A View of the Gap:
The 1996 Salvage Excavation of Highway 33, Adolphus Reach, Bay of Quinte


Carl Murphy
Ministry of Transportation
Kingston, Ontario

Abstract:  Survey and test excavations were undertaken in 1995 by the 
Ontario Ministry of Transportation along the Loyalist Parkway (Highway 33) 
west of Kingston, from the Town of Bath to the Adolphustown Ferry. Highway 
33 closely follows the Lake Ontario shoreline and originally linked 
Kingston to the late 18th century Loyalist settlements around the Bay of 
Quinte. An early Iroquoian settlement and four Euro-Canadian cabin sites 
have been found within a narrow, one kilometre realignment of the roadway. 
Test excavations at the Upper Gap site recovered collarless, linear stamped 
rimsherds, corded bodysherds and a limited lithic and bone tool assemblage.
Subsurface evidence of prehistoric hearths and pit features was also 
present. Four historic sites dominated by pearlware and creamware tableware 
were found almost evenly distributed along the realignment and these may 
represent the early homesteads of Loyalist families who landed at 
Adolphustown in 1784. Salvage excavations are planned for these sites over 
the summer of 1996 and the preliminary results should assist with 
chronological refinements of the regional Early Iroquoian sequence and 
elaborate upon the domestic lifeways and material culture of the Loyalist 
immigrants.