Finding Fort Roberdeau

Abstract

Fort Roberdeau was a lead mine in central Pennsylvania during the period of the American Revolution. Scant information exists on the original position of the fort, the location of mining activity in the area during the period of the Revolution, or artifacts from this period. Subsequent farming, mining exploration, and the placement of the current replica fort (erected 1976) obscure the landform and hinder identification of Revolutionary-period mining activities. As a means of locating where the mining activities occurred and the original position of the fort, this study integrates historical, geological, geophysical, geochemical, geomorphological, and archaeological data. Geological mapping identified potential areas of past mining, and geophysical resistivity surveys verified at least one Revolutionary-period mine, since the location and dimensions of the subsurface anomaly match historical records. The positions of period metallic artifacts in conjunction with a road and corner of the original fort (identified with LiDAR and thermal imagery) place the original fort near the current replica.