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On the road to Paisley, Oregon, to see the caves of the human coprolites

Work of Dennis Jenkins draws a visit from the Jim Lehrer NewsHour and a visit to the archaeological site

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The University of Oregon has been treated to a great ride of media coverage thanks to the human coprolites pulled by Dennis Jenkins and team from caves on the side of an ancient ledge north of Paisley. More coverage is coming.

A crew from the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (Public Broadcasting System, PBS) came to campus April 23 to get a close-up scoop on the 14,300-year-old, human DNA-containing poop -- poop (feces) being the non-jargon name for the scientific moniker coprolite. The next day, April 24, the crew and Jenkins visited the scene of the coprolites discovery: the Paisley Caves, which rest on a westward-facing bluff in a still tectonically active region overlooking the southernmost finger of Summer Lake.

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Top photo is a sweeping view looking out from inside one of the Paisley Caves. In the next photo, William J. Cannon, right, hand outstretched, an archaeologist for the federal Bureau of Land Management talks area history with, from top rear, Dennis Jenkins of the UO, Lee Hochberg of WOBP-Portland and Scott Stoffel, public affairs specialist with the BLM. (More Photos)

The view is spectacular and brings to mind the ancient setting where Ayla, a young Cro-Magnons woman lived after being ousted by the Neanderthals who had raised her -- and where she first meets one of her own kind, Jondular -- in Jean M. Auel's 1986 novel Clan of the Cave Bear. Really, that's just a passing thought.

I drove out to the caves to meet up with Jenkins and crew on April 24. Getting there was my own adventure. I had to stop and put chains on my rental car to I could get through the ice- and snow-packed Willamette Pass. A special thanks to the truck driver who noted my rental car was front-wheel drive as I was 50-percent done trying to put the chains on the rear. And thanks to snowplow driver Mark, who kindly suffered through my tire-chain incompetence by helping me remove one and putting both on the front tires. Like me, Mark had not dealt with the type of chains I had.

About two hours later during this supposedly four-hour trip from Eugene, I was forced to stop on Oregon Route 31 -- which also, I learned by reading road signs, is known as the Fremont Highway and is part of the Outback Scenic Byway -- by a herd of cattle being moved from a west-side field to one on the east side, just north of the bridge that the some 250 head had blocked from my passage.

I arrived at the dig site at about 1:30 p.m., almost 6.5 hours after my departure from Eugene and 2.5 hours later than planned. Luckily the PBS crew and Jenkins were still there and just finishing up their on-camera interviews.

The caves are mostly rock shelters located on land that is under the auspices of the Lakeview District of the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management. Specifically, the caves are in the Five Mile Butte area of the Summer Lake Basin. Because of Jenkins' discovery, the BLM has temporarily closed access to the site while the agency prepares a formal protection plan (see the BML news release).

The BLM provided some of the funding support for Jenkins' earlier work, and future work will depend on BLM generosity. The BLM's William J. Cannon, archaeologist for the Lakeview Resource Area, and Paul S. "Scott" Stoffel, the district's public affairs specialist and UO alum (1996, BS psychology), were on site during my visit. Cannon, with walking stick in hand, briefed the PBS crew and me about the region's historical significance and on-going work. The Lakeview District may well hold a plethora of clues about the early peopling of the Americas. For a good read on the history of the Paisley area, click here.

The PBS NewsHour feature story will be aired at a future date. NewsHour correspondent Lee Hochberg of WOBP in Portland will report the story, which could run as long as seven to nine minutes. (Original UO news release)

Sometimes the decision to air such a feature piece is made at the last minute before an evening's show. I have asked the NewsHour to give me as much notice as possible so I can post the time and date here on the Public and Media Relations Web site.

If you would like to be on a special email notification list for the show, let me know by clicking here. I cannot guarantee sufficient advance warning, but I will try.

Oh, and the trip home? Had lunch in Paisley at the historic Pioneer Saloon, which features a bar built in Boston, shipped around South America to Portland and delivered to Paisley in 1905. And the saloon has possibly the best curly fries I've ever eaten.

Then began the drive back to Eugene. Please, don't ask about how I tried a more southern route through the mountains to enjoy more great Oregon scenery. I don't want to admit that I ended up on an unmarked deep-snow-surrounded road that was even more out of the way, how I almost ran out of gas and how I found myself, eventually, in Medford, where I stopped for supper -- with another almost three hours to go before calling it a day.

I may be originally from Indiana, but a Jones I am not. Do we have a campus helicopter at the motor pool?

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