INDIAN TRAIL BETWEEN WHITE STORE AND ROCKDALE
Donald
A. Windsor
Prior
to 1791 an old Indian trail went between what is now White Store
(Town of Norwich) and Rockdale (Town of Guilford), a straight-line
distance of 7.2 miles. Part of the route appears in a map in the
recent book by Tom Gray. In 2006 Tom and I walked the part of this
trail from Gonza Road, off of County Road 37, south to Fred Utter
Road. This section lies at elevations between 1400 and 1700 feet.
White Store is 4.4 straight-line miles southeast from the White Site
and Rockdale is 11.0 miles.
Unfortunately,
this trail is almost entirely on private property. No archaeological
sites along this trail are mentioned by Ted Whitney.
However,
Mert Brownell (1896-1976) mentions posthumously in 1977 that he found
artifacts along this trail.
The
only Indian trail marked on the 1789 survey map of the Twenty Towns
is the “Iroquois Trail”, which ran between what are today
Polkville and White Store. County Road 33 + White Store Road
approximate this trail.
Brownell
says that an Indian trail followed White Store Brook. This trail
would be approximately where County Road 34 is today. The White
Store Brook flows from near the White Site and the Johnson Creek
flows through the White Site and through Polkville.
All
of these connections lead me to see a wide swath of potential
archaeological sites in the towns of Guilford and Norwich. However,
our Chapter spent the summer of 2006 digging at the Lasky Site on a
hill west of the White Store Brook and north of Burdick-Medbury Road
and found nothing.
I
intend to find more of Brownell’s writings and see what he says.
References
cited:
Brownell, Mert. Indians of the Valley. In: Unadilla Valley.
White Store to East Guilford 1788-1976. [Location not
disclosed.]: Unadilla Valley Historical Society. 1976. Pages 1-5.
Brownell, Mert. [Indians] Glimpses of the Past (Newsletter
of the Unadilla Valley Historical Society) 1977 February 16: 1, 13, +
[Next issue]: 7-8.
DeAngelo, Gordon ; DeAngelo, Barbara. Two plant studies: the
Lasky/Scott Site and the Cameron Site. [Bulletin of the] Chenango
Chapter NYSAA 2012 September; 33(1): 31-63.
Gray, Thomas A. Living Near The River. A Detailed History of the
River Hamlets of Guilford, NY. Guilford, NY: Self-published.
2017. 178 pages.
McElligott, Corey C. ; McElligott, Darren C. ; McElligott, Patrick R.
Water Man. A Native People’s History of the North East.
[Guilford, NY]: Waterfalls Press. 2011. [Unpaged. 354 pages.]
Whitney, Theodore [“Ted”] The Indian occupations of Chenango
County to 1975. [Bulletin of the] Chenango Chapter NYSAA [New
York State Archaeological Association] 1974 November; 15(3): 1-33.
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