Archeologists dig in Chester, give sewer project a green light

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

For three days last week, a crew of highly educated and well-trained people toiled in the heat and humidity, digging holes and finding nothing of significance. And that constituted “mission accomplished.”

The group were archeologists working for Hartgen Archeological Associates of Rensselaer, N.Y., and their job was to assess an area in Chester before the town can replace sewer pipes there and raise the sewage pump station above flooding. That work is scheduled for late this summer. The site – an open field – is a town-owned parcel on Flamstead Road between Depot Street and the Green Mountain Turnpike.

Naomi Johnson of Dufresne Engineering – the firm that’s running the sewer project – told The Telegraph that the project receives federal funds through the State of Vermont so they are required to do an environmental review including historical and archeological assessments. She noted that the proximity of the river, the gristmill, an older community plus the possibility of finding evidence of Native American inhabitants made it possible that artifacts might be found.

“If something is found we would have expected that the project would be delayed until we received further directions from the state,” said Johnson.

According to the leader of the archeological pack, Nathaniel Durant, the area is marked as a sensitive “pre-contact” site, meaning that it could contain evidence of people who lived here before Europeans arrived.

Durant explained that rivers were means of transport and a place to find food and other resources. Archeologists use models to predict where such sites may be found and proximity to rivers can be a big factor.

The crew dug a number of holes — a few several feet square and even more a foot to 18 inches square — through several depths of soil. The top layer — called alluvium — is the soil directly under the sod that’s been deposited by the North Branch of the Williams River. It’s also where much of the organic material is found. Basically, it’s topsoil. That layer is about 40 centimeters deep at this site. Archeologists speak in the metric system, but that’s around 16 inches. The next layer or “b-horizon” is the original subsoil before the river deposits. Below that is the substratum, which archeologists call the “c-horizon.” It’s a rocky layer above the bedrock — or ledge, as we know it.

After giving this explanation, Durant gets down to show a visitor each layer, which are  differentiated by soil color. And while the crew labors to uncover the deeper soils, the place where evidence of pre-contact people’s activities will be closer to the top. To check for these, each digger loads up a screen which has handles on one side and legs on the other and begins to shift it back and forth to sift out the soil while leaving small objects behind.

But in several days of digging and sifting, the archeologists had found only a few bits of pottery – likely from the 19th or 20th centuries – and a couple of nails. While that’s not too exciting, it means the town is a bit closer to replacing a sewage conduit that is near failing. Such a failure could inconvenience many downtown residents and cost the town dearly to truck sewage to the treatment plant.

The nearly $3 million bond that finances the work was approved by Australian ballot in March. While all registered voters were eligible to vote on the bond, the users of the sewer system will make the bond payments through their user rates. The non-users were involved in the ballot question because the town as a whole is the guarantor for the bond.

The archeology is part of a larger effort to gauge the impact of the sewer work on the environment. Engineers from Dufresne will be on hand at the Aug. 20 Select Board meeting to make a Findings of No Significant Impact presentation.