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3rd Annual Frontier Faire & Public Archaeology Event
October 15 - 9:30am - 5pm
October 16 - 11am - 4pm
At the Fort Daniel Archaeological Site
2505 Braselton Hwy (124) Buford (Hog Mountain)
30519
Great fun for the whole family.
AND
Archaeological Investigations at Gwinnett County's
Oldest Historic Site
A Public Lecture by the site archaeologist at the Fort
Daniel Elementary School
1725 Auburn Rd., Dacula at 7:30pm
Don't miss these Faire dates!
Click on Allen Daniel for more detailed Information
 
Frontiersman (Bruce Maney) & Direct Descendent of Allen Daniel, Johh Hopkins.
Bob Coffey Photo
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2010 Frontier Faire
Brick Making Demonstration
With the
help of Cherokee Brick & Tile Co., Macon, who supplied brick for
much of the clamp kiln pictured below, and "burned" 50 of the Fort
Daniel brick in their modern tunnel kiln, the brick making portion
of the event was quite a success. The remaining "Green" brick
were put in the Fort Daniel clamp kiln.
See
Brickmaking pdf
presentation.
In January 2011 a new GPR survey of the fort area,
including areas not previously covered in the 2007 survey, carrired
out by GSU's Sheldon Skaggs, produced a
convincing picture of the fort's subsurface features as seen in this
composite of the 2007 and 2011 GPR surveys and the (flipped) Knox
graphic on the right. Image courtesy of Sheldon Skaggs.
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Archaeology
Update [ also see History Update]
Excavations
during the May, 2010 Archaeology Month/Frontier Faire weekend located the
south end of the west wall trench. With this and the
previously excavated west end of the south wall, we were able to
determine the footprint and size of the SW corner blockhouse as
pictured below.
On August 14,
2010 we found the east end
of the south wall trench and its corner with the east wall as
pictured below. It is now clear that the ditch, excavated in
2007-2009 (and thought to be a latrine ditch) is
actually the northern 14' of the east wall and that there was
probably a gate south of this segment as suggested by the gap
in the trench line. There is convincing evidence that there
was also a blockhouse in the northeast corner. On August 23 the NW
corner of the fort was located in Unit 20 and its projection to the east bears
out the hypothesis of a NE blockhouse.
Known wall trench features, including
SW, NW & SE corners, and the position of the blockhouse hearth now
provide a good idea of the fort's footprint, which is shown below
superimposed on a gradient map based on the 2007 metal
detection survey. Grids are 20' x 20' and oriented 13 degrees
west of north based on the property boundary which serves as the
baseline for the grid. The fort is oriented on a N/S axis.
In 1794, General Knox, U.S. Secretary of
War, sent the fort plan pictured below to the Governor of Georgia. The plan is about 18% larger
(and flipped horizontally) than the Fort Daniel plan as determined by
archaeology. Note the postions of two 6-ft wide gates (A A) in
Knox's plan. The conjectured Fort Daniel east wall gate, mentioned
above, is depicted as the gap in the east
wall on the plan above. Compare this with Knox's plan below.
The implication is that there may be an identical gate on
the west wall with a "street" connecting them If this turns
out to be the case, the further implication is that structures
within the fort would have been north of, and south of this street.
We will be looking to confirm the gate locations during the
public archaeology portion of the 2011 Frontier Faire.
Based on what is known of the fort's plan, the new Fort Daniel
T-shirt design (top of this article) captures the look of the fort
as seen from either the east or the west. The T-shirt is now
available. Purchase details will be posted here soon.
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