Plans are underway for memorial and burial service for Revolutionary War-era smallpox victims
By Gwendolyn Craig
The 18th-century remains of 44 people believed to have died from smallpox in the village of Lake George are closer to being laid to rest after their unmarked graves were unearthed during a construction dig in 2019.
The Adirondack Park Agency on Thursday authorized the construction of a memorial site and place of interment on the east side of Fort George Road in Lake George. At least one of the skeletons was a soldier with the First Pennsylvania Battalion in the Revolutionary War, based on unearthed buttons.
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The park agency, which is charged with long-range planning and public and private development in the Adirondack Park, approved the memorial through an amendment to the 1981 Lake George Beach and Battlefield Park Unit Management Plan. The burial site will include six structures for the remains, a walkway, flagpole, stone benches, interpretive signs and new plantings. There will be a cooperative agreement with the town of Lake George for maintenance and reinterment.
The bones were discovered in February 2019 on Courtland Street in the village. Building contractors dug an entire foundation before calling the local sheriff about the grave shafts and splintered human bones.
Charles Vandrei, archaeologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said there were 11 partially disturbed graves in addition to 70 dump-truck piles of soil that had to be sifted for bone fragments. It took 15 months with hundreds of volunteers to conduct the recovery.
Lisa Anderson, curator of bioarchaeology at the New York State Museum, and Julie Weatherwax, bioarchaeology technician, counted 833 loose teeth since then, and matched 781 to 42 people.
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Anderson counted femurs and that pointed to 44 people. Most of the remains appear to be male teenagers. Two of the buried were likely under the age of 10. Five were likely over the age of 40.
In an interview with the Explorer at the museum, the archeology team showed what about a quarter of their work has yielded over the last five years.
White boxes separated a few femurs, jaws, teeth and bone shards. Sticky notes indicated where the bones were found, with details to help make matches.
“We had tables laid out, just going to each piece trying to match as many pieces as we could and put people and parts back together,” Anderson said.
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Dan Barusch, director of planning and zoning for the town and village of Lake George, said a committee formed to help manage the future of the remains and has been meeting almost monthly since they were found. Barusch and members plan to raise funds for the interment project now that the APA has signed off. Details are still being worked out.
John DiNuzzo, president of the Lake George Battlefield Park Alliance, said he hoped the reinterment ceremony could align with the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and the 250th anniversary of the smallpox hospital at Lake George in 2026.
“It would be a nice way to pay tribute,” DiNuzzo said.
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The APA received about 40 comments on the amendment and the design. Most called for the board to approve the amendment.
“Everyone seems to really be behind the project,” Barusch said. “We did our best with the design to try and make sure it’s compatible with the park and low impact.”
A few commenters were not in favor of the internment’s design and provided their own opinions of what it should look like. A few asked for the benches planned for the site to be facing the memorial rather than Lake George.
Lyn Karig Hohmann, former president of the Battlefield Park Alliance, has worked closely on the project, from helping sift through the remains to their planning their reburial.
“They deserve what couldn’t be given them during that time when the Hospital for the Northern Campaign was dealing with hundreds of ill and dying persons–a dignified hallowed interment site,” she wrote. “The Park is the ideal location for this as within its environs was the army hospital, although its specific location is not clear.”
Top photo: Volunteers work on the dig site in Lake George. Photo courtesy of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Locals attest that there are more graves near this site, specifically under the Pancake House parking lot (property has a for-sale sign currently). Our history is just beneath the surface, but are we committed to looking if it means digging for the past?
It is correct that re-burial is planned for remains from Court land St.
However, there are some inaccuracies. There are plans to include remains found in other areas of the village, such as Mohican St. and Fort William Henry. It is almost certain that some of these remains are from the French and Indian (7 Years) War.
They deserve tribute too, not being ignored. A ceremony planned around the anniversary of the Revolution only diminishes their contribution.
It is highly unlikely that everyone, or even most, of the people at Courtland St. died of smallpox. Dysentery was a big killer, as were malaria, and other infections. Malnutrition and exhaustion contributed.
Although I support re-burial, I do not feel the current plans for the “memorial” convey the gravitude and misery that occurred there. My ancestors died there, one went home with a serious disability.
I am a member of the NYS Archaological Association, and I was a volunteer working directly with the remains at all the sites mentioned above.
As a lifelong Lake George visitor since my parents brought us to Fort William Henry in 1959, I’m really excited about the local dedication to this project.
About 30 years ago I was visiting the Historial Society and overheard three very senior ladies talking about their childhood remembrances of Lake George. One of the ladies recounted an event that created quite a stir in the village in the early 1900’s. When construction was under way for the narrow gauge railway (presently the bike trail) that brought visitors north from downstate, the workers unearthed what she called, “an Indian burial ground.” I couldn’t resist, so I politely asked for the exact location. It is my belief that one of the reports recorded about the fort’s smallpox hospital was that it was placed on a precipice near the lake. In the great haste precipitated by the invasion, victims were reported to have been cast over the edge into a common grave, which would have been in close proximity to the railroad siding near the fort site hotel and opera house. Just sayin’.
Thanks for the hard work and dedication.
James Lethbridge, Vestal, NY