Island archeological find!

Yeah- this is an unscheduled update - but you'll have to forgive me...

Those who have been following the project for a while know that the Peace Island project is in great part an homage to the islands of Casco Bay.

Now, in the process of developing Peace Island, I have been doing a lot of historical research of these islands.  There have been independent communities there that predate the formation of the USA, and discovering remnants of those distant days is something I have enjoyed immensely.

However - for the past year, my efforts to find a particular structure on Peaks Island have met with limited results - UNTIL TODAY...

If you look at the top left of the above image, you will see a rather large mansion, perched atop one of the higher hills on the island with two outbuildings - it's centered in the image below.

I spent MONTHS looking for evidence of this structure- it's a mansion that burnt down in the last years of the 19th century.  You can see it's part of a compound comprising the mansion itself, a structure that looks like a stable, and two smaller outbuildings at a slightly lower elevation.

As I was walking through the center of the island today- near the highest point, I decided to take a detour through a rather large clearing that had previously been used as a dump for road filler, and now was where the local teens hung out to skate on an improvised half-pipe.

After sitting there for a minute- I noticed something - note the curved road heading in from the left - and particularly the zig-zag "Switchback" ramp:

So- checking my mental reference, this is where these roads would be:

I sat there for a minute, and the thought occurred to me:  "If that high ledge is where the mansion stood, then there should be evidence of a foundation to my right."

And wouldn't ya know...

To my immediate right, there was a small area, framed with a rectangular "Bump" in the terrain.   I approached the narrow "switchback" and climbed up, not surprised at all to find that it was, indeed, an eroded, disused road.  Looking back, I verified that this terrain deformation was rectangular.

There were plants growing on the outline of the foundation, that were not within, hinting at micro-changes in soil chemistry along these lines.

Heading back down and taking another look, I could see where the mansion and stable roughly stood:

Here it is in the overhead map- it's mostly overgrown, but if you go into the brush, you can CLEARLY see the remnants of the foundations...

What's crazy is that I walked past this area about 20 times during my searching, and I didn't realize until today that THIS was the site I was searching for!

This was the most exciting discovery I've come across in years, and I wanted to share it with ya'll - I'll have new dev news, next week!