Revolutionary-Era Bayonets Reportedly Unearthed In Valley Forge

VALLEY FORGE, PA — As much as anyplace in the United States, Valley Forge National Park embodies American history: a carefully and extensively preserved encampment from a critical juncture in the nation's founding. Yet beyond the rolling prairie landscape and meticulously conserved cabins, there lurks even more visceral remnants of the late-18th century.

That's what the Battlefield Restoration and Archaeological Volunteer Organization (BRAVO) discovered at the conclusion of a recent search of the park for artifacts, according to a report from Atlas Obscura.

The group found a stash of 30 hidden bayonets stacked together just outside of the park's borders, on private property. The site was reportedly part of the infamous encampment of the Continental Army in the winter of 1777-78.

“I haven’t seen anything else like it in a single excavation. It looked like someone had dug a hole in the ground and threw them in there,” Jesse West-Rosenthal, a Ph.D. candidate in archaeology at Temple University, told Atlas Obscura.

Archaeologists conjectured that the bayonets had been discarded because newer and more impressive armaments were on the way, possibly from the French, reports state.

Image via Commons courtesy Domenick D'Andrea