 1608, and met with the leader of a settlement of Indians known as the Dogue or Doeg tribe.  What is now known as Mason Neck, renamed in the 18th century in honor of the largest landowner, was previously called Dogg's Island after this tribe. 

In addition, C.A.R.T. is working from a map of 17th century Colchester which indicates the use of  each town lot. "We can't be exactly sure where things are located because the Occoquan River silted in over time, and that has changed the current day dimensions of land and river compared with the historical map," said staff archeologist Megan Veness, holding an old nail at the site of a possible root cellar. 

She added that the team does know that there was a tannery and other support structures in Colchester. "The artifacts we find and land deeds we're working from help us determine what we're locating," said Veness.

The C.A.R.T. team is working across Old Colchester Road from the last remaining structure of the 17th century town, now a private residence. "The Fairfax Arms was Colchester's ordinary, and it is believed that George Washington and General Rochambeau may have visited there on their way to Yorktown for the final battle of the American Revolution,"  said Veness.

The big names of history are not the only interests of the archeologists working on the Colchester site. Christopher Sperling, C.A.R.T.'s Field Director for Historic Research, is working on a small dig further back from the road. "Archeology also contributes to knowledge about the types of people otherwise lost in the historic record," he said. 

Sperling is looking at areas where the workers of the town would have lived.  "If these people had the time to write about themselves, they did not know how to write," he said.

Sperling's main interest is in Colonial port towns, and he explained that Colchester was a 17th century hub from which Virginia planters shipped their crops of tobacco and other merchandise to England. "We want to know how this area developed historically and who was here before us," said Sperling.

As Katie continued her careful digging and sifting alongside other volunteers, her mom Karen praised the opportunity. "For anyone interested in archeology, an experience like this can really determine an entire career for you," she said. 

Next year when Katie writes her college entrance essays for a degree in Historic Preservation, she'll include a list of the items she unearthed in Colonial Colchester.