It was a comment during the public hearing that a cynical observer might have dismissed without much thought.
Telescope Mountain in Derby is full of Native American artifacts. And it’s a Native American burial ground.
Yeah, right.
And the 10,000 or so people who live in Derby also missed the fact that Chewbacca, Elvis, Jimmy Hoffa and their magical spotted salamander have all been living in a cave on Telescope Mountain for 50 years.
But it turns out the claims about Native American artifacts in Telescope Mountain are not the stuff of urban legend.
In fact, Nick Bellantoni, the state’s archaeologist, is now digging through the State Historic Preservation Office and the state’s Museum of Natural History and Archaeology Center to see if there is any documentation detailing what has been found over the years on Telescope Mountain.
The “mountain” is in the news because the Regional Water Authority is applying to the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission to build a 2 million gallon water tank atop the privately owned rocky hill, which is off Mountain Road and Summit Street.
A public hearing on the application was held Jan. 15.
Many residents — including the mayor and several members of the Board of Aldermen — oppose the idea. They said construction of the tank, which would require blasting rock with dynamite and hauling hundreds of truckloads of it off the site, would be too intense for the residential neighborhoods surrounding the mountain.
Regional Water Authority representatives said the storage tank is needed to bolster public safety in Derby. Griffin Hospital needs the additional storage in case of emergency, as does the Derby Fire Department — and representatives from both groups spoke at the hearing asking the commission to approve the project.
Click here to read a previous Valley Indy story on the issue.
By the way, the public hearing is scheduled to continue at the Feb. 19 meeting of the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission.
But back to the Native American artifacts.
The subject was first raised at the public hearing by Jeff Sullivan, who lives on Fall Street.
Then, a few days after the Valley Indy story on the public hearing was published, Frances McManus, who lives in the neighborhood surrounding Telescope Mountain, said her brother, Thomas Gambardella, found all kinds of stuff buried in the ground.
The Valley Indy chatted with Gambardella Tuesday. He grew up in Derby. Telescope Mountain was a neighborhood hangout — although homeless people also made the caves atop the hill home and chased away visitors.
Gambardella moved to Montana about 13 years ago. He works there as a manager of a group home.
In 1988, Gambardella said he went exploring on Telescope Mountain, digging around caves and rock outcroppings. He found so many items he was convinced the peak had to be popular as a lookout spot for Derby’s original inhabitants.
He said he dug in the dirt near caves and rock outcroppings at the top of the mountain. He found arrowheads and partial spears that had to be thousands of years of old, he said.
“There was about 20 arrowheads and broken spearheads,” he said.
In addition, Gambardella found ceramic items — along with smoking pipes buried in the ground. One of the pipes said “McDougal” on it. Gambardella assumed it was items the Native Americans received after trading with settlers.
He also found a knife that dates backs to Paleolithic period — a fact he said was confirmed with the Yale Peabody Museum.
Gambardella still has the items with him in Montana. The Valley Indy asked if he could e‑mail photos, but he said he doesn’t own a computer.
However, Gambardella contacted Bellantoni, the state’s archeologist, who toured the location and received copies of drawings Gambardella made detailing what he found.
Bellantoni said the state’s Museum of Natural History and Archaeology Center and the state’s Historic Preservation Office are currently reviewing Regional Water Authority’s plans for Telescope Mountain.
“We, too, are compiling information about the archaeological sites in the area,” Bellantoni said in an e‑mail.
So will Native American artifacts put an end to the controversial water tank application on Derby’s Telescope Mountain?
Gambardella noted the artifacts were raised once before, to stop the construction of condos under the mountain — but those condos were built nonetheless.
Robert Novak, an expert on lower Valley history who lives in Shelton, said while Native American tribes probably occupied and used the mountain, little to none of that history was ever documented.
There is no evidence of a Native American burial ground there.
Regional Water Authority officials, at the Jan. 15 public hearing, said the water tank is allowed under state law.
