Oswego is home to Fort Ontario. It was built in the 1840s on the site of earlier forts.

Nearly a century earlier, the French and Indian War moved through the Port City, and some of the sites are being rediscovered.

The machine almost looks like it could be something out of “Ghostbusters.” Instead of hunting ghosts, the EMP 400 from GSSI uses electromagnetic conductivity to find things underground.

“If you’re going over something that’s burnt like Fort George, it has a much higher conductivity than just a regular Oswego soil,” said Max Cameron, a 2021 SUNY Oswego graduate.

Cameron set out to find Fort George as part of his senior thesis. He graduated in May with an anthropology degree.

“Most people thought it was destroyed,” Cameron said about Fort George. “It makes sense. It’s a city; it’s fairly paved over. But you’d be surprised what can survive.”

The fort was one of three forts in Oswego during the French and Indian War. Using the EMP 400, Cameron marched through parking lots and created a map from the signals. He even surprised himself with his findings.

“I’m confident because I’ve done the research,” said Cameron. “I spent a solid amount of time looking at different maps.”

The site of Cameron’s discovery on Bronson Street is about a block south of the marina, and it’s around the corner from the Fort George monument in Montcalm Park.

“We can’t be 100% sure until any sort of excavation is done; could be something else,” said Cameron.

Based on historical maps and the conductivity, Cameron believes he found Fort George, and he aced his thesis in the process.