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(sSfflgu, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL: PARK SERVICE NATIONAL. PARK FILE NO. AEOEIE0L0GICAL FIELD BOTES FORT CLATSOP, ASTORIA, OREGON Paul J. F. Scrnrmacher, ArcaeologlBt January 22, 1957 Revised May 28, 1957 IMPORTANT * • This file constitutes a part of the official records of the National Park Service and should not be separated or papers withdrawn without express authority of the official in charge. All Files should be returned promptly to the File Room. Officials and employees will be held responsible for failure to observe these rules, which are necessary to protect the integrity of the official records. NEWTON B. DRTJRY, s- «. •ornuMDtT rmimis wncc 16—23(71 Director, ARCHEOLOGICAL PIELD NOTES PORT CLATSOP, ASTORIA, OREGON Paul J. P. Schumacher, Archeologist January 22, 1957 Revised May 28, 1957 - 6 - With additional funds made available by the Washington Office of the Mational Park Service to the Region Tour Office, I was on assign­ ment from the Regional Office to continue the archeological investigation of the 3ite. I arrived in Astoria on Sunday, April 7, 1957, and started on the following day. April 8, 1957. I hired a crew of six laborers from the Oregon State Fhrjloynent ~~ Office in Astoria. One of the men had worked for rae during the previous December excavations. The tools we used I had picked up at Fort Vancouver, and the Clatsop County Historical Society furnished me the keys to the ourap house and had the pump operating when we arrived. The men started at 9»00 a.m. I had two men complete the excavation of trench 7 which we had started in December but wh ich was not completed. The other four men excavated in trench 8, which we had started in December. We now merely extended the trench northwestward and southeastward a total of 117 feet and went deeper to sterile day. A very modern trash hole was uncovered in this trench—full of tin cans, etc., of a very recent vintage with the naner labels still on the cans. A square wooden post was located on the east face of trench 8. This oost had a sawed base and was of hemlock wood. It was 1»P* long and It" thick. No sirdlar -oats were found adjoining it and it was no doubt a former fence post of the raid to late 19th century. Coming to the sterile day in trench 7, and finding nothing except a few stones, I shifted the two men onto a new trench—9, which runs northeast-southwest and is three feet wide and 137 feet long. It runs from trench 8, through the cydone fence gate, through the recon­ structed fort pate to the north stochade wall. Tcuoight an artide on our excavations at the site of Fort Clatsop a-'oeared in the AstorIan-Budget. Aoril 9, 1957. The six laborers continued to excavate in trenches 8 and 9. As the sections in trench 8 were finished and we reached sterile clay, the men shifted over to trench 9. Finally reached sterile clay all along trench 8 and It seemed to be divided into three major artifact sections, the northern and southern ends producing very little, while the central section contained great quantities of raid to late 19th cen­ tury material. This material was found in association with a layer of red fire-burned day and black charcoal, and just beneath this same clay layer. The fired clay and late 19th century material must be fron the Smith home of the iSTO^s which st^od in approximately this location according to the photograph of 1899. It could also possibly be the site of the previous Shane house if W. K. Smith built his house on the old Shane house site. - 7 - Trench 9 can be divided into 3 artifact sections also. The northeast section, inside the reconstructed fort, had very few artifacts and a rather sterile soil. The central section, outside the reconstructed fort, had a few charcoal blackened roots and a few late 19th century arti­ facts. .The southwest section of trench 9, tangent to trench R, produced a vast quantity of late 19th century artifacts, all lying near the sur­ face and in association with a large area, of red foire-burned clay overlying a gray day. This gray clay is generally found as a natural strata sore 2\ or more feet below the surface. Here in trench 9, it was laid by nan for some puroose, possibly as a flooring to a house or shed which, when it burned to the ground, produced the red clay layer we uncovered at the surface. This entire southwest section is in tree roots of the present standing trees and near the same trees which appear in the 1899 photo­ graph of the site. This confirms ray oninion that we were on the site of the old W. H. Smith house and possibly even of the Shane house. We found a quantity of hemlock stakes, pickets or pegs in the northeast section of trench 9. They were all situated vertically in the ground, ooint down, generally a foot or more below the present surface and were similar in shape to those uncovered in trench 2 during the December excavation. These pieces of pointed wood we had thought were raan-made (whittled) but to my disappointment they turned out to be the hard center core or node of the evergreen tree branches where they are joined to the tree. These pieces are known to the local lumbermen as "buckhorns." Since these joints are fall of rosin and do not rot, they stay hard and firm in the ground for nary years. We were duped by their oointed appearance similar to man-made stakes or nickets, and had classi­ fied them as artifacts instead of the natta-al phenomena they are. Tliey are extremely hard and have been found at substantial depths in the sterile clay, indicating age. Garwood, as well as -ryoelf, had been fooled by these objects. Located an iron nipe near the southeast outside corner of the main gate to the recoristrocted fort. This pipe definitely appears to have been hammered into the ground. We wondered whether this pipe was placed as a marker in 1900 by the Oregon Historical Society Cornittee when they were establishing the site of the fort with Shane and Gillette. Further study of the pipe showed very little corrosion and although placed in the ground at an unknown date and far ah unknown purpose, yet it had definitely not been in the ground for more than about ten years at the most. April 10, 195*7« Six laborers today, finishing the excavation of trench 9. "" Nothing more came out of the northeast section of the trench inside the reconstructed fort, although there were a few dark snots that dipped down deener than generally seen in the other trench faces. At these dark snots I had the men dig down to the sterile yellow-gray clay, leaving no possi­ bility of missing some significant soil change. Flecks of charcoal were seen here and there but not in a concentrated quantity to be significant. - 8 - In the southwest section of trench 9, below the gray clay and fire horizon, there was nothing—all the late 19th century artifacts cane from the fire horizon just beneath the surface. After lunch the men started excavating two 3-foot wide trenches, each 7U feet in length, on either side of the reconstructed fort between the fort and the cyclone fence. These trenches run rwrtheast-southwest and are parallel. I labeled then trenches 10 and 11. Nothing interesting cane out of them. The southwest section of both of these trenches has a very rich black topsoil—a great deal richer t^an we have imcovered in the rest of the area. In trench 10 there is a very deep black earth hole, drc-alar in shape, whieh intrudes into the gray sterile clay seme 5% feet beneath the surface. Could it have been the flagoole hole of the historic fort? I doubt it—it is more likely a deep tanroot of a former tree. This evening I p»ve a talk to the Clatsop County Historical Society on the objectives of our archeological research and what the results were urn to the present time. Aoril 11, 1957. Six men working today, continued to excavate trenches 10 and li down to the sterile yellow day. Two fire nits appeared in each trench in about the dead center of the trench and opposite each other in relation to the reconstructed fort. These *ireoits were bovl-ahaoed and were generally deep enough below the surface to indicate 3ome age to them. No artifacts other than an occasional fire-fractured stone cane out of these nits. They could be either—white man's or Indian's- there was no way of telling. We also uncoverod in trench 10, in the northeast end just opposite the concrete marker, the regains of a wooden flagpole olaced here in 1953, and identified by Mr. Burnby Bell. Raving ranched the sterile clay in trench 10, we set up trench 12 running northwest-southeast, 3 feet wide, on the north side of the reconstructed fort, between the rear palisade and the cyclone fence. Trench 13 is parallel to trench 12, 3 feet wide, and located along the south side or front of the reconstructed fort. These two tre ches are each 63 feet long. There are a lot of tree roots on the surface at the northwest end of trenches 11 and 12. We had a number of visitors today, including a school group to which I gave a short lecture explaining our nroject at the site.

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