The Cumberland Bone Cave is a public visitation stop along the Potomac Heritage National Scenic T... more The Cumberland Bone Cave is a public visitation stop along the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail renowned for its unique fossil resources that help reconstruct Appalachian middle Pleistocene life in the mid-Atlantic region of North America. This site is gated for safety and to prevent unwanted exploration and damage. Approximately 163 taxa of fossil plant and animals have been collected from Cumberland Bone Cave since 1912. Most of the fossils that have been published pertain to mammals, including many extinct or locally extirpated genera and species. Though the early excavations made by the Smithsonian Institution between 1912 and 1915 are the best known of the work at Cumberland Bone Cave, over many decades multiple institutions and paleontologists have collected and studied the fossil resources from this site up until 2012. Today, fossils from Cumberland Bone Cave are housed at various museum collections, including public displays at the National Museum of Natural History in...
A faunal analysis on the animal remains recovered from the Schmitt Site shelter was conducted to ... more A faunal analysis on the animal remains recovered from the Schmitt Site shelter was conducted to supplement the formal archeological report by John L. Reese (Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., 79 (2): 56-58, 1972. Animal remains suggest that the valley in which the site was situated had permanent water, an oak-hickory forest interspersed with meadows, and prairies above the valley on the flatlands. Little if any climatic change has taken place since the occupation of the site. The shelter probably was never occupied permanently, but was used periodically as a camp
Raw data for the Kanopolis Local Fauna vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoec... more Raw data for the Kanopolis Local Fauna vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.
Raw data for the Oakland Mammoth vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology ... more Raw data for the Oakland Mammoth vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.
Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, number 102, vi + 15 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, 2018.-A... more Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, number 102, vi + 15 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, 2018.-A small but significant assemblage of Late Pleistocene mammals was recovered from an eroding shoreline at Paw Paw Cove, located on the Chesapeake Bay side of Tilghman Island, Talbot County, Maryland. Additionally, Clovis-age (11,050-10,800 radiocarbon [ 14 C] years before present) artifacts were found in a lag deposit beneath a loess deposit at the site. An accelerator mass spectrometry date obtained from an organic stratum below the loess at the same location suggests that this small fossil assemblage is approximately 21,000 years old. Identifiable taxa include four extinct species, Castoroides sp. (giant beaver), Equus sp. (horse), Tapirus veroensis (Vero tapir), and Mammut americanum (American mastodon), along with Canis cf. C. latrans (coyote), and Cervus elaphus (wapiti). Significantly, the tapir and giant beaver are the first records for Maryland, and the tapir is the first record from the Coastal Plain of the Chesapeake region of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The provisional identification of Canis cf. C. latrans may represent the first Late Pleistocene record from the Coastal Plain of the Chesapeake region of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Cover images, from left to right: tooth of coyote Canis cf. C. latrans (detail from Figure 4); Dan Wagner documenting soil profile at Paw Paw Cove site (detail from Figure 2); tooth of wapiti Cervus elaphus (detail from Figure 4).
Dozens of earthen forts, constructed of intricately shaped mounds of local soil, provided a key e... more Dozens of earthen forts, constructed of intricately shaped mounds of local soil, provided a key element of our national defense during the War of 1812. Although their constructors were not concerned with their long-term existence, topographic evidence of many of these unique geometric features remains on the landscape today. Given land-cover and land-use changes of the last two centuries, combined with natural erosion processes along nearby waterways, most face uncertain futures in terms of mitigation and preservation. Over the last year, we have produced detailed topographic surveys of three sites in Maryland (Fort Stokes near Easton, Fort Point near Centreville, and Fort Nonsense near Annapolis) using data from terrestrial laser-scanner and structure-from-motion aerial imagery. These surface models, along with traditional stratigraphic and radiometric techniques, are now being used to identify the rates and spatial patterns of degradation since their construction. Our study sites ...
The War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain was fought throughout nearly all of t... more The War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain was fought throughout nearly all of the country, from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean to the vast frontier between the U.S. and Canada. No theater of war suffered more than the Chesapeake Bay region, where 11 battles-including Craney Island, Hampton, Bladensburg, and Baltimore-63 skirmishes, and 86 raids took place. Featuring a comprehensive list of more than 800 of the war's historical sites in the region, this book is an indispensable reference to the second great war for independence. One chapter each covers Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The authors draw on both American and British accounts in describing battlefields and the locations of skirmishes. The book includes historic maps and drawings, descriptive overview essays, the most complete chronology of the War in the Chesapeake ever assembled, and a thorough bibliographic essay. Supported by such primary documents as diaries, journals, and newspaper articles, the material compiled in this encyclopedia surpasses any collection thus far brought together on the subject. Local librarians, historians, tour guides, history buffs, school teachers, and genealogists will find this guide to be informative and enlightening.
Page 1. i Historic Context Study of Waterfowl Hunting Camps and Related Properties within Assatea... more Page 1. i Historic Context Study of Waterfowl Hunting Camps and Related Properties within Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland and Virginia by Ralph E. Eshelman, Ph.D and Patricia A. Russell Eshelman & Associates July 21, 2004 For ...
The late pre-Nebraskan (late Blancan) White Rock fauna was recovered from the ancestral Republica... more The late pre-Nebraskan (late Blancan) White Rock fauna was recovered from the ancestral Republican River paleovalley deposit (Belleville Formation) of north-central Kansas. Based on faunal content and delineation of this paleovalley, the Belleville Formation is in part a correlative of the Red Cloud sands and gravels of Nebraska to the northwest and the Holdrege, Fullerton, and Grand Island (in the sense of Lugn, 1935) formations of Nebraska to the northeast. The diverse White Rock fauna consists of at least three mollusks, four ostracodes, one beetle, ten fish, six amphibians, 11 reptiles (Sceloporus holmani, new species), three birds, and 43 mammals [Cynomys (Cynomys) hibbardi, new species]. Based on morphological grade of evolution, the mammals of the White Rock fauna are postsand Draw local fauna (earliest Pleistocene) and pre-Borchers local fauna (Aftonian). Comparison of probable environmental habitats and food habits between the White Rock fossil mammalian fauna and the modern mammalian fauna of the area shows that the White Rock fauna was more diverse than the modern fauna. The mammalian components of the White Rock paleoecosystem appear to be a good representation of the actual mammalian fauna of that time. Collectively, the fauna suggests a climate with less extreme temperature and moisture fluctuations than now occu~ in north-central Kansas. Initial pre-Nebraskan glacial cooling could have allowed climatically incompatible elements of the White Rock fauna to live contemporaneously. Climatic deterioration was not sufficient to force southward taxa characteristic of more southern, warmer, and milder seasons. This paper is a revision of the thesis submitted i n partial f u l f i i e n t of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Michigan. The author's present address is Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, Maryland 20688. iv THE WHITE ROCK fauna was discovered by R.L. Wilson of the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, in the summer of 1966 in exposures resulting from the 1959 construction of the White Rock Canal in Republic County, Kansas (Figs. 1, 2). A l l of the material collected by Wilson was obtained from the early Pleistocene Belleville Formation, locality UM-K1-66. Claude W. Hibbard and Robert Carr returned to Wilson's locality in the summer of 1969 but were unable to locate Wilson's exact collecting site due to massive slumping of the canal walls after unusually heavy rains that spring. Apparently the original locality was buried during either the slumping or redredging of the canal. Hibbard and Carr did, however, process material from two additional localities in the Belleville Formation, UM-K3-69 and UM-K4-72. Avolcanic ash was also discovered stratigraphically above the Belleville Formation in a ravine approximately 0.3 km to the W. This locality was designated the ash locality, UM-K4-69. Extensive collecting and washing of bone-bearing horizons in the Belleville Formation in Republic County during the siiiiiiiieis uf 1972 and i973 resuited in six additional University of Michigan collecting localities, UM-K5-72-UM-K9-72. Material was also recovered from three University of Kansas collecting localities, KU-Rep. Co. Locs. 1, 3, and 4. From these localities a diverse late Blancan fauna, which includes mollusks, ostracodes, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, was recovered. The main objectives of this study are: (1) to describe the White Rock fauna, (2) to interpret its paleoenvironment, (3) to correlate the White Rock fauna with faunas from chronologically equivalent deposits of the Great Plains, (4) to review the Pleistocene stratigraphy of the area, (5) to establish more precisely the age of the Belleville Formation, (6) to interpret the sedimentological history of the ancestral Republican River paleovalley, and (7) to attempt a reconstruction of the mammalian paleoecosystem of the White Rock fauna and compare it with the ecosystem now present in Republic County. Except for a few specimens at the University of Kansas, all fossil vertebrates reported in this study are housed in the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan. The fossil mollusks are retained in the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan mollusk collections. The ostracodes are kept by E.D. Gutentag of the U.S. Geological Survey. The pollen samples are retained by Steven A. Hall. Abbreviations used in this report t o designate institutional collections and localities are: AMNH-American Museum of Natural &story BEG-Bureau of Economic Geology,
This paper represents the last major project undertaken by the late Claude W. Hibbard. He had exa... more This paper represents the last major project undertaken by the late Claude W. Hibbard. He had examined most of the material and had begun to write the systematic descriptions for most of the small mammals and a few of the large ones. After his death Mrs. Hibbard provided us with his notes and other data, and the specimens were borrowed from the University of Michigan. Gordon Edmund worked up the giant armadillo, Ralph Eshelman worked up the data for the large mammals, and Rick Zakrzewski did the same for the small ones and collated the manuscript. We have tried to maintain Hibbie's original ideas and statements. The only differences, other than minor editing, involve segments of the paper for which we had no original data such as descriptions of Pitymys, Perognathus and the large mammals with the exception of the peccary. We hope that the finished product does him justice.
... Gidley , 1922), Benson local fauna; 0. fossilis (Hibbard, 1941c), Borchers local fauna; Irvin... more ... Gidley , 1922), Benson local fauna; 0. fossilis (Hibbard, 1941c), Borchers local fauna; Irvingtonian 0. pedroensis (Gidley, 1922), Curtis Ranch local ... These six ageclasses are broadly comparable to those established by Van Cura and Hoffmeister (1966) for Onychomys in Arizona ...
Four morphologically distinct tayassuid species are present in the marine strata of the lower Che... more Four morphologically distinct tayassuid species are present in the marine strata of the lower Chesapeake Group in Maryland and Virginia. The oldest of these, an unnamed species, occurs in bed 2 of the Calvert Formation and is the only terrestrial mammal yet known from this unit. In the upper Calvert and lower Choptank Formations three tayassuid species resemble closely in size and morphology taxa known from the middle and upper Miocene Olcott and Valentine Formations in Nebraska. “Cynorca proterva” and “Prosthennops” xiphidonticus are present in beds 10 and 14, respectively, of the Calvert Formation. “Prosthennops” niobrarensis occurs in bed 17 of the Choptank Formation. These taxa, considered together with the other known terrestrial mammals from the Chesapeake Group, indicate the following correlations with land mammal faunas from western North America: bed 2, ?late Arikareean or early Hemingfordian; bed 10, late Hemingfordian or early Barstovian; bed 14, early late Barstovian; be...
Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, Publication 75, 1986
There are 77 Quaternary vertebrate localities in the state of Virginia from which 100 taxa of bir... more There are 77 Quaternary vertebrate localities in the state of Virginia from which 100 taxa of birds and 93 taxa of mammals have been identified. While many localities are represented by single specimens, there are several significant local faunas containing numerous specimens representing both marine and terrestrial environments. Karst features, such as caves and fissures, account for 74 percent of the sites. The depositional environmental, age, and distribution of Virginian’s Quaternary vertebrate localities are discussed, and Virginian’s late Pleistocene and 16th Century mammalian faunas are identified and compared.
The Cumberland Bone Cave is a public visitation stop along the Potomac Heritage National Scenic T... more The Cumberland Bone Cave is a public visitation stop along the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail renowned for its unique fossil resources that help reconstruct Appalachian middle Pleistocene life in the mid-Atlantic region of North America. This site is gated for safety and to prevent unwanted exploration and damage. Approximately 163 taxa of fossil plant and animals have been collected from Cumberland Bone Cave since 1912. Most of the fossils that have been published pertain to mammals, including many extinct or locally extirpated genera and species. Though the early excavations made by the Smithsonian Institution between 1912 and 1915 are the best known of the work at Cumberland Bone Cave, over many decades multiple institutions and paleontologists have collected and studied the fossil resources from this site up until 2012. Today, fossils from Cumberland Bone Cave are housed at various museum collections, including public displays at the National Museum of Natural History in...
A faunal analysis on the animal remains recovered from the Schmitt Site shelter was conducted to ... more A faunal analysis on the animal remains recovered from the Schmitt Site shelter was conducted to supplement the formal archeological report by John L. Reese (Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., 79 (2): 56-58, 1972. Animal remains suggest that the valley in which the site was situated had permanent water, an oak-hickory forest interspersed with meadows, and prairies above the valley on the flatlands. Little if any climatic change has taken place since the occupation of the site. The shelter probably was never occupied permanently, but was used periodically as a camp
Raw data for the Kanopolis Local Fauna vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoec... more Raw data for the Kanopolis Local Fauna vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.
Raw data for the Oakland Mammoth vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology ... more Raw data for the Oakland Mammoth vertebrate fauna dataset obtained from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.
Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, number 102, vi + 15 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, 2018.-A... more Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, number 102, vi + 15 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, 2018.-A small but significant assemblage of Late Pleistocene mammals was recovered from an eroding shoreline at Paw Paw Cove, located on the Chesapeake Bay side of Tilghman Island, Talbot County, Maryland. Additionally, Clovis-age (11,050-10,800 radiocarbon [ 14 C] years before present) artifacts were found in a lag deposit beneath a loess deposit at the site. An accelerator mass spectrometry date obtained from an organic stratum below the loess at the same location suggests that this small fossil assemblage is approximately 21,000 years old. Identifiable taxa include four extinct species, Castoroides sp. (giant beaver), Equus sp. (horse), Tapirus veroensis (Vero tapir), and Mammut americanum (American mastodon), along with Canis cf. C. latrans (coyote), and Cervus elaphus (wapiti). Significantly, the tapir and giant beaver are the first records for Maryland, and the tapir is the first record from the Coastal Plain of the Chesapeake region of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The provisional identification of Canis cf. C. latrans may represent the first Late Pleistocene record from the Coastal Plain of the Chesapeake region of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Cover images, from left to right: tooth of coyote Canis cf. C. latrans (detail from Figure 4); Dan Wagner documenting soil profile at Paw Paw Cove site (detail from Figure 2); tooth of wapiti Cervus elaphus (detail from Figure 4).
Dozens of earthen forts, constructed of intricately shaped mounds of local soil, provided a key e... more Dozens of earthen forts, constructed of intricately shaped mounds of local soil, provided a key element of our national defense during the War of 1812. Although their constructors were not concerned with their long-term existence, topographic evidence of many of these unique geometric features remains on the landscape today. Given land-cover and land-use changes of the last two centuries, combined with natural erosion processes along nearby waterways, most face uncertain futures in terms of mitigation and preservation. Over the last year, we have produced detailed topographic surveys of three sites in Maryland (Fort Stokes near Easton, Fort Point near Centreville, and Fort Nonsense near Annapolis) using data from terrestrial laser-scanner and structure-from-motion aerial imagery. These surface models, along with traditional stratigraphic and radiometric techniques, are now being used to identify the rates and spatial patterns of degradation since their construction. Our study sites ...
The War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain was fought throughout nearly all of t... more The War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain was fought throughout nearly all of the country, from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean to the vast frontier between the U.S. and Canada. No theater of war suffered more than the Chesapeake Bay region, where 11 battles-including Craney Island, Hampton, Bladensburg, and Baltimore-63 skirmishes, and 86 raids took place. Featuring a comprehensive list of more than 800 of the war's historical sites in the region, this book is an indispensable reference to the second great war for independence. One chapter each covers Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The authors draw on both American and British accounts in describing battlefields and the locations of skirmishes. The book includes historic maps and drawings, descriptive overview essays, the most complete chronology of the War in the Chesapeake ever assembled, and a thorough bibliographic essay. Supported by such primary documents as diaries, journals, and newspaper articles, the material compiled in this encyclopedia surpasses any collection thus far brought together on the subject. Local librarians, historians, tour guides, history buffs, school teachers, and genealogists will find this guide to be informative and enlightening.
Page 1. i Historic Context Study of Waterfowl Hunting Camps and Related Properties within Assatea... more Page 1. i Historic Context Study of Waterfowl Hunting Camps and Related Properties within Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland and Virginia by Ralph E. Eshelman, Ph.D and Patricia A. Russell Eshelman & Associates July 21, 2004 For ...
The late pre-Nebraskan (late Blancan) White Rock fauna was recovered from the ancestral Republica... more The late pre-Nebraskan (late Blancan) White Rock fauna was recovered from the ancestral Republican River paleovalley deposit (Belleville Formation) of north-central Kansas. Based on faunal content and delineation of this paleovalley, the Belleville Formation is in part a correlative of the Red Cloud sands and gravels of Nebraska to the northwest and the Holdrege, Fullerton, and Grand Island (in the sense of Lugn, 1935) formations of Nebraska to the northeast. The diverse White Rock fauna consists of at least three mollusks, four ostracodes, one beetle, ten fish, six amphibians, 11 reptiles (Sceloporus holmani, new species), three birds, and 43 mammals [Cynomys (Cynomys) hibbardi, new species]. Based on morphological grade of evolution, the mammals of the White Rock fauna are postsand Draw local fauna (earliest Pleistocene) and pre-Borchers local fauna (Aftonian). Comparison of probable environmental habitats and food habits between the White Rock fossil mammalian fauna and the modern mammalian fauna of the area shows that the White Rock fauna was more diverse than the modern fauna. The mammalian components of the White Rock paleoecosystem appear to be a good representation of the actual mammalian fauna of that time. Collectively, the fauna suggests a climate with less extreme temperature and moisture fluctuations than now occu~ in north-central Kansas. Initial pre-Nebraskan glacial cooling could have allowed climatically incompatible elements of the White Rock fauna to live contemporaneously. Climatic deterioration was not sufficient to force southward taxa characteristic of more southern, warmer, and milder seasons. This paper is a revision of the thesis submitted i n partial f u l f i i e n t of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Michigan. The author's present address is Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, Maryland 20688. iv THE WHITE ROCK fauna was discovered by R.L. Wilson of the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, in the summer of 1966 in exposures resulting from the 1959 construction of the White Rock Canal in Republic County, Kansas (Figs. 1, 2). A l l of the material collected by Wilson was obtained from the early Pleistocene Belleville Formation, locality UM-K1-66. Claude W. Hibbard and Robert Carr returned to Wilson's locality in the summer of 1969 but were unable to locate Wilson's exact collecting site due to massive slumping of the canal walls after unusually heavy rains that spring. Apparently the original locality was buried during either the slumping or redredging of the canal. Hibbard and Carr did, however, process material from two additional localities in the Belleville Formation, UM-K3-69 and UM-K4-72. Avolcanic ash was also discovered stratigraphically above the Belleville Formation in a ravine approximately 0.3 km to the W. This locality was designated the ash locality, UM-K4-69. Extensive collecting and washing of bone-bearing horizons in the Belleville Formation in Republic County during the siiiiiiiieis uf 1972 and i973 resuited in six additional University of Michigan collecting localities, UM-K5-72-UM-K9-72. Material was also recovered from three University of Kansas collecting localities, KU-Rep. Co. Locs. 1, 3, and 4. From these localities a diverse late Blancan fauna, which includes mollusks, ostracodes, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, was recovered. The main objectives of this study are: (1) to describe the White Rock fauna, (2) to interpret its paleoenvironment, (3) to correlate the White Rock fauna with faunas from chronologically equivalent deposits of the Great Plains, (4) to review the Pleistocene stratigraphy of the area, (5) to establish more precisely the age of the Belleville Formation, (6) to interpret the sedimentological history of the ancestral Republican River paleovalley, and (7) to attempt a reconstruction of the mammalian paleoecosystem of the White Rock fauna and compare it with the ecosystem now present in Republic County. Except for a few specimens at the University of Kansas, all fossil vertebrates reported in this study are housed in the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan. The fossil mollusks are retained in the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan mollusk collections. The ostracodes are kept by E.D. Gutentag of the U.S. Geological Survey. The pollen samples are retained by Steven A. Hall. Abbreviations used in this report t o designate institutional collections and localities are: AMNH-American Museum of Natural &story BEG-Bureau of Economic Geology,
This paper represents the last major project undertaken by the late Claude W. Hibbard. He had exa... more This paper represents the last major project undertaken by the late Claude W. Hibbard. He had examined most of the material and had begun to write the systematic descriptions for most of the small mammals and a few of the large ones. After his death Mrs. Hibbard provided us with his notes and other data, and the specimens were borrowed from the University of Michigan. Gordon Edmund worked up the giant armadillo, Ralph Eshelman worked up the data for the large mammals, and Rick Zakrzewski did the same for the small ones and collated the manuscript. We have tried to maintain Hibbie's original ideas and statements. The only differences, other than minor editing, involve segments of the paper for which we had no original data such as descriptions of Pitymys, Perognathus and the large mammals with the exception of the peccary. We hope that the finished product does him justice.
... Gidley , 1922), Benson local fauna; 0. fossilis (Hibbard, 1941c), Borchers local fauna; Irvin... more ... Gidley , 1922), Benson local fauna; 0. fossilis (Hibbard, 1941c), Borchers local fauna; Irvingtonian 0. pedroensis (Gidley, 1922), Curtis Ranch local ... These six ageclasses are broadly comparable to those established by Van Cura and Hoffmeister (1966) for Onychomys in Arizona ...
Four morphologically distinct tayassuid species are present in the marine strata of the lower Che... more Four morphologically distinct tayassuid species are present in the marine strata of the lower Chesapeake Group in Maryland and Virginia. The oldest of these, an unnamed species, occurs in bed 2 of the Calvert Formation and is the only terrestrial mammal yet known from this unit. In the upper Calvert and lower Choptank Formations three tayassuid species resemble closely in size and morphology taxa known from the middle and upper Miocene Olcott and Valentine Formations in Nebraska. “Cynorca proterva” and “Prosthennops” xiphidonticus are present in beds 10 and 14, respectively, of the Calvert Formation. “Prosthennops” niobrarensis occurs in bed 17 of the Choptank Formation. These taxa, considered together with the other known terrestrial mammals from the Chesapeake Group, indicate the following correlations with land mammal faunas from western North America: bed 2, ?late Arikareean or early Hemingfordian; bed 10, late Hemingfordian or early Barstovian; bed 14, early late Barstovian; be...
Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, Publication 75, 1986
There are 77 Quaternary vertebrate localities in the state of Virginia from which 100 taxa of bir... more There are 77 Quaternary vertebrate localities in the state of Virginia from which 100 taxa of birds and 93 taxa of mammals have been identified. While many localities are represented by single specimens, there are several significant local faunas containing numerous specimens representing both marine and terrestrial environments. Karst features, such as caves and fissures, account for 74 percent of the sites. The depositional environmental, age, and distribution of Virginian’s Quaternary vertebrate localities are discussed, and Virginian’s late Pleistocene and 16th Century mammalian faunas are identified and compared.
It has generally been presumed that the border between the United States and British North Americ... more It has generally been presumed that the border between the United States and British North America (the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River regions) experienced the heaviest fighting during the War of 1812. Certainly more significant battles were fought there. However, research in the Chesapeake Bay region has uncovered a surprising inventory of actions. A working database of 867 known battles, skirmishes, raids, massacres, invasions, and occupations during the war in North America has been compiled. The Chesapeake Theater totals 261 such actions compared to the Great Lakes Theater at 216 and the St. Lawrence Theater at 95. If the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence regions are combined into a US-Canada Border Theater, it then has the highest number of actions with 311 versus the Chesapeake Theater at 261. If the US Atlantic States are combined into a theater, it then has the highest number of actions with 337 versus the US-Canada Border Theater at 311. Comparing states and provinces, Ontario has the largest number of actions at 150, followed by Maryland at 142, Virginia at 115, and New York at 103. While this database must be considered preliminary and will no doubt change as new information is uncovered, the results thus far call for a reevaluation of previously held assumptions. Depending on how one defines the theaters of war, a case can be made for the US Atlantic States, US-Canada Border and the Chesapeake Theaters, and the province of Ontario and the state of Maryland, as having experienced more actions and suffering more than any other region of North America during the War of 1812.
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Papers by Ralph Eshelman