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The forests and stream banks of Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg may have been a stopping point for people traveling from the Eastern Shore to Frederick and points west more than a thousand years ago.

Archaeologists investigating 32 acres of parkland near Huntmaster Road and the intersections of Brink and Wightman roads discovered a wealth of artifacts left by American Indians of the Woodland Era, which spanned from 1000 B.C. to A.D. 900. The land, along the banks of Seneca Creek, was subject to frequent seasonal flooding, and clues to the lives of the county's earlier inhabitants were deeply buried. The land was planned by the State Highway Administration to be transformed into wetlands to mitigate the environmental impacts of the Intercounty Connector.

Part of the proposed wetland was eliminated after eights months of excavation ending in February because the area showed a high potential for historic artifacts, according to Scott Emory, a senior archaeologist with RK&K, a Baltimore-based consulting group. He presented findings from the dig at a meeting of the Goshen Historical Preservation Society earlier this month.

"We suspected all along, as we walk along Seneca Creek looking for artifacts," society Chairwoman Joanne Atay said. "We were glad to hear somebody was actually doing excavation."

Archaeologists have proposed reforesting the land, Emory said, which will have less of an impact on anything below the surface.

"Most times the investigations usually find a small scattering of objects, but not much that will stop a project. [The ICC project] provided a good bit of information in an area that's not well understood," Emory said. "...To find archaeological sites so close to a creek is a surprise. While the resources didn't produce human remains or anything spectacular, it did show us that people did stay temporarily in these areas that were subject to seasonal flooding."

The Huntmaster Road sites are still planned to become wetlands because the ground was disturbed by historic farming and had low potential for historic resources, Emory said. The State Highway Administration is reviewing archaeological reports on the two areas, he said.

The archaeologists found stone sinkers that were used to weigh down fishing nets, evidence of what could be a large fire pit, debris from stone tool manufacturing, ceramic fragments and projectile points, including one that featured a design used by Woodland people on the Eastern Shore and was made from a rock found in the Frederick area, indicating that historic people may have camped in the county during seasonal migrations in search of resources like food and raw materials to bring back home, Emory said.

Not much is known about the Woodland people, who farmed, made pottery, hunted, fished and lived in increasingly complex societies in Eastern North America, Emory said. This is true particularly in areas like Montgomery County that are believed to have been predominantly used by temporary groups that left little evidence behind.

"There were [village] sites along the Potomac River, but there's a lot we don't know," Emory said. "We can't say the information isn't out there, it's just that we haven't found it yet."