Given only low mounds and scattered fireplaces, it will be difficult for visitors to imagine how the site appeared 206 years ago when it was a bustling encampment. Perhaps creative computer simulations, dioramas, and interpretive exhibits will be effective substitutes. Ongoing research will contribute to these exhibits by pinpointing the placement of buildings and activities across the Mount, demonstrating how the buildings were constructed and showing how the soldiers lived. We have learned details of the construction of a major military hospital, about different styles of cabins and houses, and of trash disposal methods. Our laboratory analysis is continuing, and we believe that the artifacts will provide insight into status and regional differences among soldiers who came from several northeastern colonies, and will perhaps reveal some of the ways in which they adjusted to life at this difficult northern outpost.
Mapping needs to continue because literally hundreds of sites have yet to be identified.
We have not verified the location of a star-shaped fort that sat atop Mount Independence, nor have we located any of the earlier regimental hospital's, which should produce more evidence of physical hardship than did the permanent hospital we excavated. The soldiers who camped atop Mount Independence left behind so few detailed journals that archaeology is now the best way to understand the hardships they faced during America's fight for independence. David R. Starbuck directs the Mount Independence excavations for the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation and for Castleton State College.