ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY FOR THE CHEHALIS SCHOOL DISTRICT NEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS PROJECT, LEWIS COUNTY, WASHINGTON Prepared for Chehalis School District Chehalis, Washington February 29, 2016 REPORT NO. 3607 Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc. 3510 NE 122nd Ave. ● Portland, OR ● 97230 Phone 503 761-6605 ● Fax 503 761-6620 ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY FOR THE CHEHALIS SCHOOL DISTRICT NEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS PROJECT, LEWIS COUNTY, WASHINGTON PROJECT: Construction of two new elementary schools, including parking areas, bus loading/unloading zones, and play fields. TYPE: Archaeological survey LOCATION: Section 4, Township 13 North, Range 2 West, Willamette Meridian USGS QUAD: Centralia, Wash. 7.5-minute, 1985 (minor revision 1993) CITY: Chehalis PROJECT AREA: 32 acres AREA SURVEYED: 32 acres FINDINGS: Archaeological Resources: ● Two archaeological resources are located within the project area. Site 16/2399-1 is a historic debris scatter and site 16/2399-2 is a pre-contact camp. ● AINW recommends that site 16/2399-1 does not contain significant archaeological deposits or meet the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). No further consideration of this site is recommended. ● Significant archaeological deposits have not been found at site 16/2399-2 but they may be present below the site surface. Impacts to this site should be avoided. ● If impacts to site 16/2399-2 cannot be avoided, AINW recommends evaluative subsurface testing of the site to determine whether significant archaeological deposits are present. PREPARERS: Jason A. Cowan, M.A., R.P.A. and Terry L. Ozbun, M.A., R.P.A. INTRODUCTION Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc. (AINW) has performed an archaeological survey in support of the proposed construction of two new elementary schools in Chehalis, Washington. The project is located in Section 4 of Township 13 North, Range 2 West, Willamette Meridian (Figure 1). The project area is situated in a large, grass-covered field west of Bishop Road and directly south of Chehalis Middle School. This field has previously been used to grow agricultural crops. The proposed project includes the construction of an approximately 80,000 square foot grade K-2 primary school and an approximately 70,000 square foot grade 3-5 intermediate school. In addition to these structures, project plans include the construction of parking areas able to accommodate 200 cars with loading/unloading lanes, a loading/unloading bus area for 18 buses, outdoor play fields with Chehalis School District, New Elementary Schools Project February 29, 2016 Lewis County, Washington AINW Report No. 3607 -1- covered areas, and sidewalks and path between the building and Chehalis Middle School (Appendix A). This investigation was performed to determine whether archaeological resources are present within the project area and to ensure that Washington State regulations pertaining to the identification and protection of cultural resources (e.g., 27.44 RCW and 27.53 RCW) are addressed. The proposed project will receive capital improvement funding from the state of Washington and therefore needs to be reviewed for cultural resources through the Governor’s Executive Order (EO) 05-05 process. This survey was conducted by AINW staff meeting the professional qualifications set by the Secretary of Interior’s Standards and Guidelines in Historic Preservation and was completed according to the guidelines set by the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP). AINW conducted a pedestrian archaeological survey and excavated 20 shovel tests within the project area. Two archaeological sites (temporary site numbers 16/2399-1 and 16/2399-2), were found during the investigation. Site 16/2399-1 is an early-to mid-twentieth century historic debris scatter consisting of broken glass bottles/jars and broken ceramic tableware. Based on historical research and the information collected during field survey, AINW recommends that site 16/2399-1 does not meet the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). If DAHP agrees with this recommendation, no additional archaeological work is required for this site. Site 16/2399-2 is a large, pre-contact camp consisting of stone tools, lithic flakes, and fire-cracked rocks (FCR) within a disturbed plow-zone. Since development impacts are likely unavoidable for its proposed use, AINW recommends evaluative testing of site 16/2399-2 be conducted to determine whether significant archaeological features and/or other intact deposits are present and to develop a plan to minimize or avoid significant archaeological deposits if present. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING AND LAND-USE HISTORY The project area is located in Lewis County, Washington, approximately 2.6 kilometers (km) (1.6 miles [mi]) southeast of downtown Chehalis, Washington. The project area is bounded by Bishop Road to the east, residential homes and Chehalis Middle School to the north, a wooded hillslope and a BNSF Railway industrial spur line to the west, and agricultural farm fields to the south. The land within the project area is a relatively flat, grass-covered, fallow agricultural field, located on a terrace overlooking Dillenbaugh Creek and the Newaukum River Valley to the southwest. This portion of the state is considered part of the Puget Lowlands physiographic province (Livingston 1969). The Puget Lowlands is a broad low-lying trough located between the Cascade Mountain Range to the east and Olympic Mountains and Willapa Hills to the west. The Puget Lowlands was formed by continental glaciers and glacial outwash during the Pleistocene Epoch. The Chehalis River Basin contains large amounts of glacial outwash originating from areas north of the basin. This glacial outwash resulted from rivers and streams that, today, flow into Puget Sound, being diverted south by the ice. The glacial outwash terrace upon which the project area is located was formed prior to the last glacial period and consists of alpine glacial outwash that travelled down the Newaukum River. Soils mapped for the project area are Lacamas silt loam, Prather silty clay loam, and Scamman silty clay loam (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service 2016). Each of these three soil-types are very deep and moderately to poorly drained. Typically, these soils form on terraces, plains, and bottomlands in highly weathered glacial drift and glacial-fluvial parent material (Evans and Fibich 1987). Chehalis School District, New Elementary Schools Project February 29, 2016 Lewis County, Washington AINW Report No. 3607 -2- The project lies within the Tsuga heterophylla vegetation zone, which is characterized by Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and western redcedar trees. Riparian flora and deciduous hardwood species such as alder, cottonwood, and bigleaf maple are common along rivers and streams in the area (Franklin and Dyrness 1973). Vegetation in the project area consists of a planted grass cover crop. On the west side of the project area, the hillslope leading down to the railway tracks contains oak trees and conifers and the edge of the field contains blackberry brambles. The northern and southern field edges also have small areas with blackberry brambles and there is a stand of mature conifers and deciduous trees at the northern edge of the project area between Chehalis Middle School and several residential houses. CULTURAL SETTING Native Peoples – Pre-contact Period Numerous archaeological investigations have summarized the cultural history of the Northwest Coast including the southwestern interior of Washington State (e.g., Ames and Maschner 1999; Carlson 1990; Donald 2003; Matson and Coupland 1995; Moss 2011; Hajda 1990). The generally accepted interpretation of these studies is that humans have been occupying this area since at least the end of the Pleistocene/glacial period, approximately 12,000 years before present (B.P.) (Moss 2011). The earliest evidence of human occupation in western Washington comes from the Manis Mastodon Site located on the Olympic Peninsula (Waters et al. 2011). Closer to the project area, the earliest archaeological evidence is an isolated fluted point likely dating to between 11,200 and 11,000 years B.P., that was found in the Chehalis River Valley west of Olympia (Meltzer and Dunnell 1987). Archaeological information gathered from sites dated to this period indicate that the early inhabitants who occupied these sites practiced a highly mobile and very generalized hunter/gatherer subsistence strategy that relied on hunting large game. The Archaic Period, which occurred between 11,000 and 5,000 years B.P., is characterized by more permanent settlements, broad-spectrum resource acquisition, and the beginning of changes to social organization. Very few sites have been found along coastal areas and riverine deltas during this period. The low number of such sites may be attributed to fluctuating sea levels following the end of the glacial period; as a result, many of the prime locations for these sites are now underwater. Flora and fauna were also in flux during this period as plant and animal communities spread northward adapting to the shifting climate (Moss 2011). Stone tool assemblages from this period include large leaf-shaped spear points, pebble tools, and flakes from cobbles (Ames and Maschner 1999). Regional subsistence and settlement strategies along the Northwest Coast began to change approximately 5,000 years ago. These changes differed significantly from subsistence strategies of interior