UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Title Testing House Pits at the ZX Ranch Site, Lake County, Oregon: A Report on the 1939 Investigations Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9bq595tc Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 12(1) ISSN 0191-3557 Author Oetting, Albert C Publication Date 1990-07-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 101-111 (1990). Testing House Pits at the ZX Ranch Site, Lake County, Oregon: A Report on the 1939 Investigations ALBERT C. GETTING, Heritage Research Associates, Inc., 1997 Garden Ave., Eugene, OR 97403. ijCIENTIFIC archaeological research in suggesting that the cultural remains in this Oregon was pioneered by Luther S. Cressman stratum were associated with extinct fauna. in the 1930s. Much of this early research was These tests, along with excavations at Fort conducted in the high desert of eastern Rock, Callow, and Roaring Springs caves, Oregon, beginning in 1932 with a wide-ranging provided the necessary evidence for the survey of petroglyphs (Cressman 1936, 1937, antiquity of humans in the Great Basin 1988). Subsequent expeditions were made to (Cressman 1942), but this antiquity was not this northwest corner of the Great Basin to generally accepted until the advent of radio­ coUect surface artifacts, observe the pluvial carbon dating in the early 1950s and the geology, and conduct smaU test excavations in corroborating early radiometric ages obtained dry caves. Cressman believed the region had on sagebrush sandals (9,053 ±350 B.P. been occupied by humans since the early [Cressman 1951:308]). Holocene, possibly serving as a migration In 1939, Cressman and a field party from corridor from the Far North to the American the University of Oregon camped along the Southwest (Cressman et al. 1940; Cressman Chewaucan River three mUes west of Paisley 1942, 1988). He spent the summers from whUe completing the Paisley Five-mile Point 1935 to 1939 excavating in caves for archaeo­ Caves excavations (Cressman 1988:382). logical evidence to test this hypothesis. During their stay, several excursions were Excavations were conducted at the Paisley taken in the local area to explore the geology Five-mUe Point Caves in 1938 and 1939 and archaeology. One of these smaU projects (Cressman 1942). These three caves are was the testing of three house depressions at located on the west side of the Summer Lake the ZX Ranch site on the northern edge of Basin in south-central Oregon, north of Upper Upper Chewaucan Marsh, east of Paisley. Chewaucan Marsh and the town of Paisley, Apparently because these archaeological tests which are in the Lake Abert-Chewaucan did not contribute directly to the primary Marsh Basin (Fig. 1). AU three caves research objectives at the time, they received contained deposits of ash from the 6,845 B.P. little attention after the field season and never eruption of Mt. Mazama, and cultural were analyzed or pubhshed. These excava­ material was found in two of them. Artifacts tions are of great value now, however, since were recovered from above and below the ash recent research concerns in the region have in Cave No. 1 and below the ash in Cave No. focused on later Holocene cultural adapta­ 3; the deposits in Cave No. 2 had been tions, especiaUy the development of semised- disturbed. Pleistocene horse and camel bones entary pit-house viUages (Pettigrew 1985; were found in the lower deposit in Cave No. Getting 1988, 1989). 3 (Cressman 1942:93,1966; AUcens 1982:142), The existence of large house depressions 102 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY Location Map Fig. 1. The Lake Abert-Chewaucan Marsh Basin. and circular rock rings at archaeological sites highway construction prompted excavations at in the Lake Abert-Chewaucan Marsh Basin a number of sites on the east shore of the was not recognized in the professional lake, and test units were placed in 13 Uterature untU the 1970s, when numerous depressions and two rock rings at 13 sites viUage sites were recorded along the shores of (Pettigrew 1985; Getting 1989:130-143). Lake Abert (Pettigrew 1980). Proposed However, the test units employed were not HOUSE PITS AT THE ZX RANCH SITE 103 designed to explore or define the structure features that are presented below. However, and function of the features. Single Ixl-m. the notes are overly brief in discussing artifact test pits were placed in 12 depressions and proveniences and the characteristics used to one rock ring; a 2x2-m. unit was placed in a distinguish features such as house floors. second rock ring; and one depression was Likewise, some of the descriptions in the sampled with a Ixl-m. unit and a 2x2-m. unit. transit log do not fuUy explain the significance No large-area excavation, trenching, or cross- of the mapped location, and photograph sectioning of any depression was attempted. descriptions are simUarly cryptic. These Identifiable house floors, rims, or hearths descriptions probably contained sufficient were found in only five of the tested features information, as mnemonic devices, for the (Getting 1989:142). excavators and mappers who had been in the Cressman and his field party recognized field, but to an investigator 50 years later they the house depressions at the ZX Ranch site are often enigmatic. These shortcomings, as cultural features, and their excavation however, are minor, and the various existing strategy reflected this. Trenches were placed records and artifacts, in combination, provide across each of the house pits to expose and a good picture of the work accomplished profUe such features as floors, rims, or during the exploration and testing of the ZX hearths. Thus, these early archaeological tests Ranch site. are stiU the most extensive excavations of house features in the Lake Abert-Chewaucan NATURAL SETTING Marsh Basin. Fortunately, the field notes, Pluvial Lake Chewaucan fiUed the Lake artifacts, and some photographs from these Abert-Chewaucan Marsh and the Summer 1939 tests have been curated for the last fifty Lake basins during the Pleistocene (AUison years at the Oregon State Museum of 1982:12). The Summer Lake Basin became Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene isolated during this period, hut the sub-basins (stored under Accession No. 61). This of Upper Chewaucan Marsh, Lower Chewau­ material was located and analyzed to provide can Marsh, and Lake Abert still are connected more data on house pits in the Lake Abert- hydrographically by the Chewaucan River Chewaucan Marsh Basin as part of a larger (Fig. 1). The river flows onto the basin floor research project (Getting 1989). This article at Paisley, passes through the two marshes, is meant to recognize and document the ZX and drains into Lake Abert, the largest closed- Ranch site excavations. basin saline body of water in the Pacific The examination and analysis of this Northwest (PhUlips and Van Denburgh coUection included a review of the field notes 1971:B2). (Cressman 1939:8, 14-16) and photographs; The sharp fault-block relief and arid classification of the projectUe points and other climate of the region are typical of the artifacts; and construction of feature maps Oregon high desert and the northern Great from the transit notes. AU of the chipped- Basin. The Lake .^bert-Chewaucan Marsh stone tools and the nonlithic implements were Basin is on the northern edge of the Basin located and examined during the analysis, but and Range Geomorphic Province. The very only 13 of the ground-stone and cobble tools flat basin floor consists of two grabens were avaUable for examination.^ The field bounded by tilted fault-blocks with steep fault- notes were invaluable in preparing the scarp rims. Summers are warm and dry, with narrative of the testing and description of the significant diurnal temperature variation, and 104 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY winters are cold. Precipitation is sparse and but the archaeologists observed several more generaUy comes in winter and spring. in place and noted the presence of several The Upper and Lower Chewaucan circular depressions, thought to be house pits, marshes were freshwater bulrush-cattaU along with cultural debris on the surface. wetlands maintained by the river in the Preliminary Exploration bottomlands of the marsh sub-basins. Prior to marsh draining and irrigation, the flow of Permission to excavate was obtained, and the river sank into the upper and lower the field crew returned on June 22 to begin marshes, rising only at the Narrows, and work, only to find that "somebody [had] pot- exited at the southeastern end of Lower hunted the likely burials" (Cressman 1939:14). Chewaucan Marsh (Waring 1908:31). Use of Undaunted, the party decided to do some "ex­ Chewaucan River water for irrigation and the ploratory digging" across the site. Four draining of marsh land for cultivation began 2x2-m. pits were excavated, three of them in 1884, and development continued untU approximately 12 m. apart on a southwest-to- 1915. The river is now channeled through the northeast line and a fourth 7 m. northwest of former marshes and supplies irrigation water the southwestern unit. No artifacts were col­ to about 41,000 acres of reclaimed marsh land lected from these excavations, but this work (PhUlips and Van Denburgh 1971:B13). AU indicated that the burials and surface artifacts of the upper marsh and much of the lower probably had been exposed by wind erosion marsh now are cultivated. and now were lying on a deflated surface. The excavators uncovered several "large THE 1939 FIELD IIWESTIGATIONS chunks" of charcoal, but, this being prior to On June 17, 1939 several members of the the development of radiocarbon dating, the University field party inspected a site which specimens were not retained.