Fort Corchaug Archaeological Site

Fort Corchaug was a fortified Indian village on the eastern Long Iceland in today's Suffolk County, named after the Corchaug, a now-extinct Indian tribe.

When the British in the late 1630s explored the eastern island, they encountered in the dense forests on an Indian fort It was rectangular created, attached to tree trunks and enclosed an area of nearly three acres ( 12,000 m²). Outside the fort were ordered corn and bean fields. Some time after the arrival of the English settlers left the Corchaug the fort in the early 19th century, the family acquired the Downs area, where he built a farm. It is almost a miracle that the traces of the old fort were not destroyed by the farm work. In the summer of 1935, the archaeologist Ralph Solecki discovered the remains of the fort on the west side of Downs Creek. Solecki wrote his dissertation on the fort and took the view that the Indians had built this facility with the help of the Europeans for protection against raids of tribes from the mainland. Excavations at this site was Solecki remains of Dutch trade goods, which suggest that the fort was incorporated into a solid trading system that has been delivered over the wampum of the Peconic Bay to the Dutch after New Amsterdam. In the reverse direction Dutch craft came to the Corchaug.

The Corchaug - fort and a 105 acres ( 0.425 km ²) large area has been completely bought by the Peconic Land Trust and expanded into a study center for archaeologists and students. There have been scientifically studied until now only slightly more than 10 % of the area. The site was classified as a National Historic Landmark in 1999.