Interesting post ! I was born and raised in Elmira, I live in Big Flats right now but will be moving back to Elmira as soon as we close on our house. I remember when I was younger, sometime between 6th - 8th grade there was an archaeological dig done not far behind my parents house. For all you civil war buffs out there..... Elmira, NY is well known for it's prison camp durring the civil war. The prisoners were ordered to dig what is now Foster's pond, they used this for drinking, bathing and eventually for dumping garbage and actually used it as there bathroom. Many people started getting sick and dying off. I know that small pox was a major problem at one point amongst other diseases. The prison camp was way over crowded and supplies were scarce. People were starving and also freezing to death durring the winter months. Anyways, my parents own a home on the south side of Winsor Ave, right near Foster's Pond. The location of the the orignal flag pole is across the street and one house over, they have a marker in it's place as they moved down in front of the waterboard with a monument that was built for it. I remember when they did the dig they were on the island between Foster's pond and the Chemung river. They dug towards the West end of the island but claim they never really found much other then what they believed was the remains of an old roof. I have recently purchased a larger sized coil for my detector and decided to go to the island again to try it out. The 1st day I started on the West end without much luck, the next day I went to the East end of the Island. For the 1st time in my life I was happy to see that some woodchucks had been down there digging as well leaving small mounds of dirt off to the side of the holes. There are bout 5-6 holes in one little section, I decided to run my detector over the mounds and got all kinds of mixed signals. I didn't really find anything special with the detector but I noticed while sifting through the mounds that it wasn't only dirt but also ash with many pieces of broken glass, plates and other things like jars in which I could tell were very old. I found a couple of very interesting pieces of the remains of a jar with writing and much to my suprise a date as well. The date of 1862, some type of marmalade container with england printed on it. I did some research on it and found one like it on ebay. I also found some other small fragments of another jar but can't make most of it out. The only part that is legible says....
Creme Violet Sec
A ____ cream
------ --------he skin
there's a little more under this but can't make much of it out.
Considering all the ash I'm assuming this was a garbage and or burning pit of some sort. I also think that the archaelogists picked the wrong side of the island to dig. This seems like a great spot for a dig to me. I can post pics of the area and the things I've found if anyone is interested.
Sure sounds like it would be an interesting bunch of lectures, all of which I wish I were able to be there for.
