FYI:
Fri, Jun. 03, 2005 Philadelphia Inquirer
Pa. sprawl imperils 1700s prison camp
Revolution-era artifacts on endangered list.
By Amy Worden
Inquirer Staff Writer
SPRINGETTSBURY TOWNSHIP, Pa. - An empty 60-acre tract squeezed between
subdivisions looks like just another property ready to be consumed by
development in this growing suburb east of York.
But this piece of land - a fallow farm field bordered by woods - is special.
Below the surface lie the undisturbed remains of Camp Security, the last
surviving Revolutionary War-era prison camp.
Between 1781 and 1783 the Continental Army camp housed as many as 1,500
British, Scottish and Canadian troops captured at the Battle of Saratoga
Springs, N.Y., and Yorktown, Va.
"It is as compelling a story as Valley Forge as far as its extensive
significance to American history," said David Orr, former chief
archaeologist at Valley Forge National Historical Park and a professor of
anthropology at Temple University.
That story will be lost if the site is developed, say preservationists and
historians who have battled in court for five years to stop a private
developer who wants to build 105 houses there.
Yesterday, this little-known site, and the fight to save it, was thrust
into the national spotlight when the National Trust for Historic
Preservation named Camp Security to its annual 11 most endangered places
list. The listing offers no legal protection for the sites selected but has
in the past generated funding and publicity needed to save many sites.
In a statement, National Trust president Richard Moe called Camp Security
"a doorway to a little-known chapter in the story of America's war for
independence." To "fully understand the struggle that led to the birth of
our nation," Moe said, "we must act to keep this site unspoiled and
permanently protected."
Unlike battlefields that had dramatic but relatively brief periods of
occupation, encampments offer a much more complete story of a place because
of the length of time people lived there, Orr said.
He said Camp Security holds answers to centuries-old questions about how
the new nation treated its POWs. Prisoners were housed with their families
and made crafts to sell to locals, leading historians to theorize that the
camp was more humane than the wartime camps that came later.
"What do we know about British prisoners at that time?" Orr said. "Where is
another site like this?"
During a brief dig in 1979, archaeologists pinpointed the site of the camp
and recovered 3,500 artifacts, including scraps of tin, straight pins and
uniform buttons.
Those buttons were linked to a British regiment that was known to have been
captured and held at Camp Security. That discovery provided the critical
evidence that confirmed centuries-old local lore about the location of the
camp.
Several feet below the surface are likely the remains of a prison stockade,
a cluster of huts, a cemetery and guards' quarters, archaeologists say.
"Most of the story remains in the soil," said Thomas Schaefer, vice
president of Friends of Camp Security, the preservation group that has
fought to save the site.
The group's president, Carol Tanzola, said that if the site were purchased
by a preservation-minded private group or by a government entity, a
complete archaeological survey could be conducted and the site saved for
future generations.
The Friends group's pro bono attorney, Lance Rogers of Lower Merion
Township, said he hoped the endangered listing would bring national support
and money to purchase the site.
It is unclear how much the parcel is worth, but local newspapers reported
that the developer, Timothy Pasch of York, offered to sell it for $4.5
million several years ago.
Adrian Scott Fine, director of the Northeast field office of the National
Trust in Philadelphia, said that without outside intervention or a change
of heart by the developer, the site is in imminent danger of being destroyed.
Pasch has received township approval to build, and the preservation group's
legal appeals are nearly exhausted, Fine said.
Neither Pasch nor his lawyer returned calls yesterday seeking comment.
The trust's endangered list this year included Daniel Webster's farm in
Franklin, N.H.; Ernest Hemingway's house in Havana, Cuba; the historic
Catholic churches in Boston; and the "Journey Through Hallowed Ground"
corridor that runs from Monticello, Va., through Maryland to Gettysburg,
Pa. The 175-mile swath contains six homes of presidents, numerous Civil War
battlefields and hundreds of other historic sites that are threatened by
sprawl.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Washington-based nonprofit
group, has named 150 sites to its annual endangered list since the list's
inception in 1988.
What Was Found At Camp Security
More than 1,700 artifacts were found during a 1979 excavation.
Samples of artifacts
Buttons: 11 pewter buttons with "RP" under a crown; 2 pewter "XX" buttons;
silver button with "XX" over wreath; 1 pewter "USA" button; 1 pewter button
with flower in center; 1 pewter button marked "VT" in shield; 1 pewter
button marked "C"; 1 white metal "33" button; 1 white metal "47" button
Metals/coins: 3 silver cuff links, oval with line decorations; 19 silver
"pieces of eight"; 1 silver coin, 1744; 3 Spanish coins 1771, 1748; 1
copper coin Virginia; 1 copper coin Connecticut 1788; 1 copper coin
Hibernia 1782; 8 copper coins George II.
Miscellaneous: 6 musketballs; 1 brass scabbard tip; 2 brass thimbles; 7
brass or silver escutcheons; 1 brass sleigh bell
www.campsecurity.com
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