Chugnut - Vestal, NY
Posted by: 
ripraff
N 42° 05.200 W 076° 03.633
18T E 412286 N 4659943
This sign was not placed by the road, but along the Vestal Rail Trail near the pedestrian bridge over Choconut Creek. The sign is marked 2015, but it has only recently been placed in 2016.
Waymark Code: WMT8E0
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 10/14/2016
Views: 3
"Chugnut native American village near mouth of Big Choconut Creek. Destroyed by General Enoch Poor August 18, 1779, Clinton-Sullivan Campaign. William G. Pomeroy Foundation 2015"
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During the Late Archaic Period, 3000 to 2000 BC, small nomadic bands of Native Americans from various groups were hunting and fishing in the area that became Vestal. Archaeological evidence of their presence has been found along the river at Willow Point, the mouth of the Choconut Creek, and in Castle Gardens... small groups of Native Americans who subsisted by hunting, fishing, and gathering seasonal foods. Excavations at these sites have produced projectile points, broken pottery, burned bone, fire-cracked rock, and lithics or stone tools, all of which archaeologists use to reconstruct their cultural activities."
"Rather than the name of a tribe or group, Chugnut was the name of an encampment near the mouth of the Choconut Creek that also encompassed the north side of the river. ...it was a geographical group of Native Americans representative of several different tribes. It was here that Revolutionary War soldiers reported in their diaries of burning “houses” and destroying crops of beans, squash, and corn at Chugnut on August 18, 1779*. *Spelling changed to reflect more common usage and date changed to reflect the date given in the majority of diaries."