Our project is about the preservation and interpretation of the archaeological resources at Robert H. Treman State Park. When you visit the park, you see a beautiful "natural" environment that has attracted visitors for generations. Buried only a foot beneath this gorgeous natural landscape is a 19th century historic landscape - a vibrant hamlet existed in what is now Upper Robert H. Treman State Park. The hamlet housed a gristmill; saw mills, a general store, a hotel, a tannery, other craft shops, and homes. By the 1930s, most of the buildings in the hamlet of Enfield Falls were destroyed in order to create the Park. The descendants of residents of Enfield Falls still live in Tompkins County. Descendants, Parks Staff, and members of the Friends of Treman State Park wanted this cultural landscape and history revealed. And thus we entered into a long-term partnership with this group.
We undertook archaeological fieldwork to determine if any material survived the transformation of the hamlet into the park. The fieldwork revealed that about one foot below grade were the foundations of homes and shops from the 19th century. We have excavated the general store, the blacksmith's home (and post office), the home of one of the owners of the hotel, and the Enfield Falls hotel along with associated outbuildings and yard deposits.
In terms of public outreach we have provided tours of the archaeological excavations, public lectures to schools and community group, traveling exhibits, and a permanent archaeological exhibit within the historic mill at the park. We are now working on permanent outdoor archaeological exhibits, and an archaeological component to the new visitor orientation film for the park.

I was approached by the staff at the park and by the Friends of Robert H. Treman State Park. The program is needed because over the last eight years the Republican governor has consistently cut funding to our state parks. Without a partnership with archaeologists at Cornell this needed work could not be undertaken. While there are preservation laws that impact projects that have federal and state funds involved, thousands of other archaeological sites are destroyed each year, especially Indian villages and burial grounds, 19th century rural sites, and farmsteads, including sites in our state parks. The issue is about the sustainability of our cultural resources and our heritage. In order to protect these sites we need to engage the public and create "grassroots preservationists." We need to educate the public so that they will care about preserving the rich archaeological heritage of North America. The work is linked to heritage tourism. With promoting the history and archaeology of the park it promotes wider visitorship, which brings in more funds directly to the park and visitors also spend money in Tompkins County (thus positively impacting the local economy). The local State Parks staff and the Parks staff in Albany care.

We have undertaken extensive documentary research on the buried village in the park. We have excavated the general store, the post office, a home, and the hotel. We are working with the Parks staff to develop permanent outdoor archaeology exhibits. We have completed two permanent indoor exhibits in the historic mill. We have had four years of fall tours of the archaeological excavations, as part of our public outreach. Visitors have come as far as Buffalo to see our work. The work is still in progress.

Because this project is still on-going, it is too early to tabulate economic gains from this heritage tourism project.

It deals with historic preservation and cultural tourism

• Cornell Council on the Arts
• Jacob and Hedwig Hirsch Grant

Daniel Costura (Anthropology Dept (PhD Student))