Investigations by Patrick O'Grady
Summer 2005
The Redmond Caves Archaeological Project is a cooperative effort between the BLM and the City of Redmond to develop a 40 acre parcel of public land into a community park. The parcel is administered by the BLM but located within the city limits of Redmond, Oregon. Five subterranean lava-tube caves are among the most prominent features located on the parcel. Tribal consultation and past archaeological investigations suggest that those caves were periodically occupied by Native Americans. As part of the project undertaking, resource clearances and scientific archaeological investigations are required to be completed before park development can commence. Those clearances and investigations, sponsored by the BLM and the City of Redmond are being conducted as a University of Oregon archaeological field school. Once clearances are completed, the parcel will be developed into a "natural" community park, to be interpreted for its scientific, tribal, cultural, educational, and natural resource values. The park would be co-managed by the BLM and City through a cooperative agreement.
The University of Oregon field school at Redmond Caves began in 2002 and our work in August constituted its fourth season. Nine students participated, including seven from the University of Oregon (Eugene and Bend campuses), and two cultural resource technicians from the Burns District Bureau of Land Management who were seeking additional training. The course was taught by UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History Staff Archaeologist and Doctoral Candidate Patrick O'Grady, with the assistance of Tobin Bottman, a Master's level graduate student in the UO Department of Anthropology.
Dr. Marge Helzer conducted the first three years of work on the Redmond Caves property as part of an Archaeological Field Methods course that she taught at the University of Oregon Bend Campus. She and her students conducted pedestrian surveys of the entire 40 acre parcel, identifying seven archaeological sites on the surface of the property that did not include the sites known within the caves. They tested all of the surface sites and dug one test pit in front of Cave Three. Although they mapped caves One and Three, Dr. Helzer and her students did not excavate inside of the lava tubes.
O'Grady returned this year with the field school to conduct archaeological testing inside of the caves for the first time since Robert Heizer dug several test pits there in 1940. Testing this year consisted of 48 50x50 centimeter test pits and 12 1x1 meter excavation units distributed around the interior and exterior of the largest lava tube on the property,
Cave One, as well as the excavation of a 1x2 meter unit at the entrance of Cave Two. A considerable amount of disturbance has occurred within the caves as the result of illicit artifact collecting, but the field school was able to obtain a variety of artifacts that will be useful in determining the kinds of activities that occurred both inside and outside of the cave. Projectile points suggestive of Columbia Plateau cultural affiliations (Figure 1) along with marine shell and stone beads (Figure 2), milling stone fragments, expedient tools, chipping debris, and large quantities of both naturally deposited and culturally deposited animal bones, the latter resulting from food consumption by the early human inhabitants, were recovered by the excavations.
Figure 1. Projectile points from Cave 1. The points on the left and right side of the center row are chert, the others are obsidian.
Figure 2. Beads from Cave 1. Top left is a bone tube, bottom left is dentalium. The two to the right of the dentalium, are stone, all others are shell.
The field school will return next year to carry out excavations at the other caves and possibly do more work at Cave One. The project may be extended for a sixth year, but it is very likely that the research conducted next year will produce enough information to assist in the development of a management plan for the property by the end of the fifth season.
Students that participated in the 2005 field season are currently involved in the analyses of artifacts for inclusion in the annual field school report to the Bureau of Land Management, and for a conference paper they will present at the 2006 Northwest Anthropological Conference. We would like to see more Native American students involved in this project, and efforts are underway to identify funding sources for that purpose.
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