Ah the vicissitudes of historical debate.
The efforts by Monroe — the Township Council and the school board — to push forward with plans for a new high school on a 35-acre section of Thompson Park have turned what otherwise might be an esoteric historical question into a massive controversy with huge implications for public policy and Monroe taxpayers.
The question: Where exactly was Bethel Indian Town (also known as the Bethel Mission) actually located?
The answer appears to depend on which historian you speak with.
Monroe Township Historian John Katerba places the encampment, at which Presbyterian missionary David Brainerd converted the Delaware Indians to Christianity (or, at least, tried to), at or near the Jamesburg Municipal Building near the corner of Forgate Drive and Perrineville Road — at the southwestern corner of Thompson Park. He said the
Monroe Township Historical Society researched the Bethel site in the 1970s and concluded it was located near the Jamesburg Municipal Building. He said the research was based on “evidence or things that people had witnessed or documented,” including early 1800s documentation from Alexander Redman, who bought the property at that time.
Richard Walling, a historical consultant from Somerville, has a different location in mind — “at the headwaters of the Wigwam Brook, which was located in what is now Thompson Park.”
He said he has 19th-century geological survey maps and a 1953 Middlesex County engineering map that put the brook’s headwaters in the location where the high school is to be built.
And then there is the survey by Richard Grubb and Associates, a Cranbury archeological firm. It shows no evidence of a settlement on the high school site.
(Township Business Administrator Wayne) Hamilton said the results show no sign of the 40 cabins, two schools and church said to make up the 18th-century mission, which many believe was located on the Thompson Park parcel.
“There is absolutely no evidence of that kind of settlement being on the 35 acres,” he said. “This is based on hard, scientific evidence.”
Mr. Hamilton said the survey did turn up some artifacts but added that “with any property in New Jersey, it’s not unusual to find artifacts.”
Richard Grubb said Thursday that the company is “recommending that we did not find Bethel.”
From my perspective, there just doesn’t seem to be enough evidence to hault the high school project. Let’s get the building up.
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Hank Kalet 
Dear Mr. Kalet;I read your blog, and would like to copy you with the following letter.A protest rally at the site is being planned for some weekend in June. It will involve Native Americans, Christians interested in the mission history and David Brainerd, concerned citizens, and those who support Native American history, historic preservation, open space, parks, environmentalists, etc. There is no factual debate as to the location of Bethel, despite the spin of township officials.If you have any further questions, you may contact me at this email. The story has been given to the Associated Press for national coverage.Sincerely,Richard WallingDear Mr. Hamilton;I have contacted you several times regarding this matter, without any return contact from your office. Yet you continue to quote me or characterize me without even giving me the courtesy of providing you with the facts in this matter.First: Bethel Indian Town was situated at the headwaters of Wigwam Brook, shown as recently as 1953 as being at the exact location of the proposed high school expansion site in county-owned Thompson Park.Second: Bethel Indian Town is a site of national landmark status, given its association with David Brainerd, Moses Tatamy and its role as a Christian Indian Mission during the crisis years of the French & Indian War.Third: Bethel Indian Town structures were not constructed with fieldstone or brick foundations, thus an absence of such foundations is meaningless.Fourth: As per a March 13, 2007 communication from Richard Grubb & Associates, the archaeological firm hired by Monroe Township, 18th century domestic artifacts have been found at the site.Fifth: Chimney stones used by the Delaware Indian Christian converts was recylced by 19th century property owners as a valuable natural building material.Sixth: The parcel owned by David Brainerd is distinctly and legally different than Bethel Indian Town.Seventh: Representations by the Township Historian, an official municipal position, and occupied by a high ranking municipal department director, that either Wigwam Brook, or Bethel Indian Town being situated other than at the headwaters of Wigwam Brook, are knowingly false and deliberate misrepresentations.Eighth: Any representations by township officials, including yourself, Ms. Shaffer (Township Attorney and leading advocate for the high school construction in the Green Acres Open Space-funded county park – according to the Monroe Township Board of Education), repeating the assertions as outlined in Number 7 above, constitute official misconduct.Ninth: Preservation New Jersey identified Bethel Indian Town (in Thompson Park) on its Top Ten List of endangered historic sites in New Jersey.Tenth: In its January 17, 2007 letter to the School Construction Corporation, the New Jersey DEP specifically found Mr. Katerba\’s assertions to be false, and to confirm the location of Bethel Indian Town at the headwaters of Wigwam Brook, near the Faulkner Tract (18th century absentee land owner).Eleventh: The shovel tests conducted by Richard Grubb & Associates are stated by you and Grubb to have been conducted at every fifty feet. The project site is 35 acres, which equals 1,524,600 square feet, or 27 football fields. If one shovel hole was dug at every 50 feet, then there were 30,492 shovel holes dug. I don\’t think this number were dug – but again, no one has seen the Grubb report but a select number of township officials.Twelfth: Of 1,524,600 square feet, assuming one hole one-foot square hole was dug every fifty feet, then 30,492 square feet of test holes were dug. If the number of holes, as reported by you in the newspapers were actually dug, then only two percent of the entire site was investigated at a subsurface level.Thirteenth: By way of comparison, when the Roman port town of Herculanuem was unearthed and archaeologically investigated for nearly 100 years, every \”scientific\” expert (your choice of word) stated that the people of the doomed town all escaped to safety, based on the absence of discovered human remains. In the 1980s, after more digging, more than 300 persons were found at the site. Under your example of good government, Bethel cannot exist at Thompson Park, because no human remains have been found there. Of course, no one ever stated that the Indian cemetery was in the middle of the settlement, but that line of reasoning apparently did not enter into your mindset.Fourteenth: Bethel Indian Town Historic Site encompasses 175 acres of Thompson Park, with a potential increase to expand to the open space adjacent to the open waters of Wigwam Brook. Any encroachment or damage to the proposed 35 acre high school expansion site will negatively impact the whole.Fifthteenth: As per NJAC 7:4 et seq. the nomination process to the National Register began on April 23rd. In addition, a preliminary application questionnaire was submitted to the State Historic Preservation Office in November, 2005 – so actually, the nomination process started eighteen months ago – legally speaking.Finally, if the foregoing is not clear enough, then perhaps the courts should be the final arbiter of this legal matter. Again, each time a misleading, and/or false statement is made by a township official or agent, it will act as a separate count of the applicable statute and punitive damages will be sought.Your use of the word premature doesn\’t ring true since you (the township and county) were presented all of this information three years ago.I will be interested to see if you have the professional courtesy to address these points, or if they need to be answered under oath.Historical documentation for the foregoing may be found at: gnadenhutten.tripod.com/bethelindiantownSincerely,Richard S. Walling(copied to Mayor Richard Pucci, Peggy Shaffer, Twp. Attorney, Bert Busch, School Board Attorney, and to Thomas F. Kelso, County Counsel – Middlesex County)