A Montgomery County historic site continues to discover priceless treasures just inches underground. But as our Maria Valvanis explains, it took the devastation of Tropical Storm Irene to bring the artifacts to light.

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SCHOHARIE COUNTY, N.Y. -- Education coordinator Tricia Shaw said, "Unfortunately, we are getting further and further away from the visitors center itself because when this building was built, it really was built on top of all the good stuff."

When Tricia Shaw found out the Schoharie Crossing Visitor’s Center lost its parking lot to Tropical Storm Irene, she didn't realize just how much the center was about to gain.

Shaw said, "It got all buckled and washed away and it exposed part of Fort Hunter, from the 1712 fort and military complex that was here."

Discovering pieces of the foundation meant the parking lot had to be rebuilt elsewhere, off of historical grounds. But after doing more than five archeological dig tests on nearby areas, the task proved harder than first thought.

"Found all sorts of Native American artifacts, he found bear tooth, deer bone, several beads, wide variety of beads," said Shaw.

Dig tests will continue in the near future, however, the center is facing a parking lot requiring quite the hike to get to. But Shaw tells us all of the new found history is certainly the silver lining.

Shaw said, "As soon as they hit the air, they start to decompose, so they need to be cleaned, they need to be de composed, so some of them are in the process of being cleaned."

But the pieces of the Fort Hunter foundation were actually too large to take out of the ground. Instead, the old parking lot will become the center's newest attraction.

"Our plan is to level this, plant grass seed and have what I like to call dummy lime stone blocks on top of the surface in the exact replica of what was found last year, so that people can actually walk amongst the fort ruins, but not disturb the real thing," said Shaw.