Fishing Camp

For more than 800 years, the opposite bank of Oak Orchard River was a busy spring and summer Native American fishing work site where fish were netted from the river, processed over firepits and drying racks, and then taken to more permanent living sites on higher ground. Archaeological evidence from the Archibald Site, excavated in 1958, 1970, and 1986, includes pottery shards, firepit remains, fish scales, and thousands of netsinkers, and indicates a specialized fishing encampment rather than a permanent habitation because it lacks projectile points, hide-processing tools, and other signs of year-round settlement. Pottery patterns identify the most prominent inhabitants as Iroquois, while evidence also shows regular use by Owasco people. The sinkers were notched rocks tied to lines and used with floats to hold nets open, and the site indicates that early peoples caught spawning fish in spring and summer by stretching nets across the river. Fish taken for subsistence included catfish, bullhead, drum, sucker, sturgeon, gar, and rock bass, while modern fishing in the area is primarily recreational and includes introduced game fish such as coho and chinook salmon, brown trout, bass, pike, and perch.

Carlton, New York · United States