Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
Look at the ground under your feet and think about what lies beneath it. There could be artifacts from centuries ago just waiting to be discovered.
At the farm of Bob and Elaine Sheets, in Green Bank, one particular hay field hid the site of a pre-Revolutionary War fort – Fort Warwick.
Digs began in 2008 with University of Kentucky archaeologists Ste-phen McBride and Kim Arbogast McBride. Since then, the McBrides and Sheets have been joined by archaeology students, as well as Pocahontas County students who have helped excavate and search for artifacts on the site.
Since 2008, Fort Warwick has welcomed Pocahontas County middle and high school students to participate in archaeological digs at the site.
In the past 15 years, there have been multiple digs and a large portion of the Fort Warwick foundation has been unveiled. A large array of artifacts – including a glass intaglio of King George III – have been unearthed and now reside in the Fort Warwick Museum on the site.
The site will come alive once again in June 2024 for the 250th anniversary celebration of the fort and its history.
“This will sort of be an interesting period that we’re going to have an anniversary of because this 250 anniversary – all the re-enactors and folks who will be here are loyalists,” Bob said. “They are at that point, serving King George III, and then two years later, 1776, things change and that points at the historical significance of the political arena that was playing out at that particular time.”
The fort was built in 1774 as a militia fort and, by 1776, it became one of the first settlements of the newly freed American colonies. Bob said they have discovered that several of the people who lived at the fort went through the transition from being loyalists to colonists.
“Captain George Matthews who was here rose to the rank of general in the Revolutionary Army, so we’ve got a long – and I consider it to be – pretty illustrious history, which we’re able to share with folks and hopefully, we’ll uncover more artifacts that will add to the narrative that we’ve already developed,” he said.
The two-day event will include a glimpse at many aspects of life in the area during the time period. Re-enactors will bring to life the day-to-day activities of those who lived at the fort, as well as the Native Americans who interacted with the settlers.
“We will have an individual by the name of Doug Wood who does interpretations all over the state,” Bob said. “He is going to be doing his Shawnee interpretation on-site, and he will have a campsite set up in their traditional style. Doug will speak very authoritatively about the Shaw-nee’s presence in this area, their travel, their traditions and such.
“Juxtaposed with the re-enactors we’ll have on-site, it should give a good pictorial, so to speak, of the history of what was happening,” he added.
Tim Duff, of Fair Lawn Farms in Monterey, Virginia, will have his musketry collection on hand and will demonstrate the tools used to make muzzleloaders and the ammunition the settlers used.
Joining the re-enactors will be several artisans who create artwork and crafts that were common 250 years ago. Vivian Blackwood and Philippe Willis, who are both artists, will be on-site with their 19th-century inspired art.
“Vivian noted that when archaeology was done prior to photography, archaeologists used line drawings and, of course, being the artist that she is, she is going to do some line drawings of not only the features on-site, but just like early archaeologists did, she is going to do some line drawings of some of the artifacts that we have excavated.”
Because you can’t have a celebration without music, Juanita Fireball and the Continental Drifters will be performing old-time music to add to the atmosphere.
“It’s more than appropriate because one of the artifacts we have excavated is a mouth harp and that was something that was easily transported,” Bob said. “Dr. McBride said it shows up on a lot of sites. They, just like us today, were interested in music. It just wasn’t readily available on some Apple device.”
A meal will be served both days which, of course, will harken back to the types of foods the settlers would have had.
The lunch, prepared by Mountain State Cakes, will be an interpretation of a meal described in David McCullough’s non-fiction book, The Pioneers.
“He describes a diary entry from a doctor who was over in St. Mary’s on the Ohio River,” Bob said. “He had gone into the Virginia backcountry to treat a family from the backwoods of Virginia, and he had a meal with them. It was cooked in a black crockpot so to speak, and it was a stew which they then dumped out and dumped in bread dough and baked it in that same pot. Then they scraped out that bread and poured in spring water and maple syrup.
“So literally, it’s a one pot meal,” he added.
While Mountain State Cakes won’t cook the meal exactly as described, it will be a lunch of stew, bread and maple syrup flavored water. Of course, the maple syrup will be from the Fort Warwick sugar shack which is between the fort and the Sheets’ home.
Maple syrup production was one of the many skills taught to the settlers by the Native Americans, and Fort Warwick has continued the tradition and uses the same process that has been around for centuries.
While the re-enactors and music bring to life a time gone by, visitors can also literally dig up some of the history at the fort during the two-day event.
The McBrides will be on-site to lead an archaeological dig at the fort in hopes of finding even more artifacts from the time of the settlers and militiamen.
“Archaeology reveals things that have been buried, and you can hopefully put together a narrative – and I think we can put together a narrative about who these people were,” Bob said. “One of the things that jumps at me all the time is the fact that the folks here had cufflinks and they were wearing shoes with buckles and trousers with knee buckles and the hose that go with those for the men. They had tea sets.
“The economic level was not what you would associate with a pioneer with buckskin and coonskin hat,” he continued. “It was a different thing and that’s what has been one of the most revealing things for me about the archaeology and what we have found.”
The 250-year anniversary celebration at Fort Warwick will be held June 22-23, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.
Fort Warwick is located at 450 Fort Warwick Passage in Green Bank, 2.5 miles from the Green Bank Observatory.
Sponsors of the event are Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area, Pocahontas County Dramas, Fairs and Festivals, Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Durbin Lions Club, Pocahontas County Historical Landmarks Commission, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park and Summers County Historical Landmarks Commission.
For more information on Fort Warwick and its rich history, visit fortwarwick.com
Keeping the tradition of making maple syrup alive, Bob Sheets and his family use the old fashioned method of using buckets and spouts on the maple trees around Fort Warwick, for which the syrup is named.
