PAHS To Host David Cusack of Muir Bridge Archaeology Project

The Portland Area Historical Society will hold their next meeting on March 27th at the Senior Center, 144 Kent St. The meeting starts at 6:30 with a brief business meeting, followed by our speaker. The public is invited.

This month’s speaker is David Cusack speaking on the Muir Bridge Project.

The village of Muir, Michigan is situated at an important geographic point, the confluence of the Maple and the Grand Rivers. Ancient earthworks at Arthursburg Hill were built on a bluff overlooking the valley, and evidence suggests that this floodplain has been occupied by human cultures for thousands of years.

The village of Muir needed to replace an aging bridge over the Maple river, and in the winter of 2015 began construction activities which disturbed the cultural resources laying below the corn fields where the bulldozer cut the new bridge approach.

David Cusack became an accidental avocational archaeologist when he approached the village with a concern over the loss of cultural resources. David will discuss the situation, the salvage effort, and describe the 2 fire pit features and the materials recovered from the site. Pottery fragments and other materials recovered from the site will be presented for a true show and tell session, and discussion of future plans for analysis and interpretation of the data.

The PAHS will also be at the Portland Day of Music on March 24 at the high school. Please stop by our table and say "Hi".