Its position provided a natural fortress not only protecting the Continental Army, but also overlooking the plains towards New Brunswick where the British forces were stationed in 1777.

The Jacobus Vanderveer house, just to the north and west of the cantonment site served as headquarters for General Henry Knox during the winter of 1778–79, when the Continental Army artillery was located in the village of Pluckemin during the Revolutionary War's Second Middlebrook Encampment.

[citation needed] The next major land owner and resident was Jacobus Vanderveer who on May 10, 1743 purchased 439 acres (1.78 km2) just to the north of Eoff's property.

The land was later purchased at auction on April 1, 1875 by Tunis Van Arsdale, then to Kate Wickoff (1891), Elizabeth Schley 1902, Hills Development Company, and lastly Bedminster Township.

[5] As noted in the Regimental Orderly Book 3 on February 23, 1779, "General Knox states "The Academy is to be opened on Monday next when Mr. Colles the preceptor will attend every day in the wee Sundy excepted for the purpose of teaching the Mathematicks & cc.

Henry (Max) Schrabisch, the former New Jersey State Archeologist began his archeological efforts on the Pluckemin countryside when the term "The Dig" originated.

Beginning in 1979, a not for profit research group was formed, combining the efforts of Bedminster Township, the Hills Development Corporation, and academics financially supported by local businesses, individuals, and small foundations.

The picture that emerged from the work was that of an army that had found itself after the terrible experience of Valley Forge, building sophisticated barracks and workshops, and as the Pluckemin cantonment became the hub of a remarkably successful re-supply effort.

Under Seidel's direction, a team at Washington College collaborated with experts from Colonial Williamsburg and other sites to produce two generations of a "virtual cantonment" under contract to the Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House.