A Brief History of Archaeology in Kingston
Archaeology in Kingston and the surrounding area has its roots deeply embedded in the history and development of the area. Discoveries of below surface heritage resources have been recorded as early as the mid nineteenth century: such discoveries have been of great interest to Kingstonians, and, indeed, to Canadians. A series of events, occurring over the last century and a half, paved the way for a formal assessment of the archaeological resources of the City of Kingston, leading, in turn, to the inclusion of archaeological policies in urban planning. The following is only a sample of the archaeological work that has been done in the area over the last one hundred and fifty years.
The following projects are presented down this page in chronological order. If you do not wish to read about each one, please click on the site that interests you:
- Mississauga Point
- Fort Frontenac
- Kingston Outer Station
- Cataraqui Bay
- The Shoal Tower, Bellevue House, and The OHIP Site
- Archaeology in Kingston Today
Mississauga Point
Archaeological interest in Kingston can be traced back to the November 11, 1840 edition of the Kingston Chronicle and Gazette. The brief description of the Native burials found reads:
"Indian Remains -- during the progress of some excavation making by the Marine Railway Company, on Mississauga Point, the remains of from 15 to 20 Indians with beads, knives, etc., have been found, embedded about 10 inches below the original surface of the site of the battery. The bodies appear to have been severally wrapt in bark, the remains of which were found in close proximity to the undecayed portions of each skeleton."
What further interest may have stemmed from these particular findings is not known, but there are several further references to the finding of Native artifacts within the City of Kingston: for example, a war club which was among the artifacts donated by Wallace Havelock Robb to the Kingston Historical Society in 1964 was said to have been turned up in a local garden.
Fort Frontenac
Investigations were made at Fort Frontenac in 1937 and 1938 by Colonel Haggarty, and then by Brigadier General Kitching in 1952. Although these projects are generally referred to as "archaeological digs," both were conducted with little regard for archaeological procedures and recording. Only a few photographs of the 1937-38 excavation exist, and a brief account of each dig appeared in the 1952 edition of Historic Kingston.
Kingston Outer Station
In 1952 and 1953, Dr. James Pendergast conducted limited testing on the Kingston Outer Station site, a fishing station situated along the west bank of the Cataraqui River. Artifacts recovered from the site indicated that it had been occupied in approximately 1200 C.E.
Cataraqui Bay
Construction of a military building in a landfilled section of Cataraqui Bay led to the discovery of the remains of a ship in 1954. A small section of the ship was removed: now known as the Cataraqui Prow, the vessel resides at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston.
The Shoal Tower, Bellevue House, and The OHIP Site
Archaeological projects have been undertaken in Kingston by both the federal and provincial governments. The first was conducted by Parks Canada on the interior of the Shoal Tower in 1972; in 1980, Parks Canada began an investigation of Bellevue House, once the home of Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. The Ministry of Culture and Recreation, in conjunction with the Ontario Heritage Foundation, Parks Canada, the Archaeological Survey of Canada, and the Frontenac Historic Foundation, sponsored a rescue excavation on the OHIP site in 1980, prior to construction of the Macdonald-Cartier building.
Archaeology in Kingston Today
Activities in the 1970s and early 1980s created an environment of growing awareness and concern for archaeological resources in Kingston. A number of groups have been formed in order to protect those resources: the Kingston Historical Society was formed in 1894 as a forum for scholarly research; the Frontenac Historic Foundation was formed in 1972 to encourage the preservation of historic buildings; the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee was appointed in 1975 to replace the Committee of Architectural Review (formed in 1971), which established the Kingston Act, forerunner of the Ontario Heritage Act; and Preserve Our Wrecks Kingston, formed by divers in 1980 in an attempt to dissuade wreck stripping. None of these groups, however, with the exception of Preserve Our Wrecks, is directly involved in archaeology.