[OR_Archaeology] Archaeological Conservancy acquires 2 Oregon sites

[Susan White]

In the latest edition of American Archaeology magazine-

(http://www.americanarchaeology.com/aawelcome.html)

Julie Clark outlines the acquisition of 2 archaeological sites, a
pictograph rockshelter site and a coastal village midden site. Here's a
summary and attached are scans of the articles from the magazine.

1. Patricia Campbell (Oregon)

The Patricia Campbell sites, the Conservancy’s latest acquisitions in
Oregon, lie at the bottom of Rock Creek Canyon, in the north-central
part of the state. The two rockshelters were recorded in 1938 by Alex
Krieger of the University of Oregon, who was surveying other well-known
sites in north-central Oregon.  He noted black and red pictographs at
the larger of the two sites and flakes in both. “These rockshelters
undoubtedly contain much interesting material,” he wrote.

Wanting to preserve the sites in the name of his deceased sister,
Patricia, who previously owned the land, Mac Campbell, the current
landowner, contacted Catherine Dickson with the Cultural Resources
Protection Program of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation. Dickson and her colleagues visited the sites in 2006.
Dickson told the Conservancy about the sites, and it is in the process
of purchasing them from Campbell.

2. Avenue (Oregon)

Seaside lies at the southern end of massive sand dunes on Oregon’s
north coast known as the Clatsop Plains. Four thousand years ago people
settled this area, establishing three major villages. The Conservancy
has recently acquired a portion of one of those villages, known as the
Avenue site.

The site was first recorded in the early 1950s by archaeologist Lloyd
Collins, and in the 1960s it was investigated by amateur archaeologists.
Tom Connolly, a University of Oregon archaeologist, evaluated and mapped
the site in 1988. He returned there in 2002 with another University of
Oregon archaeologist, Guy Tasa, at the request of the Oregon Department
of Transportation to conduct test excavations in advance of a proposed
highway relocation project.

Their investigations revealed cultural deposits over five feet in
depth. The recovered artifacts included projectile points, bifaces,
dentalium beads, fishing gorges, and bone whistle fragments. Their data
indicated that the Avenue site was first occupied around 2000 B.C.

The Archaeological Conservancy has also acquired a historic-period site
in the Willamette Valley, the Aurora Colony Hotel site-

Aurora Colony Hotel (Oregon)

The collaboration between a conservation-minded California investment
firm, an Oregon archeologist, and the Conservancy has resulted in the
preservation of the Aurora Colony Hotel site. The town of Aurora, Oregon
is one of the historical gems of the Pacific Northwest. Situated within
a veritable agricultural Eden midway between Salem and Portland, Aurora
boasts 20 sites listed on the National Register Historic Places.

There were a number of 19th-century utopian communities, such as the
Shaker and the Oneida, in the Eastern United States, but the Aurora
Colony was the only utopian settlement on the West Coast. William Keil
founded the Aurora Colony on the same principles—the members of
Keil’s colony worked and lived together, and shared all
property—that made his first community in Bethel, Missouri a
success. With the Bethel community flourishing, Keil decided to start
another. In 1853, Keil sent members of his Bethel Colony on the Oregon
Trail with instructions to find a suitable home for a satellite
community in the Oregon Territory. In 1856, Keil settled his colony in
the Willamette Valley in northwest Oregon.


****************************************
Susan Lynn White, RPA
Asst. State Archaeologist
Oregon SHPO
725 Summer St NE, Suite C 
Salem, Oregon 97301
503-986-0675 office
503-986-0793 fax
Susan.White at state.or.us
 
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