Cause for minor encouragement--maybe. Exceptionally poor way to collect
artifacts; almost no context. Section 106 violation?
D. Babson.
Buffalo's 'Big Dig" rescues trove of canal-era artifacts from the dump
By Alan Oberst
On the summer's most beautiful August weekend, over 400 people
appeared at a remote landfill outside of Buffalo, to dig in the dirt,
drawn there by the siren song of history. The challenge was to
rescue canal-era artifacts recently trucked there from Buffalo's
Inner Harbor redevelopment project. But the artifacts they sought
were thoroughly mixed with 100-plus years of dirt and debris
excavated from Buffalo's Commercial Slip, once the western terminus
of the Erie Canal. So in an event that bore the fitting moniker "The
Big Dig," people came from far and near, and the race was on to
rescue as much history as possible in two days. Some arrived with
nothing more than a pair of gloves and determination. Others brought
more sophisticated tools of the trade such as metal detectors. But
with all the material to go through, perhaps the most useful
equipment proved to be the backhoe-a tool capable of surprising
finesse in the hands of an experienced operator.
What did two days of digging unearth? All told, a bit of everything,
including leather shoes, marbles, silverware, ceramics of all kinds,
from an earthenware jug to an eighteenth-century porcelain vase,
likely the oldest find of the weekend. Surprising for debris from
the "Commercial" Slip, so much seemed derived from the domestic side
of life-a reminder that the canal was not only about commercial
freight, but was also home to families and the stuff of households.
Also found commonly were bottle after bottle after bottle, which did
nothing to belie the reputation of canawlers as a hard-drinking
bunch. Surprisingly, though, some were milk bottles, bearing the
marks of long-closed Buffalo dairies. Such marks were telltales
signs to the practiced eyes of artifact screeners who kept watch on
the proceedings.
Given the rough-and-tumble waterfront era represented by the
excavation, some diggers half-expected to find human remains, perhaps
from a victim who double-crossed one of Buffalo's notorious "saloon
bosses." Somewhat disappointed, perhaps, diggers found only animal
bones.
Perhaps the biggest story was told by the most mundane yet abundant
artifacts in the dig-oyster shells. Bushels of oyster shells were
found, demonstrating the impact of the canal on Buffalo. How?
Oysters-not native to Buffalo-began showing up by the boatload from
downstate shortly after the canal opened, humble heralds of the canal
revolution in transportation which opened an era of economic
development. The location of the canal's Great Lakes port in Buffalo
not only made her the Queen City, but made the world her oyster.
Buffalo grew to become the eighth largest city in the nation, home to
two presidents and last port of call for another, with a cultural and
architectural legacy rivaled by few cities in the nation.
How did Buffalo's Big Dig come about? Its origin was in the removal
of 200 truckloads of debris excavated from the Commercial Slip,
accumulated throughout the 100-year operation of the Erie Canal prior
to embargement. Although its removal was a necessary part of the
restoration of the slip, it was originally hoped that the debris
could have a proper going-through on site. But that was denied by
the state overseers of the Inner Harbor project, and for a time it
appeared that this historic material was doomed to vanish in oblivion
in a Tonawanda landfill.
But with a stubbornness and tenacity that would have made Sal the
Mule proud, Tim Tielman, Executive Director of the Campaign For
Greater Buffalo Art, Architecture, and Culture fought the good fight
to get permission for volunteers to screen the debris at the landfill
itself. He then called the troops to arms.
Why would over 400 people respond to the call, sacrificing part of a
beautiful summer weekend to work up a sweat digging in the dirt in a
landfill? The central reason: they knew their history was at stake,
and like all good canal buffs and preservationists, they responded.
Like those who saved the Day Peckinpaugh, and like those who pulled
from creeks piece by piece and block by block the Aldrich Change
Bridge and the Camillus aqueduct, canal buffs and preservationists
respond when their history-which is really all our history-is at stake!
Artifacts uncovered in the Big Dig are expected to be displayed in a
museum being planned on Buffalo's waterfront as part of the Inner
Harbor redevelopment.
(Editor's note: Alan Oberst wrote an article for the Summer issue of
Canal Times chronicling Rochester's "Chill The Fill" campaign).
(caption) A team of archaeologists and volunteers work feverishly to
recover artifacts from a landfill near Buffalo.
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