Return To Fort Reed (2006-2026)

 Every now and again, Tif and I tried to have breakfast together, as if we were a normal family. I sat at the table and sipped my coffee.

"This month is twenty years since I started in local history," I commented.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I was hired at the museum in March of 2006. They hired me based on my research into the Tiadaghton Declaration of Independence....I never really did wrap that up."

"Oh, god, Dad, you're not going to get into that again, are you?"

"Well, it's still out there."

"Every time. Every time this comes up, you start all over again. And out come the maps and the newspaper articles...."

"I might reopen this one. It's my anniversary. And the document is still out there."

"How do you figure you're going to get all the way to McElhattan?"

I smiled.

"I have partners."

"Are you guys familiar with the Tiadaghton Declaration of Independence?" I asked from the back of the car.

"Not yet," commented Jay.

It was raining. We were riding around in Jay's car---Jay and Lex up front, me in the back. We did this some nights, ride around and explore. Like that scene from Wayne's World, except with ghosts.

"The Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia is not the only one," I explained. "There were seven others signed within a two-year period, all in Pennsylvania. One of them was right here in Clinton County. On the same day, July fourth, 1776, a group called the Fair Play Men at Fort Horn met and signed this document. They took it to be sent to King George, but in a very Monty Python moment, they were told that one had already been sent. So they brought it back and buried it somewhere on or near the grounds of the fort."

"No kidding," commented Lex.

"It was buried in a metal box. It's never been found. The military brought a mine detector in 1949, and never did find the thing. Way back when I was first hired in local history, I was researching this. My theory....I think one of the signers had it buried with him. And I think we're heading to it."

"Which way?" asked Jay.

"Turn left."

She pulled down the snaky S-turn of Spook Hollow Road. I said,"The fort was up at this bend---There's a monument to it. I'll show you."

She pulled off at the bend, and we got out of the car. Lightning flashed in the sky. Jay said nervously,"Is it okay with our equipment out here?"

"You mean, will it hurt the equipment?"

"I mean, will we get hit with lightning?"

"Should be okay," said Lex.

"Yeah, it's not likely we get struck," I agreed. "We're not at any more risk here than we would be anyplace else."

We walked down the path, and the monument was there, just like I remembered it. Fort Horn. 1776.

"Here it is," I said. "This is where they signed a declaration of independence, almost two and half centuries ago."

"See, I'm just saying," I explained,"Your lease doesn't specifically state you can't have a pet Squonk."

"This is true," admitted Lex.

We sat in the parking area in Wayne Township, by the Susquehanna River. It was still pouring out, and we'd decided to wait a while until the rain slowed down a bit. 

"Twenty years ago, I was researching the Tiadaghton Declaration," I said. "I walked into the local historical society with a theory that one of the Fair Play Men had it buried with him. On the strength of that theory, they hired me as a curator. I didn't know just how much this was going to escalate into a career."

Jay grinned. "It really did, didn't it? Everyone who needs to know about Lock Haven comes to you."

"You did."

"I'm glad I did."

"Me too. Now, over the years I've learned a lot more about all this, but the document is still out there. It was said to be buried somewhere on the fort, but I've always thought it was possible that they later dug it up, and the last one had it buried with him. And that would be Robert Love, who is in Quiggle Cemetery just up the hill. Now, me actually digging it up would be the tiniest bit illegal, but it's enough for me to know it's there."

"How did you find the grave?" asked Jay.

"You can find any grave in the county with the genealogical society records. Speaking of, you guys still want to come to the genealogical society meeting on Tuesday?"

"I want to, but I have to work," said Jay.

"I'll be there," said Lex.

"It's in a haunted church, if that helps."

"So how do you find out if the metal box is buried there?" Jay asked.

"In all this time, I've never taken my metal detector and checked," I said. "It's been a possibility, but there's always other ghosts and mysteries getting in the way. You know how it goes. So that would be one method worth trying."

She grinned. "So that's why you brought the metal detector along tonight."

"That's why." I glanced out the window. "Looks like the rain's easing up. Want to do this?"

"Yes," said Jay. "Let's."

We got out of the car and started walking up the hill. The rain almost immediately started up again, but I figured we're paranormal investigators. Adventurers. We're tough; we can take a little rain.

"This is going to ruin my hair," said Jay.

"It's harder to look badass when you say stuff like that," I said.

We walked up and over the railroad tracks. We walked up the path, and there was Quiggle Cemetery.

"Robert Love," I said. "We want Robert Love."
The grave was one of the first rows when we got into the cemetery. I found the marker in about ten seconds. I turned on the metal detector and lowered it to the ground.

"The document was  buried in a metal box," I said. "Now, let's see if there's metal down----"

Beeep.

Lex and Jay lit up. I moved the detector around a bit more, getting a very consistent signal at the foot of the grave. I grinned at them.

"Looks like there's something," I said. "We'll have to look into this more this summer, during the 250th anniversary."

"Is there any way to get the actual shape of the thing underground?"

"Well, ground-penetrating radar. But I'll never be able to afford that. The cheapest ones start at fourteen thousand or so. I'll have to stick with my ninety-dollar detector."

"This is amazing," said Jay.

"You want to get back to the car?"

"Yeah."

I was waiting outside the haunted church when Lex arrived, walking down Water Street. I said,"Thanks for coming. You want to do a little trespassing before the meeting?"

"Of course I do."

I was glad to have some time with Lex. Out of all my teammates, she was the one that I'd so far spent the least one-on-one time with. I hung out with Ashlin and Chloe all the time, and I'd done some exploring with Jay. So it was nice to have some time with Lex, just the two of us.

She followed me across the alley to the museum---The same museum I used to work at. I opened the gate and said,"I haven't set foot on this property since 2012."

She followed me in, and we walked back to the pavilion that covered an archaeological dig. And it all came back to me.

"Wow," I said. "They've really let this place go to hell. These people don't know what the hell they're doing. They once hired a curator who unleashed a curse on the whole building."

"I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that was you," she said.

"The specifics aren't important."

Lex leaned over the fence. "Cool," she said.

The pavilion protected a stone foundation that was in a rectangular pit. The foundation was a couple of feet underneath where ground level would have been. One side of the pit was collapsing, and the fence around the whole thing was falling apart.

"We found this during a day camp dig in the summer of 2006," I said. "I did the research, and we figured out it may have been the foundation to Fort Reed. That was connected with Fort Horn; they were both along the Susquehanna Line, and some of the same people were at both. We did a whole dig, and found a lot of stuff. I remember going through a lot of the old documents and reporting to my boss every day."

2006: In Anne's office, I explained my findings to her. She'd been in the phone, threatening to send me down to Northumberland County to check land grants.

"So I went into the Grafius Building---Yes, I trespassed, you can bitch me out for it later---And found that it was built in 1843. It's pretty safe to say William Reed didn't built it, as he died in 1808."

"Wait....You entered the Grafius House?"

"It's all offices now. I went in the front hall. I'm part Irish. Nobody told me to go away; that's what we consider an invitation."

"What else have you found?"

"The DAR put the monument up in 1899. They have the date wrong; they claim it's 1775 when it was actually 1777. I'd like to look into that, and find out what their thought process was when they established that. I want to see what documentation they had."

"Okay," said Anne. "Because if we can document this as Fort Reed, the Channel Sixteen guy said he'd come back with a news crew and give us a story."

"You mind if I leave early?....I want to run to the library, and see what I can dig up there."

"Go."

I walked with Lex around the other side of the dig. I was somewhat cheered to see that the sign we'd designed was still in place, showing the process of the dig.

"What if you went further?" asked Lex. "Keep digging along the foundation going that way?"

"We decided  not to do that," I said. "We could only go just so far. Besides, that's an actual outhouse. When they built it, they would have cut through the foundation on that side."
"Wow. An outhouse from the old days?"

"I climbed down the pit on a ladder once."

"Why would you---"

"Wanted to see how far it went down, and if I could find signs of the foundation from that side. We spent a whole summer working on this dig. Found a lot of artifacts. One of them was a lid to a teapot belonging to Jennie Reed."

"Jennie Reed lived here....?"

"Jennie Reed was the closest thing Clinton County ever had to a Disney Princess. She was about Chloe's age when her father built Fort Reed, and she lived on the frontier. She negotiated with the Native Americans and gave them milk and butter. When the Great Runaway happened in 1778, and everyone left the valley to avoid an attack, she buried her clay teapot and dug it up later. We found a lid that we could identify as probably hers."
"That's so cool."

"Now that I think about it...."

Lex watched me expectantly, "Yes?"
"The Tiadaghton Declaration. I always had a little trouble working out the timeline on this one. They signed it and took it to Philadelphia, but then brought it back. It's pretty well documented that it was buried, but the question would have been when they dug it back up. It never made any sense to bury it and then just dig it up again. But if they did it during the Great Runaway....."

"It makes sense, doesn't it?"

"It does. They buried it when they returned to Fort Horn, but dug it up either just before or just after the Great Runaway. And then one of them, probably Robert Love, had it buried with him. Where we may have found it the other night."

Lex grinned. "I can't believe all this is within walking distance of my place. I never knew any of this until I met you."

"I've always said that this stuff is in every community. But the thing Lock Haven has that other places don't is me, discovering and promoting this stuff." I looked at my watch. "Ready for the meeting?"

"I love this city," Lex said as I walked her home.

"I always have," I agreed. I looked out at the street lights along Main Street. "I give tours, I write about it....This is my place. I belong here."

"And you've been at it twenty years now."

"Twenty years since I started in local history. I got hired at the museum in 2006, joined LHPS when it was created in 2007, started writing for the newspapers in 2008. I was already researching the forts when I got hired; they hired me based on my research. Back in the beginning, I was also working on the Underground Railroad, the ghost in my house, and the Colebrook Cairns."

"I assume we'll be getting to all these adventures sometime."

"We will. There's always more adventures out there."

We stopped in front of her place. Lex said,"Thanks for giving me something to do while Jay was out. I'll be back for the next meeting."
I smiled.

"Thanks for coming, Lex. Have a nice night."