Provincial Fort of Windham

Members of the Windham Historical Society entertained our club with the story of the recent archaeological dig at the suspected location of the Provisional Fort of Windham at what is now the intersection of River Road and Anderson Road in South Windham.  The Fort was known to have been erected on the top of the highest hill in Windham and was built to protect the families of Westbrook and South Windham from constant threat during the Indian wars in the period of 1744 – 1784. The first school in Windham and a church were built inside the fort. Once it was no longer needed, the Fort was dismantled and materials were used to build other structures in Windham.

 

The Historical Society wanted to determine if the fort was indeed at this location, and if portions of the fort are located under the road. In the front lawn of the Parson Smith House (see above) test pits were dug. When some artifacts were found, trenches one meter wide by four meters long were dug carefully and yielded artifacts typical of the period including pipes, fragments of pottery, nails, and parts of a flintlock rifle.  Different soil colors indicate where walls of the fort were constructed.

 

The Windham Historical Society, working closely with the Maine Historic Heritage Commission, will be back in April of this year and dig more trenches to further explore the site before planned road construction begins. They are now confident that a good part of the fort is under the road. However, work being done by the Maine Department of Transportation to lower the River Road 4 feet at that point to improve sight lines and vehicle safety will move forward.

 

Anyone seeking more information is urged to visit http://windhamhistorical.org/parson_smith.shtml or check out this WCSH6 Story from November 2015 WCSH6 Windham Historic Dig