BIDDEFORD — In the spring of 1986, a rare Biddeford artifact was found. It was a dugout canoe, constructed of a single timber. The evidence of metal carvings on the canoe means it was most likely constructed and used by European settlers in the 18th century.

Within weeks of the find, a team excavated the vessel.

It was to be conserved at the Archaeological Conservation Laboratory in Plympton, Mass., a process that would take a number of years. When that process was complete, it was to return to Biddeford, or somewhere nearby, since the canoe belongs to the city.

However, conservation never occurred, and today the canoe sits in a crate at Plymouth Plantation, where it is deteriorating more and more each day.

When Jeff Cabral learned about the canoe and its fate in 2011, shortly after he had moved to the area to become director of McArthur Public Library, he thought something should be done to bring the historic artifact back to Biddeford ”“ where he believes it belongs. To that end, Cabral has undertaken an effort to raise money to bring the canoe home.

The story of the canoe began inauspiciously enough.

It was a fair day in May 1986 when Aldo Pulito and his son Paul were walking along the beach in Biddeford Pool. At the time, the Pulito family owned a small cottage in the area, and the two had traveled from their home in Orange, Conn. to get the cottage ready for the impending summer season.

While exploring, Paul Pulito spotted something on the beach “and came to tell me,” according to his father, who related the story through his daughter, Marie Pulito, on Friday.

“I saw a piece of wood sticking out of the sand,” he said. “Paul had dug around it, and it seemed like it was getting bigger.”

“We shoveled out enough of it to make sure it was some sort of vessel or boat or something,” said Pulito. “I realized it was quite an object.”

Pulito turned out to be right.

The York Institute in Saco, now the Saco Museum, was contacted, and museum archeologist Emerson “Tad” Baker and some marine archaeologists came to examine the object at the end of that month.

“The sense was this was a pretty unique artifact,” said Baker, who is now a professor at Salem State College in Massachusetts.

“It was very exciting to us,” said Steve Podgajny, who was the director of the York Institute at the time and is currently the director of the Portland Public Library. “It was something obviously covered for who knows how long.”

Realizing they had come upon something exceptional, Baker and Podgajny took the lead in coordinating an effort to excavate the artifact. They brought in Dick Swete, the head of the Archaeological Conservation Laboratory where the conservation work was to occur. He brought with him his staff and their combined expertise, as well as the means to transport the canoe.

Also involved in the excavation were the city Public Works Department, which donated a bulldozer and other equipment as well as personnel, and state and local historical and regulatory organizations that helped with the necessary permits. In addition, local individuals who were excited by the find in their backyard volunteered on the dig.

On June 4, the large group gathered on the beach to begin to unearth the vessel that had been buried for several centuries.

“It was a fairly intense few hours, with a lot of hard and furious manual labor,” said Podgajny.

While a few feet of the bow was completely exposed, the remainder of the 21-foot boat was covered by sand. Three or four feet of dirt and sand completely covered the back end, said Baker.

Not only that, but the project had to be completed before the canoe was covered by the high tide.

Fortunately, said Baker, when the excavation was complete, the workers were rewarded with a vessel that was in fairly good condition. Although sitting in water for centuries, it was surrounded by clay and salt grass, which helped preserve the wood.

The canoe was then lifted out and put in a cradle built by a local carpenter, said Cabral.

It was hand-carried to a tractor-trailer, weighed, measured and watered down for the trip south.

Once at the Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, however, the canoe, which had elicited so much excitement when it was found, languished. Swete, who was to conserve the artifact, never did. He got involved in other projects, his company eventually failed, and then in 2000, he died.

Cabral is hoping he can elicit renewed interest in the canoe so that it can eventually be conserved and placed on display, to be viewed and studied by current and future generations.

To that end, he hopes to raise several thousand dollars to move the rare artifact closer to home.

Jon Brandon, a wood conservator at East Point Conservation in Brunswick, who examined the boat last year, said he feels the boat could be safely moved to Maine. However, he said, professional movers who are experienced in handling artifacts would be needed because the canoe is in an extremely fragile state.

Once it’s moved, a thorough evaluation would be necessary before conservation efforts could begin, said Brandon.

Many who have been involved in the process of rescuing the canoe also hope that it can be saved; it didn’t escape the ravages of time just to sit in a crate, lost and forgotten, they say.

“I think it’s a pretty rare object,” said Brandon, “it was a treat for me to look at it. The fact it survived is so incredible. And it still resembles a canoe, which is pretty surprising for something so old.”

“I think (conservation) is an absolutely worthwhile endeavor,” said Podgajny. “It’s an artifact that’s illustrative of Biddeford history, and that’s really important.”

It’s a “once in a generation find,” he said, and there are many reasons why he would like the canoe preserved and displayed.

One of the most important, he said, is “the people who built this canoe probably never thought that it would last hundreds of years. I feel we owe it to past generations to find a home for it.”

For more information or to make a donation to bring the canoe home, contact Cabral, McArthur Library director, at [email protected].

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or [email protected].