Fort Boonesborough Revealed

Fort Boonesborough Revealed. . No Trace Remained , Built for defense, Fort Boonesborough fell into disuse after the threat posed by the British and their Indian allies vanished. The log walls and cabins decayed. The rock in the chimneys was scavenged for use elsewhere. Silt deposited by periodic flooding covered what remained., The Fort Uncovered , In 1987, University of Kentucky archeologist Nancy O'Malley began investigating the site of Fort Boonesborough. Before conducting the archeological investigations, she sifted through hundreds of pages of historic documents describing the fort and its location. Archeological fieldwork yielded the remains of a dry-laid stone foundation and a number of late-eighteenth- century artifacts. Investigations in 2012 uncovered more of the stone foundation, an associated hearth, and more artifacts., The Double Cabin , Historic records document a double cabin near the center of the fort. After analyzing the archeological data, O'Malley concluded that the stone foundation and hearth were the remains of that structure. The double cabin was a dogtrot-two cabins separated by a breezeway and under a common roof. Squire Boone, Daniel's brother, occupied one side of the double cabin and had a gunsmithing shop in the breezeway. Records indicate that either the David Gass or Richard Callaway family occupied the other side., Defining Fort Boonesborough , By the end of the 2014 field season, four of the cabins along the east, west, and south walls, and the corner of the southwest blockhouse had been identified in addition to the central double-cabin complex. With these structures located, and taking into consideration numerous other lines of evidence, O'Malley reconstructed Fort Boonesborough's "footprint."