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CommunityHistory’s treasures unearthed
Archeological project in Port Tobacco brings to light Colonial past
Friday, Sept. 28, 2007
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photos by Gary Smith
Peter Quantock, left, and Scott Lawrence, Archeological Society of Maryland volunteers, sift for artifacts during a dig near the Port Tobacco Courthouse on Saturday. Scientists are excited about the richness of Port Tobacco history.
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Gibb, who owns Gibb Archaeological Consulting in Annapolis, is spending a lot of his free time digging for Colonial artifacts as part of an archeological survey being done for the Port Tobacco historic district — a 30-square-mile area surrounding the Port Tobacco River.
What has been unearthed so far could make the archeological project as important as similar digs at St. Mary’s City, said Gibb, who volunteers on the weekends to dig for artifacts at the site near the Port Tobacco Courthouse on Chapel Point Road.
The project, funded by a $9,270 Maryland Historical Trust grant, is sponsored by the Archeological Society of Maryland and the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco.
So far, a handful of volunteers have unearthed six cubic feet of artifacts from about three acres of land — about 250 shallow holes — at the site, Gibb said.
‘‘There’s an incredible amount of stuff,” he said. ‘‘Who knows what amazing things will come out of the ground? That’s what makes this really exciting. You never know what you’re going to hit.”
So far, the dig has uncovered four sites dating to the 1700s and a blacksmith’s shop from the 1800s, Gibb said.
Ceramics, prehistoric Native American artifacts, bricks, nails, a wine bottle, fine table and window glass and bones and fish scales from long-ago meals eaten by early settlers have been unearthed so far, Gibb said.
‘‘This is going to produce an enormous amount of material from a long-occupied town,” he said, adding there is definitely evidence that the silting in of the Port Tobacco River caused the town to decline in the late 1800s.
‘‘We’re looking at the emergence of a town during the late 1600s; we’re going to see the rise and fall of an important port town,” he said. ‘‘We also know that the people knew the river was silting in and because of that the town could lose its reason for being. ... This is an interesting exploration of environmental degradation and the town’s response to it.”
Port Tobacco served as the county seat until the late 1800s, when the seat was moved to La Plata following a fire that destroyed the courthouse.
Gibb said he expects to uncover more prehistoric Native American artifacts, including wooden stockade fences and wigwams, as the excavation moves closer to the river.
April Beisaw, adjunct research associate at Binghamton University in New York, is working as Gibb’s director of research for the Port Tobacco project — an exciting endeavor Beisaw said she is grateful to be a part of.
‘‘It’s a very rich area; there are hundreds of years of occupation at the site,” she said. ‘‘There’s a lot of material that’s been plowed under the fields and around the remains of buildings.”
Beisaw said she hopes the results of the survey will ensure that the excavation project goes on for years so archeology students can learn about history at the site.
‘‘It has a lot of potential,” she said. ‘‘I hope to bring students to do research for years to come at the site. It’s a great place to learn archeology.”
During its heyday, Port Tobacco was certainly a bustling port town, said Cathy Hardy, historical planner for the Charles County Department of Planning and Growth Management. The village square still holds three prime examples of 18th-century architecture — Catslide (Burch) House, Stagg Hall and Chimney House.
Gibb became aware of the wealth of artifacts buried in the area while doing an archeological survey around Catslide House to make way for a major restoration of the structure, said Jay Lilly, president of the Society for the Restoration of Port Tobacco.
‘‘I wasn’t totally surprised; I knew that there was a wealth of artifacts in the area,” he said. ‘‘Until the 19th century it was the hub of government for Charles County.”
During the early history of the county, Port Tobacco boasted three hotels, dozens of homes, a blacksmith’s shop, carriage-making shop, two newspapers and countless other enterprises, Hardy said.
Hardy and Lilly hope the archeological project will be a great draw to Port Tobacco during Charles County’s 350th anniversary celebration next year.
‘‘We’re really hoping that this project will get everyone excited about Port Tobacco and its potential,” Hardy said. ‘‘We want people to look at the town as a destination. There’s such an important story to be told here. Right now, we’re just scratching the surface.”
‘‘This is just in time for the county’s 350th anniversary; it’s a great opportunity,” Lilly said. ‘‘We have a lot of new folks in our community who probably don’t know the history of the county.”
It would not be surprising if Port Tobacco’s archeological project ends up rivaling the St. Mary’s City excavation, Hardy said.
‘‘The archeological material here is on par with other Colonial sites in Maryland,” she said. ‘‘It’s relatively undisturbed. It’s a very significant site. We’ve got a lot to learn.
‘‘Jim [Gibb] and April [Beisaw] are really doing a fantastic job bringing such professional expertise to this project,” she said. ‘‘We’re very fortunate to have them.”
The Archeological Society of Maryland is donating volunteer labor and expertise to the project, said John Fiveash, the society’s president.
‘‘Port Tobacco was a very, very busy place with a lot of trade and crossroads going through it,” said Fiveash, an amateur archeologist. ‘‘It has the potential of St. Mary’s City. It’s a very, very rich environment, and there’s a lot of information about it to create something like St. Mary’s City.”
Port Tobacco is the first of what Fiveash said he hopes will be several such archeological projects in Maryland.
There is grant money to continue funding the Port Tobacco project through next year, Fiveash said, adding Charles County should consider installing interpretive exhibits in the town for the county’s 350th anniversary celebration.
The next phase of the project would be to establish larger excavation sites in the area, Fiveash said, adding that typically dozens of volunteers descend on a site and spend 11 days excavating for artifacts.
These types of projects need a lot of volunteer labor and financial donations to keep them going, Fiveash said.
‘‘I would really like to encourage people to get involved,” he said. ‘‘A large percentage of these projects is done by amateurs who are members of a society just like this. Someone who wants to get involved and spend some time with it can do everything that a professional archeologist does.”
The Maryland Historical Trust fully backs the Port Tobacco project — an endeavor that will hopefully take root for many years, said Charles Hall, MHT’s archeologist for land resources.
‘‘We expect that there’s a good bit of history lying just below the grass at the site,” he said. ‘‘We would like to fill in some of the gaps in the historical knowledge and bring that history to the present. There was a blacksmith shop, homes and streets. It was all there. We can’t see it now, but archeologists have the ability to bring it to the present.”
Local history enthusiasts will provide the magic to bring Colonial Port Tobacco back to life, Hall said.
‘‘Ultimately, it’s up to the folks in Charles County to see Port Tobacco’s future realized,” he said. ‘‘Archeology requires great willpower and a lot of people with shovels doing hours of work.
‘‘Right now it’s all just an exciting possibility, but how it will develop in the future will be up to the people of Charles County,” Hall said. ‘‘I hope that they get very excited about the project. I’m not saying that it could be Jamestown or St. Mary’s City — but, maybe. There’s a lot there.”
E-mail Nancy Bromley McConaty at nmcconaty@somdnews.com.
