In 2024, new artifacts from the nation’s early conflicts were found at Liberty Hill on the grounds of Fort Ticonderoga. Officials recently announced the discovery and that more than 500 items, many dating to the American Revolution, have been preserved. North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley met Fort Ticonderoga’s curator to find out more.
About a mile from the entrance to Fort Ticonderoga is an unassuming brick building with a sign indicating it is the Thompson Pell Research Center. It’s where you find the artifacts that are not currently on display at the fort. It's also the center for research and processing of new artifacts.
It’s where I meet Fort Ticonderoga Curator Matthew Keagle.
“Hi there!”
“Good to see you!” Bradley replies.
“Likewise. I can take you downstairs where we have our artifacts and our collection storage. Shall we?” Keagle asks.
As we head downstairs, Keagle talks about the fort’s collections
“We have at least tens of thousands of objects here. We don’t have the entire collection here. We also have an off-site storage area. The museum’s collections we estimate at being probably a little over 200,000 artifacts. But the bulk of that is back here. Back here is the heart of the collections.”
The room we enter has dozens of racks holding hundreds of historic weapons.
“We’ve got rifles, muskets, carbines, fusils, fowling pieces, wall guns, rampart guns, swivel guns, pole arms. We have swords, sabers, epees, the whole range of edged weapons, pistols, daggers, in addition to the canon themselves, which are largely on display up at the fort itself.”
On the opposite wall are shelves holding military headgear. Between them is a small table with a tray holding about a dozen of the latest artifacts unearthed on the fort's property.
“In the fall of 2024 we did some preliminary excavations, a survey of Liberty Hill, as it was called during the American Revolution. And what we found was there was an incredible survival rate for artifacts on this site. I think it surpassed anyone’s expectations.”
Donning a pair of gloves, Keagle removes one of the items from its protective sleeve.
“Obviously the volume of soldiers that were here means that there’s a lot of pieces from firearms. This little bit right here is called a thumbpiece and it’s engraved with the letter I and the number 46."
"This would have allowed an officer to identify which soldier was issued this musket," Keagle explains. "Sadly, almost none of the paperwork for this kind of thing survives, but theoretically we should be able to, if we knew the regiment this was in, identify who carried it.”
Keagle unbags another artifact.
“I can show you one more example here of a pretty remarkable object. This is the point of a spear. And these, despite being pretty archaic, still had a place by the Revolutionary War.”
“Now I know you’re wearing gloves to protect the artifacts, but I’m curious after 200 and more years, is that still sharp?” wonders Bradley.
“It is not sharp as such but I certainly wouldn’t want to run my hands along this," Keagle says. "Not because of the blade sharpness, but all of these little cavities from just age and wear make it a little more like a saw blade than a spear blade.”
One of the pieces found on Liberty Hill that most excites Keagle is part of a brass writing implement called a penner.
“What’s hidden inside this tube is actually a small knife blade to cut the nib of your pen. This one was actually up on the lines near part of the camp of the Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion. And I find this really compelling because we here in the museum have at least three orderly books kept by the Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion that may very well have been written by the ink once contained in the base of this object.”
Keagle finds that even the smallest items have historical significance. He shows a button found at Liberty Hill with engravings identifying it from the Pennsylvania Second Battalion deployed at the fort.
“On July 28, 1776 this regiment’s colonel read the Declaration of Independence for the very first time to these Pennsylvania soldiers. So that button witnessed the reading of the Declaration of Independence here. I am sure of it.”
The Liberty Hill excavation has found hundreds of artifacts and nearly 100 items have so far been preserved. The artifacts are not yet on public display but could be included in future exhibits.
