Friends of Wickers Creek Archaeological Site
Earth Day Letter
Originally published in The Rivertowns Enterprise, in April 2022
Friday April 22 is Earth Day. In the spirit of that event, Dobbs Ferry will be sponsoring a Village Clean Up on Saturday the 23rd. Watch for further information from the Village. There are several unsightly areas in the Village where trash needs to be removed as a citizen effort in the spirit of honoring the environment of our planet.
Friends of Wickers Creek Archaeological Site (FOWCAS) supports this important event. We are a volunteer organization dedicated to educating people to honor the memory of the Lenape people who originally lived throughout the Hudson Valley and who had a major chieftaincy in what is now Dobbs Ferry. Here they had the tribal name Weckquaesgeeks, which is said to be the origin of the name Wickers Creek, our tributary of the Hudson River. The creek starts deep in Dobbs Ferry. There is a north fork that begins as a spring in the Juhring estate and is piped under the Ardsley County Club golf course until it is daylighted west of Broadway down to the mouth of the Hudson. It is joined by a south fork that originates around Springhurst School and likewise passes under Broadway.
Hundreds of years ago, the Lenape harvested oysters and fish from the Hudson and farmed for other foods to sustain themselves. The oral history states that from across the river the glow of their fires burnt very bright in the night sky. A shell midden is what is left behind from their habitation around Wickers Creek. It is considered an important archaeological site. To learn more about the shell midden and the Lenape history in Dobbs Ferry please go to Village Hall . There you can visit an exhibit about an archaeological dig done at the shell midden. It will give you further information about the life of the Lenape here and why Wickers Creek is such a significant site.
To protect and keep the environment clean and healthy is basic to the Lenape culture. So Earth Day is the perfect time for FOWCAS to honor the plan to clean up the environment in Dobbs Ferry. Some of our members will be working to clean up the area around Wickers Creek. To find out more about FOWCAS and Wickers Creek please go to our website fowcas.org.
