Archaeological survey looks for 1631 Dutch fort

Trowel by trowel, they dig up the past in Lewes. In this case, they are looking for clues to the location of a 1631 Dutch fort on the site of the former Lewes Dairy.

The developer of the property on Pilottown Road hired Edward Otter’s company to try and uncover history.

“In 1631, the Dutch wanted a presence on the lower bay because the English were expanding their territory. So they put 32 guys here and told them to build a fort. They were wiped out within a year. They had a falling out with the natives,” said Otter.

Otter’s team includes his employees and volunteers who signed up through the Archaeological Society of Delaware to get down and dirty. They have spent the last six weeks meticulously studying the soil between the old dairy and St. Peter’s Pilottown Road Cemetery. The workers still have about two weeks to go.

The team is actually retracing the steps of archaeologists from almost seven decades ago. “In 1952 and ‘54 there was some archaeological work where the cemetery is now. It wasn’t a cemetery at the time. They claimed to have found the palisade lines of the fort,” said Otter. He said a palisade line is where the settlers put posts in the ground and built a stockade to protect their buildings.

“In 1964, they got permission to work on this side of the property line. Where we’re digging right now is the area they excavated in ‘64. We’re trying to uncover that so we can reevaluate what they found in ‘64,” he said.

Otter said they know they are in the right place because of tire marks and stained dirt in some of the pits they have dug out. But, he added, he’s not ready to make any big assumptions.

So far, Otter said they’ve found a post that could have been there before 1964, along with pieces of 19th century pottery, glass, rusty nails and even an old Lewes Dairy glass milk bottle.

Otter has invited Lewes and state leaders to an open house starting at 9 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 29, to get an up-close look at the work being done.

Otter said when his work is done, he will submit a report on what he found; after that, it will be up to local and state leaders to decide what to do with the site.