Jan 3

Jan 3 Why Would I Need an Archaeologist in Land Development?

Archaeology in land development:

The archaeologist uses data base technology, field work and accepted investigative methods to uncover, study and report on materials of cultural significance. An archeologist’s material investigation can span history going back thousands of years, up to more recent times. Archaeology is considered a sub-field of Anthropology, the study of human cultures and societies.

…but,why would a land developer need an archaeologist?

Because the unexpected always seems to happen:

One of the things I always count on with a land development project is that there will be something unplanned coming up. That “something” is typically the kind of thing I didn’t budget for and this is why I always have a contingency cost center prepared in my budgets. The requirement for an archaeologist was one of those unplanned times that I invaded the contingency line … yet again.

Background:

Native American Tribal Rights:

In the state of Washington there are 29 federally recognized Native American Tribes. The federal government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) coordinates on certain tribal interests and in particular, the reservation land held in trust for them. The tribes have independent tribal governments and through inter-local, county, and state agreements, along with federal treaties, they have the power to claim tribal interests extending outside of reservation boundaries.

My project:

So there I was with a 1,113 acre project that was about 20 miles upstream from the nearest tribal reservation boundary. My ownership had a salmon bearing river running for 2+ miles just inside the south boundary, flowing west northwest. Since it was inside the project boundaries it was factored into the project review process.

Miles downstream from my land the same river flowed through the tribal reservation and dumped into a saltwater bay. Throughout recent and ancient history the tribes harvested salmon for miles up and down the river during the fall spawning runs.

Because salmon and the waters that hold them have formally recognized cultural, spiritual and economic value to the tribes, they had a vested interest that extended upriver and outside of the reservation boundaries. That’s how my project came into play.

What was their interest in me?

The tribal concern was not so much the residential lots I was planning to create, but whether or not there were culturally significant artifacts on or under the property surface that might be disturbed and permanently damaged by the project.

For hundreds (thousands?) of years the tribal fishers would travel up and down the river harvesting salmon. They even constructed temporary encampments along the river bank so I was a little concerned. We’ve all heard of some farmer accidentally plowing up ancient burial sites that froze their current and future land use forever and I was really hoping that I wasn’t going to be that guy!

The required archaeologist:

I was told that the tribes might be sending out an observer, but the archaeologist that showed up was alone every day. I met him at one of the cattle gates near the county arterial on a blustery, cold and rainy November morning with a scudding gray cloud cover that promised a lot more liquid sunshine later on. It was just above freezing and there were patches of slushy snow and mostly melted ice on the old muddy logging roads. He was probably in his mid-thirties and in good shape… he’d need to be to cover all this land.

Remember, the project was 1,113 acres of totally raw land accessed solely by the logging roads. It was rolling terrain and the forestation was 20-30 year old reprod. Doug Fir, immature and thick, so you had to push away the fir boughs every step of the way to walk anywhere off-road.

Other forestation was cedar, mountain hemlock, western hemlock, with alder and cottonwood in the wet spots. The understory was a combination of black hawthorne, willow, salal, bracken fern, a mix of wild blackberry, salmon berry and huckleberry thickets, with devils club mixed in for good measure. It was as thick as thick ever gets in western Washington.

photo-1604911405435-8529abd24b68 (1).jpg

Equipment:

My archaeologist had a late model Toyota 4WD pickup with early stage body cancer and a canopy that didn’t color match. The canopy covered a bunch of junk inside that couldn’t be seen because the plastic windows were all UV hazed over. His rig wasn’t all that impressive but his credentials were: He had a PhD.

The trick in the Northwest when you are outdoors in winter conditions is to accept the fact that you are going to get soaking wet, the trick being that you want to be warm wet, not cold wet. I could tell he was a Pacific Northwest boy cause he was dressed just right for the task - zippered utility vest, wool high neck pullover and wool pants and spiked rubber logging boots. The elastic beanie cap, eye protection and broke-in leather gloves nicely rounded out his “brush-busting-in-crappy-weather” gear.

He had old school navigation and mapping gear and a whiskey compass, but his utility belt held a waterproof Garmin GPS to geo locate spots of interest (and to keep him going in the right direction), folding blade, folding pack saw, and two key things that made this young man truly home grown:

A hand machete with a sharp, but not too sharp edge. (… he was going to need it.)
His vest was just oversized and long enough to fully zip over the utility belt (so that he didn’t get hung up as he was brush busting and crawling over and under blow down.)

To tell you the honest truth I really didn’t want to be a tour guide because of the rotten weather and the time it would take - plus I only had my basic rain gear in the truck, but I offered anyway. Thankfully, he declined and asked to follow me in his truck up to the northwest tip of the property. This was the point closest to the downstream / north bank of the river - his official starting point.

Methodology:

I had a printed out topo map of the ownership showing the logging road system but he was way ahead of me. He had the whole ownership mapped out on his device with a search grid already set up. I reminded him that we were talking about 1,113 acres of brush busting but he didn’t seem fazed.

I made sure to go over his search pattern so that if he didn’t come out I would know where to start looking in the event of a twisted ankle or a tweaked a knee. He was geared up and set, so off he went. Just for good measure, I called a guy and told him to check on him at the end of each day.

Freshwater Fen:

One thing I made sure to have my archaeologist’s full attention on during our meet and greet was my freshwater fen. The fen surveyed 4 acres and it was dead center in the western third. A fen is like an Irish peat bog, the difference being that the floating bog vegetation species is different because of the acidity of the water it grows on top of.

The fen could be very dangerous since the floating mat covered the freezing water and was, to say the least, not very stable. One wrong step and you could disappear into the frigid water and nobody in those woods would be within miles to hear you screaming. In that water I’d give a guy a max of 10 minutes if he was in good shape and put up a decent fight to stay afloat.

The danger was multiplied because it was really hard to tell where the floating mat started since there was blow down, busted limbs and sticks, wind blown leaves etc., making the floating mat invisible in many areas along the shoreline. He noted my warning and I since he was alert, bright and obviously a woodsman, I felt he would be ok.

Archaeological survey results:

Naturally, I was a little bit nervous about what the archaeologist would find and report. I kept imagining he was going to discover a burial ground or something else that was ancient and sacred and turn the project upside down. After all, with the ownership being miles in circumference there was a lot of area to find things in.

Leslie Cross snowshoes.jpg — “Fen” transit gear.

When his report came out a few weeks later, the only finds listed in the entire survey were five campfire sites that he attributed to temporary fishing encampments dating back 150 - 180 years ago. I read every page of the report and I learned a lot about his process, but it got me to thinking so I called him up on the phone for some answers.

Question #1:

The locations on the map showed 3 of the 5 campfire sites on a small island in the middle of the fen. Just how did he get out there? Well, the answer had to do with snowshoes, you figure the rest out! Dumb in my opinion, but apparently effective!

Question #2:

How can you find campfires over 100 years old in the first place and how can you date them back to 150 - 180 years ago? His answer is that he located the stones that were placed around the fire and their depth under the vegetation and soil determined the elapsed time (within a 30 year margin of error). How he knew where to scratch the surface is a mystery to me.

OKAY..

I give the guy credit for effort and results but how he ever knew where and how to look and find these materials is beyond me. I guess he learned that in PhD school somewhere. Think about it - the project was 1,113 acres of totally raw terrain and at 43,560 sq. ft. per acre, that’s 48.482 million sq. ft. he needed to cover!

Archaeology in Land Development:

I dodged a bullet with my archeological survey and was able to move forward with the project. Even so, it’s useful to know that this little sidestep resulted in about a 2 month delay between when the requirement was put forth and the tribes and county gave the thumbs up to proceed.

I don’t remember the exact cost because it was a while ago, I clearly remember that it was not contemplated in my cost projections. That is something to remember - cost and time overruns can be a part of any land development project. It might not be as unique as having to hire your own Indiana Jones, but in cost and time projecting ask yourself if you have a contingency plan set up ….just in case.