otable absence at this time of stone
relics indicating permanent residence, it seems possible that the
statement concerning their original abundance was exaggerated, and there
is no good reason for supposing, on the strength of this statement
alone, that there was a prehistoric village on the site of Cooperstown.
Perhaps in early times, during the contests with Southern Indians, the
place lay too much in the way of war parties. But the apple trees,
concerning which there is no doubt, would indicate rather conclusively
an occupation by Indians within the historic period, which, as in the
case of many another of the later villages, might have left small
trace.[6]

In 1895 two young men of Cooperstown who afterward adopted callings in
other fields of science, Benjamin White, Ph.D., and Dr. James Ferguson,
conducted amateur archeological expeditions which resulted in the
discovery of a regular camp site formerly used by the Indians. This lies
within the present village of Cooperstown, on a level stretch along the
west bank of the Susquehanna, in what used to be called the Hinman lot,
but now belongs to Fernleigh, a few rods south of Fernleigh House. It
includes an even floor of low land not far above the level of the river,
containing a spring on its margin, and forming a plot perhaps two
hundred yards in length and half as much in breadth. The ground begins
thence to rise rather steeply toward the north and west, sheltering from
wind and storm the glen below, while affording points of observation,
looking up and down the stream.

The young explorers went carefully over the surface of this ground,
digging to a considerable depth in some parts, and using an ash-sifter
for a thorough examination of the debris. "We found spearheads, game and
war points in large numbers," says Dr. White, "as well as drills,
punches or awls, scrapers, knives, hammer-stones, and sinkers. Deer
horn, bones, and thick strata of ashes were found, the latter in one
place only. Whether or no this was the site of an Indian village, I
cannot say. Altogether it must have yielded six or eight hundred
implements of various sorts. Fernleigh-Over, Riverbrink, and Lakelands
yielded arrow-heads and sinkers, but no other implements. The present
site of the Country Club was a profitable field for arrow-heads."

Dr. Ferguson, referring to the same spot, writes, "I have long had an
idea that there had been a small Indian village located in what we knew
as Hinman