Cruson To Lecture On The Archaeology Of Putnam Park

RIDGEFIELD — On Thursday, April 8, at 7 pm, the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Connecticut Archaeology Center, in collaboration with Ridgefield Public Library and Ridgefield Open Space Association, will offer a free lecture.

Dan Cruson will present “The Archaeology of Putnam Park.” The lecture will take place in the library’s Dayton Program Room, 472 Main Street (Route 35), and is recommended for older children and adults.

Mr Cruson, who lives in Newtown and is the town’s historian, is also a teacher and president of The Archaeological Society of Connecticut

In 1998 Mr Cruson led a team of volunteers that included students from the Joel Barlow High School anthropology classes and members of The Friends and Neighbors of Putnam Park in a study of relatively undisturbed areas in Putnam Memorial State Park in Redding.

Putnam Park commemorates the Continental Army encampment of Major-General Israel Putnam during the winter of 1778-79.  General Putnam was second in command to George Washington and known for saying “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”

Before the reopening of Putnam Park in 1998, an eyewitness account of the encampment was found in a Pennsylvania archive. The account contained a detailed description of the encampment and the nature of the huts that were built and lived in during that harsh winter.

The site of the encampment was in an area of the park that had escaped the landscaping found throughout most of the park. Plans were drawn up to investigate this undisturbed archaeological site, and permission for excavation was granted by the DEP and park officials.

During the fall of 1998, an excavations team uncovered the remains of one of the huts and confirmed the eyewitness report found in Pennsylvania. Further excavations gave some surprising new insights into the layout of the camp and the lifestyles of the soldiers living there.

Mr Cruson is on the faculty of Joel Barlow High School where he teaches courses in anthropology and local history. He has done extensive research into the history of the towns of central Fairfield County and conducted several archaeological investigations in these towns.

He has published several books including The Prehistory of Fairfield County, Newtown’s Slaves: A Case Study in Early Connecticut Rural Black History, and most recently Newtown in the Images of America series.

For information visit www.RidgefieldLibrary.org or call 203-438-2282.