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Local historian asks commission for letter to support searches for Fort Number 11
Summary
Historian Tom Hearn asked the Keystone Heights Heritage Commission to draft a city letter of introduction to homeowners to support metal-detecting and artifact recovery efforts tied to locating Fort Number 11; commissioners agreed to draft a letter and route it to the city attorney for review.
Tom Hearn, introduced during the public-comment period, told the Keystone Heights Heritage Commission he and volunteers have found period artifacts — including a silver half-dime and a musket ball — that he believes point to the location of Fort Number 11 near the intersection of Shady Lane and Jasmine, adjacent to Soldier’s Pond (Keystone Lake). He asked the commission to provide a written letter of introduction to show homeowners he is legitimate and to ease concerns about metal-detecting on private property.
Commission members pressed Hearn for specifics about how he would work on private property, what indicators he would use to identify the fort (horse tack, black glass shards, pottery of the period), and how finds would be handled. Hearn said he would coordinate recovery with county archives and the local museum, would donate or loan artifacts and a mannequin in period uniform, and that his method minimizes disturbance to yards.
Commissioners discussed drafting a short introduction that would describe Hearn’s methods, credentials, the scope and limits of test holes, and how discovered artifacts would be curated. They emphasized the draft should be reviewed by the city attorney to make sure it “doesn’t overstep city bounds,” and agreed staff would circulate a draft and route it for legal review before it is used with homeowners.
The commission recorded a motion to prepare the letter of introduction and indicated consensus to proceed with a draft subject to attorney review. No formal vote on the content of the letter was recorded in the transcript; commissioners asked staff to coordinate the draft, copy the commission, and engage the city attorney for final clearance.
The commission also noted coordination is already happening at the county level for a related state historical marker (the “4-11”), and that the Clay County preservation board has been handling submissions into the state master file for that marker. The commission asked staff to ensure any wording makes clear this is an introduction and not a city permit to access private property.
