Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2009 - (Page 55) Exactly where was the town plaza or the gridded arpent squares laid around it on named streets, sited with identical houses? Where was the St. Bernard Church and its cemetery? What was the exact location of the settlement’s two consecutive forts? In fact, was the second fort actually built? When Rob Mann arrived in Louisiana in 2001, a veteran of professional fieldwork and site analysis in other regions, he was amazed to learn about the Galveztown site. “An 18th-century site in south Louisiana is pretty rare,” Mann observed. And the fact that one as historically significant as Galveztown had never been investigated was doubly surprising. But true: with the exception of several informal attempts, including an incomplete master’s thesis, a superficial pass by an archeology consultant, and some unprofessional metal detector work, the site of the Galveztown community had never been professionally explored. The archeologist’s interest was prodded by an encounter with Janelle and John Hickey, active members of the Canary Islander Historical Society, comprised of descendants of families who had immigrated from the Canary Islands. Janelle has traced her lineage back to Galveztown settler Jose Gonzales Cabo, who arrived during the late 18th century to serve in the Spanish military and populate Governor Bernardo de Galvez’s newly created strategic settlements, including Galveztown. John’s professional background in research and data made him an enthusiastic partner in uncovering Canary Islander history ardent about the unexplored Galveztown site. When the Hickeys first took Rob Mann to see the site, he was pleased to find it remarkably undisturbed. Over the intervening two centuries, “only Highway 42, a few driveways, and plowing” had intruded on the landscape where Galveztown had been. Glen Cambre is a soft-spoken attorney and a vocational historian who lives modestly on a large expanse of this historic ground that has been in his family since the 1880s. He doesn’t question that his property was part of Galveztown, offering a charming tale as proof: Spanish officials asked native Indians for the best location to build their fort, to control the Amite River and the confluence where it meets Bayou Manchac. The natives told them to build “at the leaning oak,” the highest point in the area. It just happens that a massive, threetrunked, ancient live oak,with two large flatly arced boughs shades Glen Cambre’s backyard. It also happens, Cambre claims with a wry smile, that although adjacent properties have often been inundated, his property has never flooded. And when he allowed novices with metal detectors to prowl his property, they found Hessian belt buckles, 18th century square-head nails, and round metal cuff buttons. He keeps a collection of these — proof of history — proudly framed in shadow boxes. There’s no question that Glen Cambre lives on one part of the Galveztown site and, in fact, it’s possible that his house may even be located at the same spot as the fort. But because of a dearth of public funding for archeology, and little private sector interest in underwriting archaeological projects, even sites as significant as Galveztown have remained unexplored. So Rob Mann created an unorthodox plan. With the enthusiastic backing of the Hickeys and with Glen Cambre’s permission, he created a short course in field archeology through LSU Leisure Courses and attracted a group of twelve volunteers, with others on a waiting list. The group included John and Janelle Hickey, of course, as well as a nurse with a cardiology group, the owner of a drapery business, an IT compliance manager, and others who are avocationally interested in archeology and wanted to learn professional methods for digging in the dirt. On six consecutive Saturdays, under Mann’s painstaking supervision, they crouched on the greensward between Glenn Cambre’s house and Highway 42, shoveling square holes as neat as hospital corners down to the plough line, troweling up bucketsful of heavy mud, sifting them through large box nets, and collecting a range of lifestyle artifacts greater than had ever before been uncovered and studied at Galveztown. Rob Mann is sure they unearthed only a miniscule fraction of what is there. But it is a beginning and has become increasingly important as rural Ascension Parish near Baton Rouge continues to develop rapidly. Highway 42, which bisects the Galveztown site, is scheduled to be widened and new subdivisions and small businesses are left: Map of Galveztown in 1778. The original is housed at the Library of Congress. below: Glen Cambre and his family currently own the Ascension Parish land where Galveztown once stood. The massive three-trunked live oak is part of local lore about the property. Spring 2009/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 55 PHOTO BY MARY ANN STERNBERG
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