Steeped in history and legends, New York is filled with stories of the forgotten, eerie and the weird that influence us everyday. What lies just a foot below the surface in Herkimer's Historic Four Corners?

Lite 98.7's Eric Meier has teamed up with Folklorist P.W. Creighton to explore the haunts and legends of New York. Through their travels into the dark and often overlooked spaces they will bring these historic sites back to life and make some unexpected discoveries along the way.

In this episode Phil guides the explorers back to Herkimer's Historic Four Corners in the city's downtown. Herkimer was the home of the Revolutionary War era Fort Dayton, an archaeological dig looking for the Fort turned up more about Herkimer's past than was ever expected.

 

Fort Dayton, known as ‘The Forgotten Fort,’ was constructed in 1776 under the supervision of Colonel Elia Dayton as part of the defensive chain of forts through the Mohawk Valley as the western frontier. While no significant events occurred at the fort itself, it is best noted as the Fort that supplied the militia that General Herkimer led into battle to relieve Fort Stanwix and after Stanwix burned Fort Dayton was known as the western-most point of the frontier.

A historical society volunteer, Fred Doyle, who had conducted extensive research on what was known as “The Forgotten Fort” and together with the historical society and archaeologist Doug Pippin had managed to put together a brief excavation to search for the forgotten Fort Dayton in 2002. Their excavation uncovered a number of artifacts including some pipe stems, glassware and ceramics. The artifacts seemed period and were worthy of further research but after Doyle passed in 2003, the Fort was forgotten again.

When the Herkimer County Historical Society resumed an excavation in 2014, it managed to uncover a secret well that had been forgotten since the late 1800's and while excavating the well didn't help identify Fort Dayton, it did reveal a great amount of information of Herkimer's Doctor Suiter.

The search for Fort Dayton has resumed and is already uncovering more forgotten history from Herkimer.

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