ARCHAEOLOGIST BRINGS HISTORICAL DISPLAY TO PERRYSBURG
The Perrysburg Area Historic Museum will present archaeologist Greg Shipley at the Way Library on Sunday, October 6 at 2:00 p.m. His subject is an archaeological in depth Power Point study, "Searching for the 1795 Fort Loramie Depot Site".
Mr. Shipley's amateur archaeological activities include personally conducted excavation projects on dozens of prehistoric and historical period sites in Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. Cultural periods he investigated include: Archaic, Woodland, Fort Ancient, Mississippian and 18th century Native American sites in early history. Also included are the War of 1812 US military sites in Ohio and nearby states.
In 2009, after retiring from his professional career, as an Engineering Coordinator for the Honda of America automotive division, Mr. Shipley began conducting more lengthy and detailed archaeological site investigations. This included the use of modem-day geophysical technologies and standard excavation methods.
In 2013, Mr. Shipley worked to form the Wayne's Legion Research Group, (WLRG) whose amateur members are focused on researching, locating, and excavating the 1790s period of Generals Arthur St. Clair and Anthony Wayne's Legions. An added plus is the1700’s Native American sites in western Ohio.
The Fort Loramie site was constructed and garrisoned by Wayne's Legion troops, from 1795 to 1798, and has become a primary focal point of Mr. Shipley's annual investigative activities.
Many of General Wayne's dispatches to and from the U.S. War Department mention the establishment of Fort Loramie and the military activities of that post into 1798, when it was abandoned.
While the fact that a Wayne's Legion period outpost had been located on what is known as the Fleckenstein farm, today, no one ever knew the exact location of the actual outpost or exactly what had been there.
In 2013, the Wayne's Legion Research Group began their ongoing site investigation project to locate the actual footprint of the Fort Loramie outpost. It is now in the twelfth season of annual field excavations. This WLRG team has not only recovered thousands of 1790s period military artifacts, but have located/exposed numerous structural features of this 1795-1798 U.S. Army facility. This includes forty eight feet of post molds from one of the wooden log stockade wails that Wayne's Legion troops erected in October 1795.
Mr. Shipley will provide a PowerPoint program that documents the 2013-2024 research and field work activities that the WLRG has conducted thus far. Images of the recovered artifacts and fort related structural features will be plentiful, during this one-hour presentation.
An added visual bonus is that many of the actual Legion of the United States military artifacts, which have been recovered at the Fort Loramie and at General Wayne's Greene Ville, Ohio headquarters site, will be on display during this program.
During the past fifty years, M. Shipley has written many articles for archaeological and hobbyist publications. He has enough field excavation data and associated photography in his archives to create eighteen different prehistoric and frontier era themed PowerPoint archaeological programs.
A lifelong resident of Champaign County, Ohio, save for his college years at The Ohio State University, Greg and his wife, Linda, recently relocated to a home outside of West Liberty, in Logan County, Ohio.