How we get around these days depends on roads, but it hasn’t always been that way.

For native Americans, waterways were the highways and networks of trails were the connectors.

Lake Auburn’s water flowed down a brook to the Androscoggin. Taylor Pond’s outlet flowed to the Little Androscoggin and then to the big river. The Dead River, the Nezinscot, the Sabattus and so many more streams are tributaries to the Great Androscoggin. For centuries, these streams provided transportation and food for people of a forgotten culture.

That time may seem lost in the hazy past when members of tribes we call Abenaki and Anasaguntacook were the only people of this area. Sometimes, we’re reminded of it through names with native American origins, yet our connections to the people who were here first are much closer than we may have thought.

I’m no expert on the subject of archaeology and related fields, but I have read my share of National Geographics and I watch a lot of shows on the Discovery Channel. You can learn a lot about faraway exotic lands, and you can marvel at excavations that reveal cultures dating back thousands of years.

I have to stop occasionally and remind myself that our family lives on land that holds wonders for the scientifically – as well as the superficially – curious. In just the past few years, echoes of ancient history have affected property we have owned.

At our previous house, the backyard looked down on the northern end of Pettengill Park. The Auburn Water District was interested in an easement across a corner for a potential sewer line, and that meant the state had to assess the possibility of native American settlement or activity there.

We were told the significance of the site is related to the geographical characteristics of the area. There’s an esker extending from the west side of Lake Auburn through the Pettengill Park and Gully Brook area and on to the river. Simply stated, an esker is a long, narrow ridge of mostly sand that was created when a stream flowed on or under an ice-age glacier.

Thanks to that long-ago glacier over Androscoggin County, the land developed features that favored movement by prehistoric people.

No, the investigation didn’t turn up any evidence of prehistoric habitation in our backyard.

However, various agencies have unearthed interesting finds on our riverfront property. Some digs discovered fire-split stones that indicate a hearth. The archaeologists found a lot of things that seem inconsequential, like a few burned seeds, a broken scraper and some ceramic bits and pieces.

The reports they gave us said radiocarbon dating placed the activity in two prehistoric periods. The first was as much as 2,000 years ago in what was called the early Middle Woodland period, and then 400 to 900 years later in the – get this brain-twister – “late Middle Woodland to early Late Woodland period.”

This summer, there’s been another look at the area to determine whether any shore erosion may be threatening the site.

There’s nothing to see associated with either of these digs and investigations, but it’s fascinating to me to know that we’re living so near these sites where early people first challenged what was once a true wilderness.

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and an Auburn native. You can e-mail him at [email protected].