(Pictured right to left) Dante’ Weisend, Site Manager of Fort Laurens, Doug Angeloni, a Trustee of the Friends of Fort Laurens Foundation, and Jonathan Brewster, Head Archaeologist of the Fort Laurens Project of the Ohio History Connection, raising the new flag at Fort Laurens.
Digs are still happening at Fort Laurens as a reconstruction project is in the works to bring back a portion of Ohio’s only Revolutionary War Fort.
The fort was built as conflicts were happening between the American Army and the Native American’s, and was abandoned within nine months.
Site Director Tammi Shrum says they have worked for many years to obtain funding for a reconstruction project. Archeological digs have been ongoing this year and a historical flag has been raised.
“They did archeology back in the 1970’s and they found a lot of where the structures were located, so the archeologists this time confirmed that was where the flag had been located. We were able to source a tree from Fort Ancient and that was the tree used for the flagpole and all of the hardware was made in the blacksmith shop in Zoar, and then it’s a Bennington flag.”
Part of the work is to redo the tomb of the unknown soldier.
“Fort Laurens has one of the only Tombs of the Unknown soldiers in the United States. Of course, there’s one in Virginia and there’s one in Massachusetts as well, but there is an unknown patriot buried at Fort Laurens, and they’re going to redo the tomb area, redo some landscaping, and make that more accessible. Then the fort will be getting new museum exhibits inside the museum and then the fort reconstruction, they’re hoping to get it done for the fort’s anniversary, so we’re looking at 2028.”
The public can take a museum tour during normal business hours. Shrum notes folks can also get involved with the digs by watching out for public archeology days on the Fort Laurens Facebook page.
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