Taking Time Out to Search for a Coastal Area?s Past
By C. J. HUGHES
Published: April 1, 2007
Madison, CT
In the Region
Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey
WITH a river-fed harbor, flat rocks for cleaning deer hides and bull rushes to weave mats, the landscape along the Madison and Clinton border gave American Indians plenty of reasons to fish, farm and camp.
What is less clear is how much of that activity occurred on the property of the former Griswold Airport, where a developer has plans to build Madison Landing, a mix of 127 houses and condos.
It?s not known whether American Indians buried their dead on the 42-acre property, which closed to planes in January and was sold last month to the developer, LeylandAlliance, based in Tuxedo, N.Y., for $4.4 million. To find out, Leyland has hired an archaeologist, who this month, as soon as the ground softens up, will begin a 10-day dig to remove 18 inches of dirt from pits measuring 50 feet on each side, to see what turns up.
But only the discovery of human remains ? not pottery shards or spear tips ? will derail construction, which has already been approved by Madison?s planning board, said Howard Kaufman, a Leyland principal. ?This is designed to add to the body of knowledge before a site gets developed,? Mr. Kaufman said. ?It?s not the sort of thing that stops development.?
Discovering even one
grave, though, would lead to a review by the Native American Heritage Advisory Council, which is made up of representatives from the state?s five tribes. Possible solutions include relocating the remains or redesigning the site so homes will not sit on top of graves, which could require new zoning approvals, said Nicholas Bellantoni, the state?s archaeologist.
Even the discovery of 100 graves is not likely to halt the project, Mr. Bellantoni said. ?Archaeology can always be mitigated in some form,? he said. ?Still, it?s better to know now than have construction discover it.?
The developer still needs a state environmental permit before the project can go forward, to determine whether nitrogen-laden wastewater from homes on the land could harm adjacent wetlands and the Hammonasset River, where pollution has already made shellfish off limits to fishermen. The topic will be discussed in two public hearings this month.
Until now, the project?s opponents, who have battled Madison Landing since 2000, have been focused on the wastewater issue. Still, that there might be
artifacts or graves on the property reinforces their argument: The project is environmentally hazardous.
?If we prevail, Indian artifacts won?t be an issue because they will remain at peace,? said Peter Sakalowsky, a Madison resident and geography professor at Southern Connecticut State University who is a spokesman for Stop Griswold Overdevelopment.
Leyland agreed to the dig after Mr. Bellantoni sent a letter in January in which he recommended that the developer conduct ?an archaeological reconnaissance survey for the proposed development to identify and preserve significant cultural resources prior to any land-use activities.?
A state map, he said, confirms the presence of one campsite at Griswold, and the immediate vicinity seems to be rich in them, according to King?s Mark Resource Conservation and Development Area, a Wallingford consulting firm hired by Madison?s planning board that also recommended that a dig take place.
?Six prehistoric Native-American villages and campsites are located in very close proximity to the project area,? reads the 76-page report, and four are ?capable of yielding important information about the past.?
Unlike 50 other towns in Connecticut, however, Madison has no law that requires developers to modify a proposal if historic sites are discovered, so the King?s Mark recommendations basically languished, according to the developer.
Thomas Scarpati, Madison?s first selectman, did not return two calls seeking comment. In general, the Connecticut coastline, featuring a multitude of freshwater streams emptying into saltwater harbors, which are magnets for fish, is a wealth of historic sites, said Kevin McBride, an anthropology professor at the University of Connecticut and a director of research for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center.
?This was one of the most densely populated sites in Native America, so the resources are rich,? he said.
Other than inland Ledyard, where there is an existing reservation, the hottest spots in the state for archaeological ruins are found in towns like New London, Groton and Old Saybrook, whose
topography is similar to Madison, where flat land, sheltered by groves of red maple and oak trees, would in later years be ideal for planting squash, corn and beans.
Also, the presence of dry sandy soil, which decomposes bodies at a slower rate than wet earth, means burial sites are more likely to be found, as happened in nearby Mystic, where the digging of a foundation for a private home on Long Island Sound in September 2004 uncovered about 25 American Indian graves, Mr. McBride said.
Imagining how the landscape lent itself to use by an earlier civilization becomes easier after taking a tour led by Donald Rankin, a Madison resident and retired doctor, who teaches classes on Native-American culture in Hammonasset Beach State Park ? named for a local tribe ? which hugs the Griswold property.
On a recent balmy March morning, Mr. Rankin, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap, pumping his fists for emphasis, showed a spot in a field near the Meigs Point Nature Center where, in 2005, he found a white quartzite rock that had been fashioned into a scraper. He also pointed out a crater, 35 yards in diameter, in a ribbon of woods between a campground and Route 1. Production at this early 20th-century gravel pit, he said, was halted after workers stumbled upon artifacts. The site was brought to Mr. Rankin?s attention recently by workers building the Shoreline Greenway, a bike path that runs past it.
From a platform along the park?s eastern edge, where the forest meets a vast
salt marsh, Mr. Rankin introduced Weir Rock, which slopes upward from green grasses. A narrow crevice that slices through its middle section would have been ideal for trapping salmon swimming upstream to spawn, he said. Even if the Griswold dig reveals nothing significant ? after all, it will target only a few areas, and nothing under the buildings or runway ? Mr. Rankin remains a believer.
?Beyond a reasonable doubt, there are many burial sites here,? Mr. Rankin said, the roofs of hangars visible behind him. ?To Native-Americans, the airport would be considered sacred land.?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/01ctmain.html
