Click Thumbnails for a Larger Image

A Table of Contents for this section is at the bottom of the Page

Note: This is no longer a current project. I have left the web site intact however. The final project report is available on paper for $75 (roughly my cost - its over 1200 pages long, with over 600 figures - mostly color), or on CD as an Adobe Acrobat  PDF  for $10. Contact Carl Steen - diahronic@aol.com to order.

Fort Johnson, South Carolina

Archaeology at the MEHRL Tract

 Introduction

Fort Johnson is a state owned facility located  on Charleston Harbor, in South Carolina (Figure 1). Fort Johnson was purchased by the colonial government in 1708, and has been in public hands ever since. The entire 90 acre tract is on the National Register of Historic Places. At present Fort Johnson is the home of  the Marine Resources Division of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and houses research facilities for the College of Charleston, the Medical University of South Carolina, The Fisheries Division of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and others.

In 1997 an intensive archaeological survey was conducted in a seven acre tract in the center of the property (Figure 2). The land is to be leased from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR) by NOAA for the siting of a proposed Marine Environmental Health Research Laboratory (MEHRL) facility . This work is spurred by federal and state cultural resources legislation and by the desire of the DNR and its federal partners to be responsible stewards of the cultural heritage under their control.

The core of the MEHRL lease tract is a wetland; a remnant upland drainage, much of which was filled some time after the Civil War. The sand ridges lining the former wetland are the scene of an almost continuous scatter of artifacts ranging from prehistoric to modern. Fort Johnson's land use history is varied and resulted at times in profound changes. During the Civil War (Figure 3) for instance, the land was laid bare, earthworks built up, and roads rerouted. After the war the extensive earthworks were flattened, and the fill was spread far and wide. This resulted in artifact deposits that are extensive, but thin, mixed and potentially disturbed. The challenge of the survey and evaluative testing has not been to find artifacts, but to determine the relationships among them, and specifically, which of the apparent concentrations are culturally meaningful, and which are the result of disturbance.

Because we know that Fort Johnson has been occupied intensively over time, it was clear from the beginning of our work at the site that there were probably no areas that would be entirely free of evidence of human activities. Again, the challenge has not been to find artifacts, but to interpret the deposits.

The area is large, and to cover it at an acceptable level of intensity it has been necessary to adopt a phased sampling approach [Figure 4]. In the first phase, conducted in 1995, we excavated 50cm square shovel tests every twenty meters in selected areas, identifying the present lease tract as a good location for development. In the second phase of work, the middle of three, we further explored the entire area at a low level of intensity, excavating shovel tests every ten meters to produce a .06% sample.

In areas with artifact deposits that indicated concentrated activities, rather than thinly spread, potentially disturbed deposits, we intensified our sample to the 1% level. This was done by excavating 50cm test units (Tu.'s) at a five meter interval. Most of the land that was not either active or filled wetlands received testing at this level. In selected areas additional evaluative testing was also conducted. Excavation units two meters on a side were dug. This exposure of the subsoil allowed us to identify and evaluate buried cultural features like posts, trash pits, and wells

The third phase of work is broadly considered " Mitigation." To summarize this briefly, when a cultural resource is to be adversely affected by a federal undertaking the damage must be mitigated. Fort Johnson as a whole is on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and our approach has been to treat the cultural remains within its boundaries as contributing elements. At the close of the survey and testing phase we identified seven loosely bounded "Areas." Each of these Areas (Figure 5) has NRHP significance because of the integrity of their artifact deposits and their potential to shed light on past human activities.

While the eye is most easily drawn to the more obvious manifestations of the human occupation of Fort Johnson, especially the military history and remains, there are many other stories to tell here.

In other sections of this web site some of these will be addressed. For hundreds of generations prehistoric hunters and gatherers came to this spit of land  on Charleston Harbor as part of a seasonal round of activities that took them as far inland as the Fall Line. Edward Lacey (Figure 6) came here from England in the 1680's, but didn't last out his first year before dying of one of the "country fevers" that took a toll on many immigrants. But the land was taken up again as soon as he died, and when it was obtained by the state in 1708 it was known as "Windmill Point (Figure 7)

Over its history as a military site Fort Johnson was seldom engaged. Though a wonderfully strategic location, the reality was that if enemy ships made it through the harbor mouth the battle was already lost. But a garrison force seems to have occupied the place continuously from the early 18th century (Figure 8) until after the Civil War. The remains of these soldiers activities are spread across the site, and each deposit is a time capsule of information about the lives of the common person of the day. But soldiers were not the only occupants of the camp. There were storekeepers and various support personnel. Slaves were hired for manual labor jobs. The summer village of Johnsonville brought in both the planters and their families, and their house servants as well.

When the war ended some of the black families in the area, perhaps men and women who had been associated with the Fort before or during the war, either moved into the abandoned soldiers huts or built houses on the site. It is assumed that they found work with the Quarantine facility, probably supplemented by fishing and gardening. The story of the transformation of African-Americans and their white neighbors from master and slave to equal citizens is perhaps the most compelling in South Carolina's history, and it is a story that is ongoing.

Though interpreting the remains of poor people who lived within recent memory is not nearly as glamorous as excavating a high profile site like King Tut's Tomb, the social value of the work remains high. Through such studies we can illuminate past practices and attitudes in an objective manner, and perhaps learn from them. If our mitigation efforts succeed in this area in even a small way then they will have been worthwhile.

The Historic context is here (link) and the History of Fort Johnson in the American Civil War is here (link)