Researching Petty’s Island in the Delaware

Through the laudable efforts of the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust (NJNLT), Petty’s Island, a 300-acre tract in the Delaware River with compelling views of the Philadelphia waterfront, is transitioning from a less-than-appealing tank farm and industrial site to a wildlife preserve.  To manage and interpret the island to good effect for future generations, the NJNLT needs to fully understand its long and complicated history.  Hunter Research was retained to explain that historical trajectory and prepared a synthetic document that highlights an array of themes from aboriginal and early European settlement to meadow banking and livestock farming, from lotteries and fisheries to shipbuilding and bulk materials handling.

Hunter Research and the Howell Farm

A group of trainee archaeologists, Howell Living History Farm staff and Hunter Research archaeologists at the end of the first week of the archaeology camp.

Over the past five years Hunter Research has formed a powerful bond with the Howell Living History Farm in scenic Pleasant Valley, northwestern Hopewell Township.  Through a range of innovative programs, this unique Mercer County-owned-and-managed facility brings New Jersey farming traditions vividly back to life for local schoolchildren and the general public.  With funding assistance from the New Jersey Historical Commission, our company has assisted the Mercer County Park Commission and the Friends of the Howell Living History Farm, using archaeological techniques to explore the sites of a mid-18th-century gristmill, homestead and burial ground, all associated with the locally prominent Phillips family.  In 2015 we organized a wonderfully engaging three-week archaeology camp for high school-age children where we successfully pinned down the site of the John Phillips house site.

The southeast corner of the John Phillips House cellar foundation.

Hunter Research in Central Park

Hunter Research has supplied historical and archaeological services to the Central Park Conservancy for more than 25 years.  One especially fascinating study was recently featured in The New Yorker magazine.  Through a combination of detailed historical research, map analysis, and field investigation several of the original John Randel survey monuments used to lay out the Manhattan city grid in the 1810s were identified still in place in the Park. 

Learn more at this link.