The exact location of Fort Halifax along the Susquehanna River was found in an archaeological dig at the site just upriver of the Dauphin County borough of Halifax over the past two weeks.
It’s been known since the day the first spade of soil was turned and the first log was laid in June 1756 to create the short-lived French and Indian War fort that it had been somewhere on the 172 acres of modern-day Fort Halifax Park.
But the fort was manned by about 30 recruits of the Augusta Regiment for less than a year-and-a-half before worries over a sudden attack by French and Native American forces moved them to the west and the north.
Fort Halifax stood empty until the summer of 1763 when it was formally abandoned and dismantled, with materials being moved back downriver for repurposing. A local farmer plowed over any remaining evidence that the fort had been there.
Previous efforts to locate any artifacts of the fort concentrated about a half-football field to the north, closer to the mouth of Armstrong Creek on the Susquehanna, where it has been assumed the fort had stood.
“We know we’re in the fort because we’re starting to find features,” explained Jonathan Burns, director of the Cultural Resource Institute and lecturer in international studies at Juniata College in Huntingdon. It was the Juniata College Archaeology Field School under his direction that led the archeological survey and dig at Fort Halifax this summer.
Hundreds of artifacts – lead balls for muskets and rifles, pieces of stoneware, metal tools like the head of an eye hoe, nails, lag bolts, pipe stems, musket frizzen and coins, including a French Liard that was minted in 1655 in France – as well as suspected artifacts were found, unearthed, bagged and tagged for future investigation.
A river rock so large that it would have required several men and a wagon or maybe some horses to move the 50 yards or so from the Susquehanna to its 1756 position, probably in the foundation of the fort, was found. The many artifacts found around the rock indicated that the occupants of the fort likely spent some time standing near it.
“There’s no other rock like it out in this field,” said Burns.
And then, on the final afternoon of the 14-day Fort Halifax Rediscovery Field School, a “huge structural feature and what looks like either a building corner or the base of a smith’s forge” was uncovered, noted Joe Baker, a retired archeologist with several Pennsylvania agencies who help with the recent project.
The theme of the week, he explained, changed from “Find the Fort” to “Found the Fort.”
Fort Halifax was part of a line of forts constructed along the Pennsylvania frontier under order of the provincial government during the early part of the French and Indian War, which ran from 1752-1763.
According to the Friends of Fort Halifax, which hosted the dig that involved college students and volunteers from youth to interested individuals to veterans’ groups, “On June 5, 1756, Pennsylvania Provincial officer Colonel William Clapham led 400 recruits of the Augusta Regiment north up the east side of the Susquehanna River. They started out from Hunter’s Mill at the mouth of Fishing Creek (now Fort Hunter), a few miles above Harris’s Ferry.
“His initial consignment of supplies followed upriver in 20 bateaux and 2 canoes.
“The regiment stopped overnight at Thomas McKee’s lower trading post on the east bank of the Susquehanna opposite Sherman’s Creek (just downstream from the current Clarks Ferry Bridge).
“They arrived at the mouth of Armstrong Creek the next afternoon, and there began constructing Fort Halifax. The new fort was to serve as a temporary depot for supplies and give overnight refuge to wagon trains and bateaux moving supplies upriver to where Fort August was to be built (the current Sunbury).
“Colonel Clapham picked the site for Fort Halifax due to the proximity of a vast stand of pine timber suitable to construction of a fort. Also, very near the site was a dam and water-powered sawmill erected on Armstrong Creek by early pioneer John Armstrong.
“Once bivouacked, soldiers immediately commenced to cut and square 200 logs, each 30 feet long, and erected a traditional-style stockade fort.”
“While construction was under way, bateaux-men were busily engaged in moving supplies up the river past the difficult section of low-water rapids at the confluence of the Juniata River.
“At the same time carpenters at Harris’s Ferry were constructing additional bateaux and cannon carriages.
“On July 11, 1756 the Augusta Regiment continued its march upriver, leaving 30 men behind to finish construction and garrison Fort Halifax.”
There were no major battles fought at Fort Halifax, said Baker, but there were skirmishes with Native Americans, mutinies, courts martial and the “constant fear of the French coming floating down the river.”
He explained, “This important phase of Susquehanna Valley history is beginning to come into view. The park contains and preserves some of the best and most intact evidence of the Pennsylvania frontier I’ve ever seen.”
The former fort site is now part of Fort Halifax Park, a 172-acre park developed, maintained and programmed by Halifax Township and the Friends of Fort Halifax.
In addition to the historic site, the park features a circa-1846 bank barn, about 4 miles of hiking trails, gardens and campsites, as well as ecosystems ranging from the river to the stream to meadows to woodlands.
For more outdoor coverage, subscribe to Marcus Schneck’s free, weekly Outdoor Pennsylvania newsletter right here:
You also can contact Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.
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