Petroglyph Canyon Historic Photos

Large wall of rock art at Petroglyph Canyon (Willis Vail Photo, 1905. © Old Oregon Photos.) 

For thousands of years native people carved and painted spiritually important images on the basalt cliff faces of what came to be known as Petroglyph Canyon. The canyon is located in south central Washington state near Columbia Hills State Park (see image below).


View of Petroglyph Canyon location. Columbia Hills State Park is at the red "You Are Here" dot (image courtesy of Washington State Parks)

Petroglyph Canyon was reported to have one of the largest concentrations of Indian rock art in North America before it was largely submerged in the pool behind The Dalles Dam (photo below) in 1957. Today much of the rock art, and the canyon itself, lie hidden beneath the waters of Horsethief Lake and the Columbia River at Columbia Hills State Park near Dallesport, WA.

We recently came across a website (www.oldoregonphotos.com) that displays (and sells) historic photographs.  John Klatt, who owns the Old Oregon website, has graciously allowed CultureWatch NW to reproduce some very old photos of Columbia Gorge rock art. (All historic photos in this post are © Old Oregon Photos).

As the giant hydroelectric generation dams were built on the Columbia River beginning in the 1930's many Native American cultural areas, including rock art sites, were flooded by the large lakes that formed behind them. Photographers, professional and amateur, scrambled to record the ancient images before they disappeared. 

By the way, if you have old photos of rock art from the Columbia Gorge and are willing to share them we would love to hear from you! Just send an email to culturewatch@gmail.com.

A number of petroglyphs and pictographs were actually "salvaged" by being physically removed from areas about to be submerged. Some of these rescued boulders, including a number of those shown in the old Benjamin Markham photos in this article, can be seen today along the Temani Peshwa Trail (photo below) at Columbia Hills State Park and at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest Recreation Area near Vantage, WA.

So let's take a look at the old photos! When available we've included both a historic picture (black and white) and a modern photo (color) so you can see how the rock art has changed in the last 75-100 years.

The photo on the left below was taken by Benjamin Markham in the 1920's. It shows the panel of petroglyphs in situ, still part of the cliff wall at Petroglyph Canyon. The same panel is visible at center left in the Willis Vail photo above. On the right below is the salvaged panel, now located on the Temani Peshwa Trail.

 


You will notice that the contrast between the petroglyphs and the background rock is much greater in the old photos. Historically it was a common practice to color or outline rock art with white chalk to make the images show up clearly in photos. This practice is now regarded as vandalism because it may take decades for the chalk to disappear.

Images in situ at Petroglyph Canyon. 

Markham Photo.

Salvaged boulder as it sits today on the Temni Peshwa Trail.

          

       Images in situ at Petroglyph Canyon (at left above, Markham Photo circa 1920's) and as they looks today on the Temani Peshwa Trail at Columbia Hills State Park.

The photo on the left (attributed to Markham but unsigned) was taken near Wishram, WA. A modern photo shows the beautiful color of the images which are a combination of petroglyphs and pictographs (painted on the rock surface).

The two photos below were also taken by Markham 
in the 1920's. Unfortunately we don't have any modern 
photos to compare them with. The image on the left was taken 
in Petroglyph Canyon and is now assumed to be 
submerged. The other was taken at a rock art site in 
Sherman County, Oregon.


Check out the historic photos at www.oldoregonphotos.com and when the weather warms up (after April 1) head out to Columbia Hills State Park where you can take a self-guided tour of the Tamani Peshwa Trail (whenever the park is open) and also a free guided tour of the other extensive rock art sites at the park (reservation required for the free tour, there is a small fee to enter the park).

         

People & Plants: Study of Ancient Oregon Rock Shelter Topic of September OAS Lecture

Catlow Valley Highway-Photo Courtesy of Dave Anderson (Picasa)

OAS Meeting & Presentation: Tuesday, September 6
The Oregon Archaeological Society will offer its first lecture of the year on Tuesday, September 6, 2011. The title of the lecture is “People and Plants: Paleobotanical Studies at a Late Archaic Rock Shelter in Oregon’s Catlow Valley.” Jaime Dexter, a doctoral student in Archaeology at the University of Oregon, is the featured speaker.


Dexter’s research interests include paleoethnobotany, palynology, plant genetics, and environmental archaeology. She has studied the subsistence strategies of hunter-gatherer populations in the northwestern Great Basin and is specifically interested in utilizing cross-disciplinary approaches to recognize and address prehistoric environmental impacts.


The presentation is at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) at 7:45 PM, and is free and open to the public. The talk is preceded at 7 PM by a general business meeting, which is also open to the public


See www.oregonarchaeological.org or call 503-727-3507 for more information.www.oregonarchaeological.org.

OAS Field Trip: Huckleberry Processing Fields, Saturday, September 10 - Space Available!

Photo courtesy Fat of the Land

Rick McClure, Forest Archaeologist & Heritage Program Manager for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest at Mt. Adams, Washington and archaeologist Cheryl Mack, will conduct two field trips to huckleberry processing field sites, focusing on the archaeology of the Cascade Crest - late summer upland use oriented toward collection and processing of huckleberries. The trip is expected to last the entire day. 

Meet at 9:00 a. m. at the Mt. Adams Ranger Station. This trip will go into the Indian Heaven Wilderness and is more difficult due to hiking conditions.


Contact Betty Tandberg (360) 695-6021 or tandberg0408@comcast.net to sign up for either of these trips since the number of participants is limited.

Final Resting Place of Clark County Pioneers

By Sue Vorenberg
Columbian Staff Reporter

It wasn’t easy for the dozen or so family members to pack up a wagon train in 1850 and bump, thump and roll their way from Missouri to what would eventually become east Vancouver.


When they staked their claims for free land around the Columbia River and Government Island, the small band probably didn’t consider that one day they’d end up as founding members of a county that would grow to more than 425,000 people...


Read the whole story at: Fishers Cemetery


British Columbia Village May Be 10,000 Years Old

Mark Hume

Globe & Mail

When Farid Rahemtulla and his anthropology students began to dig in the forest floor on Calvert Island, he pretty much knew what to expect – lots of clam and mussel shells.

But shortly after the team from the University of Northern British Columbia started to sink pits into a shell midden (refuse dump) on the Central Coast, he realized it was much bigger than anyone imagined – so large he now believes it is part of a long-lost, ancient village called Luxvbalis...

Read the whole story at: Ancient Village

Teen Gets Prison in Red Rock Graffiti Case

By Jeff German

Las Vegas Review-Journal

The desecration last year of prehistoric artwork at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area sparked outrage and focused attention on the spread of graffiti throughout the Las Vegas Valley.


This week, the 17-year-old youth charged with defacing the Red Rock area received his punishment behind closed doors in federal court, ending a case that rallied the community to help remove the spray-painted graffiti...

Read the whole sad story at: Rock Art Graffiti

Ötzi the Iceman Murdered on a Full Stomach
By Brandon Keim

Wired
A fresh analysis of Ötzi the Iceman’s stomach suggests a grisly new climax to the world’s most famous prehistory murder mystery: death by ambush, a surprise killing in the afterglow of a big meal.


Ötzi was found in 1991, frozen and fantastically preserved in ice high in the Italian Alps, where he’d perished 5,300 years ago. With his tattoos and cool tools and smart outfit, rendered by artists with soulful brown eyes under a weathered brow, he became a Copper Age celebrity. Public and scientific imagination seized on the circumstances of his life — and, of course, his death...

Otzi fans can read the whole story at: Otzi Dies on Full Stomach

Hand Axes Unearthed in Kenya are Oldest Advanced Stone Tools Ever Found

By Ian Sample

Guardian.co.uk

A recent discovery suggests early humans were wielding sophisticated stone tools at least 300,000 years earlier than thought. A rare haul of picks, flakes and hand axes recovered from ancient sediments in Kenya are the oldest remains of advanced stone tools yet discovered.


Archaeologists unearthed the implements while excavating mudstone banks on the shores of Lake Turkana in the remote north-west of the country.

Read the whole story at: Ancient Tools

(Thanks to Robin Harrower, Russel Micnhimer, The Columbian, Wired, the Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and Las Vegas Review-Journal for some of the info in this post.)

Rare Chinook House Stone Re-discovered!

Kloshe Nanitch

The Guardian of Altoona

In April Portland archaeologist Melissa Darby connected me to Kari Kandoll, the curator of the Wahkiakum County Historical Society Museum in Cathlamet, WA. Cathlamet is a small community about 65 miles west and down the Columbia River from Vancouver and Portland.

Kari and her staff had recently uncovered a small, interestingly carved boulder in the storage area of the museum. The boulder had been donated long ago by a local resident and since forgotten among the thousands of items in the museum's collection.

Late in June Kari brought the stone to the CultureWatch NW office in Vancouver where we took the photos included here.

After some research we concluded that the stone was a Chinook house stone. This rare carved stone figure is believed to have stood outside a Chinook Indian longhouse (similar to the one in the "Floor Plan drawing to the right) in the vicinity of Altoona, WA.

The figure probably represents a mythological character important in the Chinookan spiritual belief structure. Such carved figures, in stone or wood, were erected outside longhouses to protect the occupants from evil spirits and influences.

Note the tapered lower end of the stone which would have been buried in the earth, securing the stone in an upright position near the front of the house.

Also notice the triangular ribbed carving on the back of the figure. In several other examples of Chinookan carving this shape represents the exaggerated tail of an animal (a beaver or mountain sheep) providing another indication that perhaps the human-like face on the front of the stone is not actually human, but a protective spirit figure.

Once we had identified what the carved stone was we wanted to come up with a suitable name that would recognize its significance and honor its purpose. After consulting a Chinook Jargon Phrasebook I suggested the name "Kloshe Nanitch", The Guardian of Altoona.

The words mean "take care, stand guard, watch out"...suitable terms for a house stone that would have protected occupants of a long house hundreds of years ago.

Now Kloshe Nanitch is headed for a place of honor on display in the Wahkiakum Museum near where it served its original purpose guarding the Chinook people of Altoona.

VISIT KLOSHE NANITCH & CATHLAMET!

Historic Cathlamet is an easy day trip from Portland or Vancouver and is well worth visiting. While you're there you can stop in at the Historical Society Museum, check out Kloshe Nanitch and enjoy an extensive exhibit and photo collection, including logging, fishing, maritime, farming, families, towns, and genealogy records.

The Wahkiakum County Historical Society Museum

65 River Street, Cathlamet, WA
360-795-3954 or 360-849-4353

Open: Open Saturday and Sunday from 1-4 the first full weekend in May and close the last weekend in October.  Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and kids under 18 are free.

If you visit the weekend of July 16, Cathlamet will be holding its Bald Eagle Days festival, a traditional small town event with fun for everyone!

CultureWatch Director to Speak This Saturday

Columbia River Plateau archaeology and Indian rock art will be subjects of a talk and slide show Saturday at the quarterly meeting of the Camas-Washougal Historical Society.

Michael W. Taylor, a Washington native and co-author of five books, will speak about cultural resources, rock art and Columbia Plateau archaeology.

His presentation will be titled "Reconnecting with Nichi-Wana: Ancient Indian Rock Art of the Lower Columbia River".

Taylor has contributed to five books and numerous professional articles and presentations. He is the principal of Culture Watch Northwest, an organization dedicated to protecting “places that matter.” He has served as both president and director of the Oregon Archaeological Society.

Taylor’s talk is set for 2 p.m. Saturday in the community room of the Camas Police Station, 2100 N.E. Third Ave. There will be time for discussion and questions after his presentation. Learn more about Culture Watch Northwest at http://culturewatchnorthwest.blogspot.com.

Information courtesy of The Columbian. Read the original article at: Historical Society Hosts Archaeology Talk

Archaeology Presentations, Rock Art Guide, Old Teeth, & A Third Branch of Humanity

OAS MEETING - TUESDAY, JAN. 4, 2011 - Revisiting the Meier Site

Dr. Kenneth Ames is the featured speaker at the January 4, 2011 Oregon Archaeological Society meeting. He will be talking about the Meier Site and Lower Columbia River archaeology.

The Meier Site, located near Scappoose, Oregon, is one of the most significant sites on the Lower Columbia River. It was excavated between 1987 and 1991. The site dates to the period from about AD 1400 to at least through the founding of Ft. Vancouver, in the 1830s and beyond. The Meier site revealed major residential habitation with a massive plankhouse. The talk reviews the results of analyses of thousands of artifacts, focusing on the Meier site, while also discussing other sites along the river.

Dr. Ames is Professor and Department Chair of Anthropology at Portland State University. He has conducted numerous archaeological field research in western North America and has authored numerous publications and reports.

The lecture will be held in the OMSI auditorium at 7:45 PM, and is free and open to the public. The presentation is preceded at 7 PM by a general business meeting, which is also open to the public. See www.oregonarchaeological.org or call 503-727-3507 for information.


ARCHAEOLOGY FOR THE CURIOUS-OAS BASIC TRAINING STILL AVAILABLE!
Are you looking to learn more about archaeology basics, or do you need a refresher on the history of the Pacific Northwest? The Oregon Archaeological Society offers an annual Training program.

OAS Basic Training, also known as Archaeology for the Curious, is taught by experienced regional professionals from organizations such as the National Forest Service, BLM, and the University of Oregon. The sessions will be held on six Saturdays in late Winter/early Spring.

Contact Steve Satterthwaite (503) 824-2264 satterts@hotmail.com or visit http://www.oregonarchaeological.org/training.htm


NEW ROCK ART GUIDE BOOK NOW AVAILABLE
Oregon avocational archaeologists D. Russel Micnhimer and LeeAnn Johnston announce the publication of their new guide book, Where to See Rock Art: Washington Oregon Idaho by Pendulum Press.

It contains general information about various aspects of rock art and specific information about where rock art can be seen in museums, visitor centers, state parks and public lands in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Photographs, line drawings and a brief description give readers an idea of what they will find at 39 locations in the three states. The table of contents make it easy to access the information in this 147 page paperback.

The authors are members of the Oregon Archaeological Society and have received numerous Loring & Loring Grants from the organization in support of their on going research and website www.oregonrockart.com.

The new book is available directly from Russel Micnhimer, P. O. Box 1653, Prineville, OR 97754. $14.95 + $4.00 S&H (USPS). For more information email TalkingEarth@hotmail.com.

(I've read Russel and LeeAnn's new book and its a great guide for anyone who wants to visit the very interesting public rock art sites of the Pacific Northwest...Mike)


DOUGLAS HISTORIAN TO SPEAK IN PORTLAND, VANCOUVER
Author Jack Nisbet will talk about "Point of Departure: David Douglas at Fort Vancouver 1825-33" at 2 p.m. Jan. 9 at E.B. Hamilton Hall on the Fort Vancouver National Site. Nisbet will also give a reading from his book "The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest" at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 10 at Powell's bookstore in downtown Portland.

Douglas was the premier botanical explorer in the Pacific Northwest and western North America in the 19th century. His base of operations always remained at Fort Vancouver. The people he met there influenced his every move, and the changes he witnessed during his visits mark significant turning points for the social, economic, scientific, and environmental stories of the region. In this illustrated presentation at Fort Vancouver, Nisbet traces the energy Douglas brought to, and absorbed from, his central headquarters at Fort Vancouver. Nisbet is this year's Michael M. Powell Fellow at the Center for Columbia River History.

For program information, go to http://www.ccrh.org/calendar.php


AN OLDER ORIGIN FOR 'MODERN' TOOL-MAKING TECHNIQUE?
By News Services-October 29, 2010
A technique for shaping stones into sharp-edged points may have emerged about 55,000 years earlier than previously known, according to a study of stone tools from Blombos Cave in South Africa. Previously, researchers have also found other evidence of “modern” human behavior, such as shell beads, from this 75,000-year-old site, where new ideas and techniques may have been rapidly introduced...

Read the whole story at: http://www.flickeringtorches.com/2010/10/29/an-older-origin-for-modern-tool-making-technique.html





HUMAN, NEANDERTHAL, OR OTHER?
Finger Bones Point to New Branch of Humanity
By Charles Q. Choi
Published December 22, 2010
LiveScience
A finger bone and other remains from Siberia now reveals a previously unknown group of ancient humans once existed there, one neither like us nor Neanderthals.

Bizarrely, the DNA from these extinct Siberians seems unusually similar to that of Pacific Islanders from tropical Melanesia.The 30,000-year-old fossil was found in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia in 2008, a bone fragment that likely came from a fingertip of a young girl. It was discovered along with microblades (small stone blades used as tools), body ornaments of polished stone, and a molar shaped very differently from that of Neanderthals and modern humans, resembling that of much older human species, such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus. (The tooth and the finger bone apparently came from different members of the same population.)...

Read more: New Branch of Humanity?
More at: Three Types of Ancient Humans?


RESEARCHERS: ANCIENT HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN ISRAEL
By Daniel Estrin
Associated Press – Mon Dec 27
JERUSALEM –Israeli archaeologists said Monday they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man, and if so, it could upset theories of the origin of humans. A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said teeth found in the cave are about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other remains of modern man, known scientifically as Homo sapiens, found in Israel. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half as old...

Read the whole story at: Ancient Teeth


ANCIENT ROCK ART'S COLOURS COME FROM MICROBES
BBC Mobile
December 27, 2010

A particular type of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintains its vivid colours because it is alive, researchers have found...

Read more at: http://goo.gl/eAEFH








(Thanks to Oregon Heritage News, News Services, LiveScience, the Associated Press, Russel Micnhimer, and Jodi Lorimer for some of the info in this message).

The Petroglyph Rubbings at Skamania Lodge

I was lucky enough to get to attend a Christmas party at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA this weekend.

Very nice place and they have an excellent collection of petroglyph rubbings and Pacific coast Indian-inspired wood carving displayed throughout the hotel.

The rubbings are mostly of ancient images found on the Columbia River Plateau. The region is home to hundreds of petroglyphs that have been carved into the surface of the native basalt and also to many pictographs that are painted on the rock.

Some of the rubbings are especially interesting because they are of images that are now submerged in the pools behind the major dams on the Columbia.

The rubbings were done by artist Jeanne Hillis over a number of years beginning in the 1940's. Skamania Lodge developer John D. Gray (also famous for Salishan, John's Landing, etc.) acquired the entire Hillis collection in the early 1990's to provide an artistic theme for the new lodge. Well known rock art scholar Dr. James Keyser was commissioned to write a monograph on the collection titled Indian Petroglyphs of the Columbia Gorge: The Jeanne Hillis Rubbings which was published in 1994.

I hope you enjoy the images below...and appreciate that they represent an important aspect of a living culture that has existed in the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years.

In addition to the rubbings the lodge holds several major wood carvings with images inspired by Pacific coast Indian art.

All the images in this blog are viewable for free in the public areas of the lodge. It's well worth a stop if you're ever in the area.

Enjoy!

(The author received no compensation from Skamania Lodge (or anyone else) for this post.)

King Tut! Howard Carter's Excavation Notes Released...and more!

KING TUT TO THE MAX - OXFORD RELEASES HOWARD CARTER'S EXCAVATION NOTES/PHOTOS

Photo courtesy of The Griffith Institute

The Griffith Institute of Oxford University has just published Howard Carter's notes and records from his excavation of King Tut's tomb reports the Chinook Observer. Thousands of articles from the tomb are cataloged along with related photos. The website also includes hundreds of photos, some in beautiful color. Definitely worth looking at if you're at all interested in Egyptology.

More on Howard Carter's notes at: http://goo.gl/z84D

Tut's Chariot Heads to New York: http://goo.gl/n3Y8

DARWINIAN ARCHAEOLOGY LECTURE

Dr. Eric Bangs

WillametteCRA offices

623 SE Mill Street

Portland, OR 97214

Friday, August 6, 7:00 pm.

Refreshments provided

Frontiers are contact zones between cultures. The upper Rhine river valley was just such a contact zone when the Romans arrived in the first century BC. Over the next 500 years, the Romans engaged in a complex cultural interaction with the non-Roman inhabitants that eventually resulted in a creolized frontier society. A model derived from Roman authors suggests that this society was replaced by the arrival of the Alamanni in the late third century AD who, in turn, were replaced by the Merovingians in the sixth century.

The replacement model of cultural interaction in the upper Rhine is tested using a methodology based in Darwinian and meme theory. Seriations were created of stylistic elements from ceramic vessel assemblages from 14 archaeological sites in southwest Germany. The seriations suggest that non-Roman inhabitants in the first century AD did adopt aspects of Roman culture but only in the realm of emotionally charged ritual. For their day-to-day existence, the artifacts they used appear to have changed little and they maintained an identity adopted centuries before. In evolutionary terms, these practices had a high fitness relative to the cost of learning new ceramic manufacturing techniques.

ROUND-UP EXHIBIT TO OPEN AT TAMASTSLIKT

Museum-goers are invited to join in the excitement of the iconic

Pendleton Round-Up Rodeo by visiting Tamástslikt Cultural Institute’s

next exhibit, Tall in the Saddle: One hundred years of the Pendleton

Round-Up. The exhibit opens July 23 and runs through January 2011.

Starting in 1910, the Pendleton Round-Up was the event that made Oregon

a rodeo destination nationally and around the world. The exhibit,

developed in partnership by Tamástslikt, the Oregon Historical Society,

and author Michael Bales, imparts the rich sense of Round-Up history

from its modest beginnings as a small town harvest festival.

“Tamastslikt joined forces with OHS and Michael to present an

impressive exhibition not unlike the partnership between our Tribal

people and the citizens of Pendleton that makes the Round-Up unique,”

said Bobbie Conner, Tamástslikt director. Contact Tamástslikt Cultural

Institute at (541)966-9748 or visit www.tamastslikt.org for more

information.

THE HIGH DESERT MUSEUM’S 1st AUDIO TOUR: SIN IN THE SAGEBRUSH

The first audio tour at the High Desert Museum allows visitors to

experience the Sin in the Sagebrush exhibit with its creator, Curator of

Western History Bob Boyd. The exhibit marks the first in-depth look at

how communities of the American West formed around saloons, gambling

halls, and bordellos. The audio tour is rich with details, from how a

tent bordello was used, to how to produce an ace from your sleeve.

Visitors may download the tour at home from

http://highdesertmuseum.com/exhibits/Indoor_Exhibits/Sin_in_the_Sagebrush/Audio_Tour/

Contact: Cathy Carroll, communications and promotions manager

541-382-4754, ext. 300; ccarroll@highdesertmuseum.org;

www.highdesertmuseum.org

NEW HOUSE AND LANDSCAPE DISCOVERED AT FORT VANCOUVER

National Park Service and University archaeologists have discovered one

of the homes of the multicultural village associated with Fort

Vancouver. The Village was home for 600 to 1000 Hudson’s Bay Company

(HBC) employees, their families, and visiting traders and travelers

during the fur trade period.

“Explorations in this house and its surrounding landscape will shed

new light on the lives of the diverse population that served this

colonial capital of the Pacific Northwest in the 1830s and 1840s,”

said Doug Wilson, National Park Service Archaeologist and Faculty Member

of the Department of Anthropology at Portland State University. Wilson,

who is directing the field school that is excavating the site,

identified tiny glass trade beads, buttons, musket balls, bottle glass,

and colorful Spode transfer print ceramics as evidence of the house and

its immediate surroundings. “The people living in the village, in

contrast to the “gentlemen” and their families inside the fort, left

no written records. This excavation is a way to recover the history of

this incredible community, which included people of many ancestries:

American Indians from many tribes, Native Hawaiians, French Canadians,

Europeans, Americans, and those of multiethnic origin - the Métis.”

More at: http://www.nps.gov/fova/parknews/newsreleases.htm

NEW BASKET EXHIBIT FEATURED AT WARM SPRINGS

The Museum At Warm Springs is pleased to present "Baskets Tell A Story", exhibiting baskets from the Columbia River Plateau and beyond. The exhibit shows until October 10.

Baskets from the Museum's collection are featured, together with baskets on loan from the High Desert Museum, the Hallie Ford Museum and the Jan Musial Collection. The exhibit honors the Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association (NNABA) gathering October 1-2 at Kah-Nee-Ta High Desert Resort on the Warm Springs Reservation.

The exhibit and its programs are funded by an Oregon Arts Commission Community Grant and the Oregon Cultural Trust.

NAVIGATING THE PAST DAY CAMP AT COLUMBIA RIVER MARITIME MUSEUM

This week of August 9-13 theme is “On the River.” During the week,

campers will be immersed in activities relating to the cultures and

animals that depend on the river for survival. There will be an

introduction to the Chinese and Native American cultures with crafts,

games and legends. Children will be able to make their own baskets.

Campers will take walks to explore the river and surrounding area to

identify wildlife that call the river their home. Seeing the world from

a bald eagle’s perspective and building an eagle nest are part of the

activities planned. Boat races are part of the fun during this session.

Campers will also make a paddle wheeler. A field trip to Cape

Disappointment State Park is included. The week will conclude with a jet

boat ride and a swim at the Astoria Aquatic Center.

For more information, call Jackie Welborn at 503-325-2323 or email

welborn@crmm.org

STONEHENGE TIMBER TWIN REVEALED IN SHOVEL-LESS DIG

The Christian Science Monitor

By Danna Harman, July 23, 2010

Stonehenge had a twin nearby made of timber, say archaeologists who made the new discovery. But this dig was done with magnetometers, radar, and video game 3D technology. Without digging up one shovel of earth, or dusting off one rock with a toothbrush, Gaffney and the other members of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project have uncovered an incredible find – a mere two weeks into a three-year mission to map 5.5 square miles of land around Stonehenge...(sorry, couldn't resist using the tourist photo :-)

Read the whole story at: http://goo.gl/6TEU

More at: http://goo.gl/vZxd

Petroglyph Tunnel Progresses!

The other day Suzanne Bachelder (from the City of Washougal) and I went over to Vancouver Granite Works to take a look at the large basalt rock that will stand at the entry to the Washougal Pedestrian Tunnel.

This large chunk of columnar basalt will be a commemorative stone that recognizes the Indian people of the Columbia Plateau and those who contributed to the rock art portion of the project. The boulder, standing at the northern entrance to the tunnel (see drawing for one possibility), will mark the beginning of the transition from the city to the river.


The rock is not quite complete in the photos that follow. Suzanne collected tracings of actual handprints from all the high school interns who worked on the project. When complete those real handprints will be carved into the stone. When we saw it the handprints had not yet been carved, but the concept photo (at right) will give you the idea.

Check it out!
















...and here are the interns and coordinators who are helping make the concept into a reality!