HomeMy WebLinkAboutFort Corchaug - Dr. Ralph Solecki P,
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Dr. Ralph Solecki, world-renowned anthro olo
Ist and educator, was born In New York Clt 1
n 1917 andspent
summers at hisfamily's -
home on Manor Hill a mile from the fort site InCutcho ue. Asa child Solecki began ^
g
findingarrowheads in the farm fields around his house. On i
com n back each summer to their Cutchogue homeg
Ralph Solecki topportunity ' ' �ook ever he could et to over the fields sc tlY g
ou n out archeolo lcal sites.
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Readingbo k n 1o s o ocal history, he became interested In locatinghistoric FortCorchaug. 1935,, In the summer of he
discovered the Corchau fback 's ®rt site on the west side of Downs Creek. Solecki came Ing late 1940s to write his
master's thesis at Columbia 'on the and the fort site. That r resea ch continued In the 50s and
•
'60s is still theprimarywork on the it npreservationsea d was Instrumental In the Forts as a
Landmark In 1999 .
Dr. Solecki has called the fort "the rarest and finest exam le of an undisturbed p
u d sturbed Indian site on the Atlantic
seacoast. " Artifacts •
coast. he uncovered here decades ago are In the Smithsonian Institutiong and at PeabodyMuseum
fHistory.
o Natural
What started out as a summer diversion became a life longcareer for h
Dr. Solecki went on to become
Fprofessor emeritu finternationally 's o archeolo at Columbia. He is noted for hls work on the Neanderthals of
archeology
Shanidar Cave in Iraq. Hisprofile in "Who's Who in Amerlca lists over fifty ears of archeolo lcal excavation from
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Alaska to the Middle East -- including, of course Cutc' hogue..
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Dr. Ralph Solecki is trulythe od father of Fort Corchaug, n 'g
o e of Southold Town s f hest landmarks. No other
individual has done as much as he to research and helprimportant 'eserve the Fort site. We arepleased to
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honor him by lacinghis name on the Visitor nCe ter at Fort Corchau at Downs Farm Preserve . on November p4 2006g ,
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The Solecki summer home on Manor Hill (ca. 1940) Solecki at Fort Corchaugca. 1935
Fort Corchaugwas the seat of the CorchaugIndians. Theyw r
e e one of the 13 tribes on LongIsland that made u
p
the Algonquin family of thegreat Delaware Indian nCorchaug — Cutchogue —
atlon. from which is derived means
place. The Corchaugs inhabited the land betweenOrientwprincipal
and River. �v�,re known for makln g
the best wampum on the East Coast and were theF r in
o t Knox of wam um makers. Even befo�,e Southold wpas settled
p _
1640, the English and the Dutch traded with the Cor htaus.
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By 1660 of terpopulation losses caused by e idemics andNaragansett raids the had been rendered p ,
ineffective inprotectingtheir lanShortly 'ds. thereafter the were exonct,
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Sketch of Fort Corchaugas it reall 1ooked. l�/Iural of Corchaugs l Y
settlement along Downs Creek
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