Fort Western Addition

AUGUSTA -- In 1628, Pilgrims built a 20-by-40-foot fur-trading post here that provided a place for commerce between them and American Indians.

The post provided more revenue than anywhere else in New England and helped the Pilgrims pay down the debt they incurred in getting to the new world. The trade also introduced European tools and food farther north than they had been before.

The post was a key piece of the story of how and why the region was settled and of peaceful relations between Pilgrims and Indians.

Now, Old Fort Western officials want to tell this story better by showing it.

They want to construct a replica of the old 800-square-foot trading post on a piece of open, grassy ground just south of the fort.

"After Plymouth, the Pilgrim location here in town, in their history, is the next-most-important place," said Jay Adams, director and curator of the fort. "It's a big story for New England, a big story for Maine, a big story for Augusta. Much of Native Americans' (history interacting with Europeans) is a history of conflict, but it is more than just shooting at each other. There's so much more to the story than that."

The fur-trading post would be built with privately raised funds, Adams said. "We don't intend, now, or ever, to ask the city for any public money" for the project, he said.

Because it would be on city-owned land, however, the project does need the city's approval.

Adams said Pilgrims were in the fur trading business -- primarily in beaver caught by Maine Indians -- from 1628 to 1660.

The fort already has an educational program based on trade between Pilgrims and Indians.

The original trading post was on the present site of the Christian Science Church. The replica's proposed site is just south of the fort, outside of the fence that surrounds the fort.

The original building was a post-in-ground building, with no foundation and relatively rough-hewn wooden beams.

The proposal goes to the Augusta City Council for discussion Thursday, at a meeting that begins at 6:30 p.m. at Augusta City Center.

In the series of pictures in the next post there is one that is kind of fuzzy, the sun was shining right on my and my cameras eyes and I could not avoid it. I was on the other side of the river from the fort and the glare was bright. If you look between the 4 chimneys you will see 2 white building in the background. That is where the trading post stood. Its about a 100 yards north and slightly east.

Dale