Historic Fishing Camps

Archaeologists continued to monitor excavation of the waterline within Lake Vista Neighborhood closer to what would have then been the "meander line" - the ebbing and flowing shore line - of Lake Pontchartrain before the Land Reclamation Project of the 1930s. A layer (120 to 150 cmbs) of black organic soil (mostly tree roots) and very coarse sand with some shell was noted beginning closer as the waterline excavation moved west towards the relict lakeshore. The soils were changing, showing a very dark gray, almost black, organic tree root layer between the yellow and bluish-gray sand and the very dark gray marsh clay below. By the time the trench progressed to the end of Killdeer Street, the gritty layer was shallower, woodier and full of debris with historic glass shards and some brick fragments.

A cropped map shows the location of “Spanish Fort” by the water’s edge. Other original text on the page reads “OLD FORT,” “HOTEL,” DEPOT,” LAWN,” “OPERA,” and “CASINO.” Four red triangles are imposed on the page to display the excavations in relation to the old fort and the shore line. The waterways Bayou St. John and Lake Pontchartrain have been labeled.

Close up of the area on the ca. 1884 map depicting Spanish Fort with approximate markers of artifact-rich locations along the Killdeer Street Waterline Trench. Courtesy of New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Here, out of place pilings were observed, possibly old piers to access historic camps, as observed in this ca. 1922 aerial photograph (below). One such piling was dislodged by the mechanical excavator but had fleetingly been observed as it was pulled from down in the lower gray clay near the trench floor; it had extended into the gray sand (65-100 cmbs) where it had been cut, presumably at ground level when the existing structure had been razed for the 1920s lakefront improvement project.

Spanish Fort and Bayou St. John, Aerial View, 1922. Courtesy of Historic New Orleans Collection, 1979.325.6309.

Lakefront Recreational Park. Courtesy of Works Progress Administrative Photograph Collection, City Archives & Special Collections, New Orleans Public Library.

These pilings observed probably had something to do with structures once extant on the lakefront. After that none were observed in situ. Out of place pilings were observed and were different sizes. The one dislodged by the excavator measured 30 cm in diameter and 170 cm long. They all had been saw cut on one end (very tight growth rings) and were chopped into a point on the bottom. All were about the same length and the wood was perfectly preserved, many having a yellowish tint. They may have been pine.

Three bottles displayed on black velvet with a fifteen-centimeter scale bar. From left to right, the first is a cylindrical jar, and reads, “HORLICK MALT CO. MILK.” The second is a colorless flask, the third is a colorless rectangular bottle.

Three bottles displayed on with base facing the camera lens, all are displayed on black velvet with a fifteen-centimeter scale bar. The third bottle reads, “WHITE HORSE.”

Two complete pale blue-green water bottles. One reads, “New Hope Manufacturing Company,” the other “1922 Bienville Av.”, displayed on black velvet with ten-centimeter scale bar.

Water bottles from New Hope Manufacturing Company, 1922 Bienville Street, Louisiana. Courtesy of UNO ARC.

Two colorless glass tumbler fragments; one rim and one with a sunburst pattern base, displayed on black velvet with ten-centimeter scale bar.

Tumbler base and body. Courtesy of UNO ARC.

Courtesy of UNO ARC.

The artifacts recovered consisted of liquor bottles (flasks) mostly glass but also wood and brick. Some of the wood had been cut into planks and appeared as tongue-in-groove floorboards. No ceramic was observed. One intact, half-pint flask was embossed: “FULL/ ½ / PINT.” One of the machine-made bottles likely dates from 1903 – 1930s. Another liquor flask was embossed “WHITE HORSE” ON THE BASE OF THE BOTTLE on the base of the bottle; it was also machine-made. Portions of another amber liquor bottle included the “I” in the “Diamond” Diamond Base Mark pattern of the Illinois Glass Company (ca. 1915-1929). Another complete milk container was embossed “HORLICK S. MALTED MILK//TRADE…MM//MARK/RACINE/WIS//USA/SLOUGH/BUCKS/ENG” with a “16” embossed on the base of the bottle (1906 - ).

Lakefront Development. Courtesy of Works Progress Administrative Photograph Collection, City Archives & Special Collections, New Orleans Public Library.

Historical photographs before the area’s redesign frequently document these lakeside camps, as well as other pier-related wooden infrastructure along the Pontchartrain’s relict south shore. The date of the artifact assemblage, combined with the position of the historic items along the ca. 1880s-1920s meander line of the South Shore of Lake Pontchartrain and the disturbed wooden piers suggest that this assemblage could be household garbage from one of the camps that lined Lake Pontchartrain before the Lakeshore Improvement Project of the 1920-30s.