Today the western basin of Lake Erie is dominated by the cities of Windsor, Detroit, and Toledo, and a myriad of small cities and towns mostly serving the vacation trade. Prehistorically, American Indians utilized the rich resources of the western basin to support sizable populations of fishers, foragers, and farmers. The archaeological sites that document their activities were once nearly ubiquitous along the shore, but today they have largely disappeared beneath modern sprawl. The Danbury site had many brushes with destruction before a compromise yielded both new vacation homes and a permanent archaeological preserve.
Danbury was first recorded by amateur archaeologists in 1977, but the site received no professional attention until 1999, when cultural resource management archaeologists carried out an initial survey in advance of planned development. Unfortunately, the owners of the property disregarded the recommendations of the archaeologists, and in 2003 began earth moving without further archaeological work. Road construction soon unearthed several concentrations of midden soils, pit features, and human remains, and amateur archaeologists were given access to the site. Soon these activities came to the attention of local American Indians and the professional archaeological community, including the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Summary. Read full text in American Archaeology, Fall 2017 | Vol. 21 No. 3
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