Lake George reinterment blessing ceremony
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (NEWS10) – A “Hallowing of the Ground” ceremony took place at Battlefield Park in Lake George on Friday. It was in honor of the 44 human remains discovered in 2019, believed to be revolutionary soldiers.
A chaplain from the U.S. Army blessed the grounds where the reinterment of those burials will be.
State and local lawmakers were among those who attended the reinterment blessing ceremony. Archaeologists Lisa Anderson and Charles Vandrei were a part of the dig on Courtland Street in 2019, when 44 remains were discovered. Anderson said this is when you should notify authorities.
“Immediately. So as soon as we get notice from law-enforcement, it goes to the state archaeologist who works at the state museum and as soon as we can, we get out to the site to evaluate it and then work with the property owner to make a decision about what will happen next,” said Anderson, who is a curator of bio-archaeology at the New York State Museum.
Human remains have been found in the area since the 1800s. Vandrei said if you plan on digging on your property you can get ahead of any issues.
“I say to streamline is to call someone early. I mean I think it took us 15 months to recover remains that were in that large pile of soil, which is I think about 70 truckloads of soil, it would’ve been a lot. If we had to excavate those burials it would’ve been a lot faster,” said Vandrei.
After Friday’s ceremony, many attendees were able to witness an archaeological dig. Skidmore College professor Dr. Siobhan Hart and her team have been there for two weeks. She touched on the historic connections.
“The connection between Courtland Street and our active excavation here reminds us that when we’re doing this work, that is investigating the past, that we have to do it in a respectful way,” said Hart. “We can make connections with them across time.”
She said so far they’ve found barracks and animal bone fragments but they will continue digging for another week in an area that was likely the front lines of the Battle of Fort George.
Anderson said it’s likely people will continue to come across human remains in Lake George.
“Unmarked graves have been found in Lake George since the 1800s and many of them we don’t know what happened to them, but some have ended up in other institutions so all of those will be brought together for this interment and anything that’s encountered in the future,” said Anderson.