NEARA JOURNAL VOLUME 49 NUMBER 1  SUMMER 2015 THE STONE “FORT” AT LOCHMERE, NH: A HISTORY Norman Muller I here is a view common among many archaeologists in the Northeast that the American Indians of the region didn’t learn how to build with stone until they were taught by the colonial settlers in the seventeenth century, implying that they were somehow deicient in constructing with stone until then. Many of the arti- cles I have written for the NEARA Journal and other publications address this misconception and set the record straight by providing examples of documented American Indian stonework. A list of documented stone features constructed by the prehistoric Indians in the Northeast, if made known to the academic com- munity, might help to change the mindset of regional archaeologists and perhaps lead to a more open attitude about the thousands of aboriginal stone features found throughout the eastern half of the U.S. his article focuses on an unusual stone enclosure, called a “fort” in the nineteenth century, 1 which was found in an area of Tilton, New Hampshire, called Lochmere, and is simply another piece of evidence supporting the view that the Indians did construct with stone long before Europeans set foot on this continent. T “F”  L he story of the “fort” at Lochmere, New Hampshire, begins in the late eighteenth century, but the most im- portant aspects of the story take place around 1818, when John Farmer, a New Hampshire genealogist and histo- rian, met with Jacob Bailey Moore, a Concord publisher and historian, to plan a gazetteer for New Hampshire. It was published in 1823. he book comprised every as- pect of the state, from a description of the terrain and climate, to a listing of each town’s distinctive attributes. Farmer, the senior of the two and a recognized histori- an, must have known about an unusual stone enclosure in Sanbornton (as Lochmere was then called), a town 20 miles east of Concord on the Winnipesaukee River, which Jeremy Belknap had briely described in the third volume of his History of New Hampshire. Unfortunately, Belknap’s few words failed to convey an accurate picture of what it looked like. Out of curiosity, Farmer probably asked Moore to check it out. Early in September 1822, Moore traveled to Sanborn- ton to study and map the unusual stone structure on the west bank of the Winnipesaukee River. On September 11 he was met in Sanbornton by James Clark, a prominent resident and surveyor of the town—one well-versed in the Indian history of the Winnipesaukee Valley—and by James Gibson, son of one of the town’s irst residents, and owner of the land where the “fort” was located. he structure Moore saw that September day had been known for approximately sixty years, shortly after the town was founded. After examining traces of the wall on the ground, Moore then proceeded to make a careful drawing of the structure and surrounding features in pencil, which he later reinforced with black and red ink, using a ruler to make a careful delineation of the fort’s U-shaped walls (F ). his drawing was later cut out and pasted in a journal he kept. He also composed a short essay on what he had seen that day. 2 One long wall, paralleling the river, curved slightly to the southwest before ending and entering Little Bay. his wall was joined at right angles with shorter segments, each of which was separated by a gap or gateway, in back of which were small rectangular stone mounds. here were three such gateways and an equal number of mounds. Outside this walled enclosure in the southeast corner was a large round mound. In the top corner of the drawing we ind the following notations: A. Open space between inner walls of the fort. a, a, a. Front wall extending into the bay. b, b, b. Space between inner and outer walls. c, c, c. Small mounds in front of the openings. B. Neck of land on which are mills, etc. C. Circular mound. Below, in a small box, is the following: “Plan of the Remains of an old forti icat ion of the Penacooks, on the Winnepisiogee, as sketched on the spot by J.B.M. Sept. 11. 1822.”