High Country Archeology

A neat newspaper article: Unearthing secrets of the ancient Cascades:

Archaeological digs in two Washington national parks continue to reveal artifacts that debunk the myth that indigenous people didn’t gather food and plants from the upper reaches of the Cascades. A dig near Cascade Pass in North Cascades National Park has revealed evidence that humans used the area 9,600 years ago. At Mount Rainier National Park, a site on the northern slope of the mountain has produced artifacts dating back 7,600 years.


I am not sure why archeologists have been slow to accept the idea that precontact Indians might have ventured into the high county on a regular basis. Why wouldn't they? Mountain goat horns are useful for bowls and spoons, the summer flies are not so thick up there, and fresh glacier lilies are mighty tasty. And I think I disagree with this passage, from anthropologist Bradford Andrews:

Although today it’s more recreational, in the past they were more worried about finding food to eat.

Why couldn't it have been both? That 20th century Americans find the Cascades high country beautiful is not some modern refinement. We have abundant evidence that American Indians had a highly developed aesthetic sense for the outdoors as well. Maybe the Indians who left the fire pits and tools that archeologists are finding in the high county were there on vacation!

(I don't normally link to newspaper articles but this one is bringing back memories. I worked for four seasons in the North Cascades National Park, the last few on trail crew, and frequently hiked across Cascade Pass and similar places. I have fond memories of feasting on huckleberries and blueberries at 6000 feet.)

NY Times Interactive Feature on North Cascades

Going Down the Road - Places Captured in Time, but Not Frozen There: "They were still wearing Stetsons and spurs, not the tight cycling shorts you see these days, when a writer dispatched by the federal government during the Great Depression reached the end of the road here in the North Cascades." Here is an interesting piece in the New York Times that juxtaposes some towns along the North Cascades Highway (mostly Twisp and Concrete) with descriptions of the same places from the Washington State Guide produced by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. There is also a neat interactive feature with short videos keyed to a map of the North Cascades highway. This is the first a series of articles that will take the same approach.

This convergence of print newspapers, history, and the web answers several questions at once. How do newspapers make themselves relevant and interesting to a generation that gets its news from the internet? What do we do with the backlog of historical materials that are finding their way online at places like the Library of Congress? Yesterday's post about a Spokesman Review feature on the Spokane River is another example of newspapers making the most of the web.