Heite, Louise B., and Edward F. Heite

1989

Archaeological and Historical Survey of Lebanon and Forest Landing, Road 356a, North Murderkill Hundred, Kent County, Delaware.

Prepared by Heite Consulting, Camden, Delaware. Delaware Department of Transportation Archaeology Series No. 70.

DelDOT Archaeology Series No. 70 summarizes the results of a cultural resource survey in the vicinity of the Town of Lebanon, in Kent County, Delaware. Documentary research indicated the historical presence of a cannery, an ironworks, a nailery, and a sawmill in or near the project right-of-way. Using shovel tests, and limited excavation of test units and trenches, archaeologists located evidence of remains from the 1700s and from the latter part of the 1800s.

Portions of a timber-framed, earth-filled causeway were found on much of the project right-of-way. The causeway, which probably represents an extension of a landing road built in the 1700s, was measured and recorded.

The archaeologists determined that the remains from the sawmill were probably buried under the causeway.  A bloomery forge from the 1700s, a mansion house, and a possible graveyard appear to have been removed by borrow-pit operations. Foundations from the Collins, Geddes cannery were exposed in the testing. A collection of can-making waste, generated by the cannery between 1870 and 1882, was collected and analyzed. Preserved timbers, belonging to wharves, tank structures, a bulkhead serving as a slip or channel wall, and a timber-cribbed earthen dam, were exposed at low tide and recorded in Tidbury Branch.

The report includes a background history of the Town of Lebanon, focusing especially on the importance of waterborne traffic and waterfront commercial towns in the 1800s in Delaware. The report also examines the technology associated with dam building in the 1700s, bloomery ironmaking, sawmills, nailmaking, fruit and vegetable canning, and can-making in Delaware. The researchers recommended further excavations at the Collins, . Geddes Cannery Site. The results of the additional research are presented in DelDOT Archaeology Series No. 83