The Great Swamp Canoe

About 150 years ago, a local farmer discovered an old dugout canoe sticking out of the mud along the shore of Pine Island in Patterson. The canoe was treated as a novelty, and was even used as a makeshift advertising billboard by a local business. As a result, there had been doubts about the historical significance of the canoe until carbon dating confirmed that the canoe dates back to the early 1600s.

The canoe is thought to be an Indian dugout canoe, typical of those used by the local Indians of the Wappinger Tribe, part of the Algonquin Nation. The Wappingers had several settlements around the Great Swamp including Cornwall Hill, Mortner Rock Cut, and Akins. An Indian cemetary was located at the mouth of Haviland Hollow Brook, probably near their winter trapping camp.


The Great Swamp canoe	The side of the canoe shows the faint remains of a banner advertisement. The words "H. W (unreadable) Farrell Line Inc. New York" can barely be read.

The Wappingers lived and hunted throughout what is now known as Putnam and Dutchess Counties, and had a total population of approximately 8,000 in the 1600s. They were friendly to the early settlers, most of whom came to this area from Massachussetts in 1725. The Wappingers lived in long-houses and wigwams. They were mostly an agricultural society, but also hunted and fished for food. Dugout canoes were made from tree trunks that were "dug out" or hollowed by burning the wood. The charred wood was then scraped clean by a stone adze, an ax-like cutting tool that was used to shape wood.

The Great Swamp canoe deteriorated once it was removed from the water that had preserved it, and suffered from years of improper storage and handling. The canoe was restored and given to The Southeast Museum to display, and was later moved to the Putnam County Historical Society Museum in Cold Spring where it was displayed for many years. The canoe is currently housed at the Office of the Putnam County Historian in Brewster, and can be viewed by appointment, along with the painting shown below.

painting shows a typical Indian camp

closeup of painting showing a dugout canoe under construction