nal Fort Orange in the early 1970s.
It is imperative that a complete archeological excavation takes place on the entire parcel that Global Companies’ is proposing. Because of the physical dimensions of the site, the building, stockade, moat and breastworks and the overall size of the Fort, a complete excavations is warranted, not a sample size, or Phase II survey.
A complete excavation of the site is needed to determine if this most important archeological site, and beginning of Albany’s European history, can be revealed and plans made to preserve as much as possible if the boiling plant is approved.
It is ironic that Fort Nassau would now be newsworthy as it was also in January, four hundred years ago, that Fort Nassau was being built and setting the stage for the Dutch occupation of New York and the beginning of Dutch principles of tolerance and pluralism which make up the foundation of American democracy.
It is also ironic that the celebration of Albany’s four hundred anniversary would be marked by its ultimate destruction by an oil boiling plant.