GOSHEN—Just a short walk from arguably the most valuable archeological site in Orange County is a 56-acre dolomite gravel mine that the county is preparing to sell to the resident mining company, Tilcon New York, Inc.
The site, called the Dutchess Quarry Caves after Dutchess Quarry & Supply Co., Inc. that started mining there in the late 1930’s, is home to several caves that researchers believe were used by Native Americans dating back roughly 12,000 years, the end of the last ice age.
In at least one of the naturally formed caves were caribou bones and some paelo-Indian projectile points that SUNY Orange anthropology Professor Barry Kass says is some of the earliest evidence of human habitation in the region.
“This archeological site is one of the most significant sites of early human occupation in all of the Americas,” he said.
“It’s the earliest known evidence of human occupation in the lower Hudson Valley, and in the northeast.”
And it’s value has been recognized around the country and the world. The largest cave was added to the National Register of Historic places in 1974, and the site was expanded in 1995 after evidence of other caves and possibly Native American workshops and early mining activity was found nearby.
“[And] there’s probably still potentiality for further archeological investigations,” Kass said.
