State highway projects often lead to UO museum

Stone tool recovery at Beatty Curve

Mario Sampson ("Bird"), a Kamath Indian tribal member, recovers stone tools from an achaeological site at Beatty Curve

EUGENE, Ore. -- (Aug.6, 2008) -- Many Oregon roads lead to the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History -- or, as it is known to Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and state law: the Oregon State Museum of Anthropology.

Since the 1970s, the museum has provided collaborative support with ODOT, using the tools of archaeology to identify, interpret and preserve artifacts found during highway projects. The museum's Research Division operates with a contract of about $2 million for archaeological work with ODOT -- most of it related to highway, bridge and other transportation-related projects.

Museum archaeologists study historical sites protected by state and federal laws. The process can lead to the redesign of highway projects or the excavation and archiving of archaeological materials important to the state's diverse heritage. These materials are stored by the UO museum -- the state's official repository of such collections. These materials, available for research purposes, now are stored in boxes and drawers in five buildings interspersed around the campus.

Below are seven examples of highway projects that have resulted in historical discoveries as a result of museum-ODOT collaboration (photos of each site are available):

▪ Beatty Curve (State Highway 140), east of Klamath Falls: ODOT is preparing to straighten a dangerous curve, but the route cuts through an archaeological site. Work that began in 2007 has documented the cultural record of occupation by Klamath Indians and their ancestors from more than 8,000 years ago and continuing into the post-reservation era. Included at the site is an allotment-era (Dawes Act) Indian homestead dating to 1890-1915. Klamath Tribal members are helping on both the archaeological study and as part of an accompanying oral history project.

▪ Bend Parkway (U.S. Highway 97 Bypass): Prior to construction through Bend, museum archaeologists investigated a site found in the project corridor. The site’s main occupation was as a residential base dating to 4,000-6,000 years ago, when quarrying obsidian from the nearby Newberry Volcano was an important activity. Between 500-1,500 years ago, the site was used as a temporary hunting camp, based on evidence uncovered by scientists.

▪ Naito Parkway, Portland: State highway workers repairing a water main in 2005 inadvertently discovered a 19th century wood-lined privy shaft. Archaeologists recovered hundreds of artifacts, including ceramics and soda and medicine bottles. Historic research identified the neighborhood as an ethnically diverse one of working-class boarding houses and single-family households. The artifacts, as well as faunal and botanical remains, provide information on diet, age, gender, and socioeconomic status of the household occupants associated with the privy.

▪ I-5 Santiam Interchange (Interstate Highway 5/Oregon Route 22): Widening I-5 through Salem and reconfiguring interchanges involved archaeological work at eight sites from 1997 to 2003 along the original course of Mill Creek. The sites had a cultural record spanning 6,000 years, including frequent short visitation to harvest and process camas, a plant in the lily family with an edible bulb used as a food staple by Native Americans and which helped explorers Lewis and Clark survive their stay in the Northwest.

▪ Jacksonville's California Street (State Highway 238): Highway work turned up the state's oldest known Chinatown under the middle of the main street amid a $3.4 million project in March 2004. Artifacts found during rescue excavations -- broken Chinese bowls, teacups, handmade bottles, fragments of opium paraphernalia and coins -- indicated occupation by Chinese immigrants in the 1850s-1860s, when miners also swarmed into the area in search of gold.

▪ Paulina Lake Site (Newberry Caldera): When Newberry Volcano became a national monument the Federal Highway Administration upgraded the access road into the caldera 20 miles southeast of Bend. Scientists found an 11,000-year-old cultural site under ash of the 7,600-year-old Mt. Mazama. Partially burned remains of a wickiup-like structure, built with pole framing (probably covered with woven mats) around a central fire hearth were dated to 9,500 years ago.

▪ Pioneer Mountain-Eddyville (U.S. Highway 20): ODOT is realigning U.S. 20 between Corvallis and Newport. The current route follows the highly sinuous Yaquina River through the rugged Coast Range. Eliminating curves will reduce a 10-mile segment to seven miles. As originally designed, the new route would go through a site confirmed to be a 1,000-year-old fishing camp by a small falls on the river. The highway's new alignment was shifted to the north to protect the site.

At the conclusion of projects, museum archaeologists provide ODOT with comprehensive reports. Many of these also are published in the "University of Oregon Anthropological Papers" series.

Media Contact: Jim Barlow, director of science and research communications, 541-346-3481, jebarlow@uoregon.edu

Sources: Thomas Connolly, MNCH research division director, 541-346-3031, connolly@uoregon.edu; Jon Erlandson, MNCH executive director, 541-346-5115, jerland@uoregon.edu

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