By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – The scene was a leap back to 18th Century Niles.
Three British soldiers protected the entrance with muskets and a small cannon. A few yards further down the trail in a white tent a young boy handcrafted dolls from cattails. To his right, a man played his fiddle next to a smoldering campfire. Across the way, a French voyageur laid out furs, blankets and other goods for trade next to his canoe.
Friday morning was the conclusion of the 2006 archeological dig on Fort St. Joseph in Niles. The first of two public days was held starting at 10 a.m. The site is also open today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Dozens of curious, camera-toting people wandered the dig site and camping area and conversed with re-enactors dressed in 18th century French frontier clothing.
Professor of anthropology at Western Michigan University, Dr. Michael Nassaney heads the project.
"If we can get this type of interest every year, we can do it for a long time," Nassaney said, referring to the large crowd gathered for the tour of the dig site.
Nassaney first investigated the Fort St. Joseph site along Bond Street in 1998. He has returned every two years since then.
This year's team of anthropology students arrived in Niles about a month ago. The work began with drying the out the site that is usually about ankle-deep in water.
"We're literally excavating beneath the elevation of the river," Nassaney said.
A donation by the Dr. Joseph Peyser family made possible the use for another year of the large dewatering system. Peyser discovered the exact location of Fort St. Joseph.
While at the National Archives of France he found a 17th Century map that showed the location of the fort to be on the east bank of the St. Joseph River. Prior to his discovery, many people believed the fort rested on the river's west shores.
Since arriving in July, Nassaney's crew has unearthed religious, clothing and construction artifacts, a third stone hearth fireplace and an area containing animal bones and other discarded materials.
Nassaney's team had previously found two fireplace areas. A third area oxidized by fire and mixed with ash was located during the 2006 dig.
Surrounding the fireplace were an array of 18th Century artifacts, including a metal Jesus, which was most likely part of a crucifix necklace.
Other items found in the same area were hand-wrought nails and gunflints, all of which Nassaney said were made by a blacksmith.
"None of the nails we find here are machine cut," Nassaney said.
Other people Nassaney said lived in the area of Fort St. Joseph were an interpreter, a priest, fur traders and military men.
Next to the crudely fashioned construction tools in another carefully dug rectangular-shaped hole, WMU anthropology students discovered glass-inlaid cufflinks and also rings.
"We're on the frontier of the empire of New France," Nassaney said, pointing out the contrast between hunting for food and staying fashionable at the same time.
Nassaney described the groups that lived in and around Fort St. Joseph as a new culture. French and Native Americans lived, ate, played and worked alongside one another and even married, he said.
Native American game pieces and a smudge pit with carbonized corncobs to smoke and tan hides were found next to French religious medallions and the handmade nails, Nassaney said. And, each group also depended on one another for survival, he added.
"There is a 'creolization' that's taking place on the frontier here," he said.
Nassaney said only about 3 percent of the Fort St. Joseph site has been excavated by the WMU team. The "public archeology" could take decades, he added.
In the future, Nassaney said the site could be established as a teaching center for anthropology students, an interactive learning center for the public with even the possibility of rebuilding a replica of Fort St. Joseph.
The City of Niles is prepared to support the project through its duration, as well.
"As a city, we are committed to this undertaking," said Niles Mayor Michael McCauslin. "This is something we must fulfill as this is our history."
The history of Fort St. Joseph is kept alive year-round by Support the Fort. The Niles organization is again hosting a session of Education Days, when members of Support the Fort dress in period attire and teach about living along the St. Joseph River in the 1700s.
The 2006 Education Days are Sept. 29 and 30 at Riverfront Park near the dam along dirt Bond Street.