Guys, good news. Remember that milk archaeology article The Internet™ wouldn’t show me?
I broke through.
Well, actually I just had to refresh the page. Didn’t count against my free article limit, either.
From…I think this is the Watertown Daily Times, by way of NNY360:
FORT DRUM — An archeological find in one of Fort Drum’s forgotten communities last fall even baffled Laurie W. Rush, Fort Drum’s Cultural Resources Program manager, and her team.
The cultural resources team discovered a substantial building foundation of a barn, near a Fort Drum ammunition training site, that left them puzzled.
The unique site, near Plank Road in what was once Sterlingville, contained an interesting set of troughs laid into a concrete floor.
They were later told by a retired town of Philadelphia highway superintendent that the area matched the historic location of a facility in which farmers brought their milk to keep cool until it could be sold.
Feels like the start of a movie.
First, the milk:
It appears this site had troughs and channels diverting a tributary of Black Creek to do the cooling.
Second, the story:
So there’s this fort, I guess, named Fort Drum, and it’s a pretty big fort up there in northern New York. It’s by the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. Fairly close to Ottawa, which you may know of because the Senators play there, or because it’s the capital of Canada (allegedly). Back when the fort was being expanded in the 30’s, the government said, “Hey you,” to the towns around there, and when the towns said, “Yes?” the government said, “Get the hell out of here.” Hence, the milk co-op became abandoned. Had the government not expanded Fort Drum, the milk co-op might be a milk museum by now! Or, you know, we may have lost World War II. Who’s to say.
Anyway, the co-op existed in a place called Sterlingville, New York, and per Wikipedia (I should really donate), the only other Sterlingville got destroyed too. Old mining town. Oregon.
So.
Don’t name your town Sterlingville.
The government might take your milk.
