While working on the proposed new alignment for Route 301 in central
Delaware we have encountered numerous sites dating from the late 17th
through mid-18th centuries associated with smuggling tobacco out of the
Chesapeake Bay overland to the Delaware Bay to avoid paying customs
duties. These sites include landings, a network of cart routes, a ford, and
numerous support sites, such as tenant farmers supplying provisions,
intelligence, shelter, and fresh oxen. Eight to ten ton shallops were drawn by
oxen on sleds or in "great carts" eight miles overland. This area of Delaware
does not have the best soils for farming yet sites along the cart paths exhibit
higher value than expected material culture. Has anyone worked on sites of
this nature elsewhere?