Artifacts recovered from the site of Benedict Arnold’s log hospital on the Great Carrying Place in Maine are currently being treated by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands and should be ready for display at the Colburn House State Historic Site this summer.

The cast iron kettle (at left) has been treated with a solution of Tannic acid to remove the rust and give it a protective coating. Each piece of the kettle (there are 19 in all) was given several treatments.

The kettle was originally 8-1/2 inches tall and 12 inches in diameter at the mouth. Several of the pieces were found in the remnants of a small, stone-lined firepit. Why the kettle was shattered and the pieces cast about in an area about 100 feet across is a mystery.

The kettle shown below is very similar to the one being treated. There is no evidence of legs on the Arnold example but it may have had them and those pieces have yet to be found. Nothing that apperas to have been part of a handle was discovered either.

Click here to see the rare Massachusetts uniform button found nearby.