FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Daniel T. Elliott
The LAMAR Institute, Inc.
(706) 269-2857
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Jesup, Georgia, September 13, 2004-- On a quiet fall day in 1742 violence erupted at a lonely military outpost on Georgia’s western perimeter. Spanish-allied Yamassee warriors unleashed a surprise attack on the Georgia Rangers' Fort Mount Venture on the Altamaha River.
The Yamassee killed virtually everyone in the fort, except for a few British-allied Creek Indians whom they took hostage. Mary Musgrove Mathews, "Queen" of the Creek Nation, narrowly escaped death on that day. Mary used Fort Mount Venture as her main trading post, and was in Savannah when the raid occurred.
The LAMAR Institute launched a search for Mount Venture in 2003 on the forest lands of Plum Creek Timber Company, and their archaeologists are narrowing the field of possible locations for the fort. In the process,the research team has identified several other important 18th century sites. One of these is the likely location of a 1790s fort, possibly that garrisoned by Captain Armstrong's Company of Glynn County Dragoons. Support for the project comes from the National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program, the Plum Creek Foundation, and Plum Creek Timber Company. The archaeological discoveries at Mount Venture highlight an important part of Plum Creek's Sustainable Forestry Initiative program to manage these historically significant sites in an economic and socially responsible manner.
Daniel Elliott, lead archaeologist of the expedition, stated, "This was one of Georgia's most exciting colonial outposts! In 1741 Fort Mount Venture was Georgia's first point of defense against attacks from Spanish Florida." Events in that war helped to define the very shape of United States' geography. The massacre at Mount Venture was the greatest conquest in Georgia by the Spanish. This Spanish victory demonstrated to General Oglethorpe just how vulnerable Georgia was from guerrilla attacks. We are on the threshold of discovery!"
Who: Archaeological team from the LAMAR Institute searches for Mary Musgrove's main trading post
What: Fort Mount Venture, a 1730-1740s Georgia Ranger fort and trading post
When: Mount Venture, 1736-1742
Where: Sansavilla Bluff, Altamaha River, Wayne County, Georgia
Why: The Mount Venture massacre at Sansavilla Bluff marks a major event in Georgia's colonial history.
How: Archaeologists are employing multiple research tools to locate the fort and massacre site, including historical research, geographic information systems (GIS), ground penetrating radar (GPS), metal detectors, as well as more traditional shovel test grids and small excavations.
The Lamar Institute is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization registered in Box Springs, Georgia to promote research and public education on archaeology in the Southeastern United States. The Sansavilla Bluff project is part of the Institute's Pre-Civil War Forts Initiative, which seeks to locate and explore military sites in Georgia dating prior to 1861. The Sansavilla Bluff project was funded by research grants from the National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program and the Plum Creek Foundation, Seattle, Washington. Other LAMAR Institute projects associated with fortified sites and led by Mr. Elliott include the discovery and exploration of Forts Abercorn, Ebenezer, and Mount Pleasant on the Savannah River, Fort Argyle on the Ogeechee River, and Fort Morris and the town of Sunbury, on the Medway River.
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