[OR_Archaeology] ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER NEW HOUSE AND LANDSCAPE AT COLONIAL SITE IN VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON

[Wendy Ann Wright]

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site



MEDIA RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



=====================================

July 19, 2010

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Media Contact:



Douglas C. Wilson 360.921.5241 or doug_wilson at nps.gov



Kimm Fox-Middleton 360.816.6243 or Kimm_Fox-Middleton at nps.gov





ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER NEW HOUSE AND LANDSCAPE AT COLONIAL SITE IN
VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON





VANCOUVER, WA – 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 transferprint 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.”





The Public Archaeology field school is a partnership of the Fort’s Northwest
Cultural Resources Institute with Portland State University, Washington
State University Vancouver, supported by grants from NPS and the Fort
Vancouver National Trust.



Related to the field school, a new program at the Fort is bringing urban youth
and families to the fort, to provide a hands-on experience with activities
from the 19th century, to learn about the science of archaeology, and
reconnect to the diverse histories of the Pacific Northwest through a series
of day and overnight camps.  “This program demonstrates how diversity
is not something
new to the Pacific Northwest,” said Ranger Kimm Fox-Middleton.  “The history
and archaeology at Fort Vancouver shows us how people of many different
cultures worked together and interacted in the past.  We want to show kids
that the history of the Pacific Northwest is for everyone.”



The field school will run one more week at the Village site until July 24,
2010.  The Village is west of the Fort Vancouver reconstruction north of the
Vancouver Land Bridge.  *The public is welcome to visit Tuesday
through** **Saturday,
from 9:00 am to 4:00 p.m.*





The urban youth program will continue through September. Contact for the Urban
youth program: Kimm Fox-Middleton, 360.816.6243.



*Experience Your America***

The National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American

people so that all may experience our heritage.



-- 
Wendy Ann Wright
---------------------------
PTA President, Boise Eliot Neighborhood School
Research Assistant, Department of Anthropology, Portland State University

text/call 503.853.0595
email wendyannwright at gmail.com
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