I recently had an opportunity to speak with Howard Horton, the owner of Horton Farm located in the town of Glastonbury, CT. The farm, which has been in the same family for five generations was originally purchased by Howard's Great Grandfather in 1860. Through the years it has been a vegetable and tobacco farm and during WWII helped out by supplying produce to local communities. Howard has always been active in community affairs and was a member of the Glastonbury Fire Department and the Fire Marshall for twenty years.

But the farm has an even more interesting history as it is also the site of a series of Native American occupations dating back at least 3500 years. When I spoke with Howard at his home he said: "I met Dr. Nick at our historical Society. He came to one of our meetings to give a talk... He was good and had a lot of enthusiasm. I told Dr. Nick about the artifacts that were found on the farm by my dad and that he could come down to the house to see them. Dr. Nick has been here several times since."

Howard and his family have generously made their farm available for archaeological study. Many of Glastonbury's Smith Middle School students know the Horton Farm as "the place where I did an archaeological dig." Students, teachers and invited parents have taken part in excavations, unearthing their first artifacts and possibly launching their own careers in archaeology. A frequent comment heard from students is: "It was cool to know we were touching real artifacts from thousands of years ago."

Student excavations continued over the course of several years at this site uncovering a wide range of stone tools dating from the early Archaic period to Late Woodland times including Brewerton Eared and Bifurcated points, as well as axes and hammer stones. Of special interest was the discovery of a fire-pit or hearth. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal removed from the hearth indicated an age of 3650 years BP, consistent with the types of artifacts found on the farm.

Other important archaeological work at the farm was conducted by Dr. Kevin McBride. As part of his doctoral research at UConn in the 1980s he catalogued many of the Horton Farm artifacts (McBride, 1984).

Thank you, Howard, to you and your family for generously providing the location and opportunity for these young Glastonbury students to have this experience.

A quote from a student, "I will never forget how I got to be an archaeologist for a day."

References:

McBride, Kevin Allen 1984 Prehistory of the Lower Connecticut River Valley, Doctoral Dissertation, The University of Connecticut