Where are the possum bones at Fort St. Joseph?

By Luke Bessler    

    The possum (formally, the Virginia opossum, Didelphis virginiana), North America’s only native marsupial, is a common sight along Michigan’s roadsides, forests, and alleys. Less commonly known is that it was once highly regarded as a food source (Winick, “A Possum Crisp and Brown”), possessing regional, racial, and political dimensions well into the 20th century (Winick, “Politics and Possum Feasts”). When I joined the Fort St. Joseph archaeological project, I expected that the people of the fort would have hunted the possum, like many other wild game species, and that its remains would be well attested in the archaeological record. Instead, I was quite surprised to find that the number of identified possum bones at Fort St. Joseph is...zero (Martin, et al.). Where are they?

Excavations at the fort have yielded faunal remains (bones, shells, teeth, etc) from which zooarchaeologists have identified fifty-six types of animals. White-tailed deer account for the overwhelming majority of identified specimens, with beaver, porcupine and raccoon being well represented among other mammal remains, and Canada goose, wild turkey, and passenger pigeon among birds (Martin, et al.). Possum remains are completely absent. If possums are abundant in the area today, why are they not represented in the archaeological record at Fort St. Joseph?

Many of the animal remains excavated at Fort St. Joseph are pieces of bone that are too small to be conclusively identified. Could possum bones be hiding among them? It’s possible, but there’s no clear reason why possum bones would be any more fragmented than those of any other animal. If it were down to chance, it seems unlikely that entirely random processes would obscure the remains of an animal that seems ubiquitous today.

(Potawatomi Zoo)

Much of the site remains unexcavated. Historical records indicate at least fifteen families occupied the fort, but only six buildings have so far been identified. Could existing excavations have only revealed the refuse of those people who refused to eat possums, with the trash of the true connoisseurs yet to be unearthed? Maybe, but it’s not clear why people who ate raccoon and porcupine would decline to dine on possum.

As a fur trading post, perhaps the residents of Fort St. Joseph preferentially ate species that also yielded valuable trade goods. Beavers and deer were sources of valuable pelts, porcupines had quills that could be used for crafts, wild turkeys had striking plumage, and so on. If possum furs weren’t useful for anything, then maybe they weren’t particularly important to the inner sphere represented by the buildings so far excavated. That being said, there are dozens of animals present only as isolated specimens in the archaeological record. If possums are as delicious as claimed, then surely they would have been valued for that alone and should show up at least occasionally.

I spoke with Dr. Martin about my dilemma. He told me that at the time of the fort’s occupation, the climate was cooler and Michigan was outside the original range of the Virginia opossum. As temperatures have climbed higher, so too have possums moved further north. This neatly explains their total absence in the faunal record at the fort despite their ubiquity today.

Martin, Terrance J., et al. "The Use of Animals for Fur, Food, and Raw Material at Fort St. Joseph." Fort St. Joseph Revealed: The Historical Archaeology of a Fur Trading Post, edited by Michael S. Nassaney, University Press of Florida, 2019, pp. 44-47.

Winick, Stephen. "A Possum Crisp and Brown: The Opossum and American Foodways." Library of Congress Blogs, 15 Aug. 2019, https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2019/08/a-possum-crisp-and- brown-the-opossum-and-american-foodways/

Winick, Stephen. "Politics and Possum Feasts: Presidents Who Ate Opossums." Library of Congress Blogs, 9 Sep. 2019, https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2019/09/politics-and-possum-feasts-presidents-who-ate-opossums/