Lower Salmon River

Archaeological Field School on Lower Salmon River Site in Idaho:

07/25/08 Oregon State University, under the direction of Dr. Loren Davis, has completed field work under a BLM challenge cost share agreement to perform archeological excavations on American Bar, a significant site that is eroding along the Salmon River. The site dates to at least 6,700 and 8,300 years old. Additional work in 2008 recovered significant data that was within inches of eroding out of six-foot tall vertical bank created by a bulldozer in 1974. Data will be analyzed this coming year. A component designed into the project was public interpretation conducted by Dr. Davis and his graduate students. Dr. Davis prepared three posters for the public and conducted on-site tours to describe the need for the project and the BLM management responsibilities. This message was well received and helped the public understand one of the many programs the BLM manages. About 160 people were given this presentation over a five week period from June 16 through July 17 in a remote area accessible by four-wheel drive vehicles or rafts. These people represented 23 states and the District of Columbia. Three foreign countries – the United Kingdom, France and Austria – were also represented by visitors.  BLM provided the display boards, tables and handouts. But more importantly, BLM developed this aspect of the project as part of an overall larger project in a remote area.  American Bar can be located on a cutbank adjacent to the Salmon River near Cottonwood, Idaho. The seven-week field school, scheduled every summer, helps provide clues about how people lived in the canyon several thousand years ago. Human occupation of other sites in the canyon date back nearly 11,500 years ago. Determining the age of major landslides within the canyon has helped predict the location of prehistoric sites and the age of occupation. Dr. Davis, who started as a graduate student ten years ago with Idaho BLM Cottonwood Field Office Archeologist David Sisson, continues to work with BLM conducting research, writing papers and bringing students to the area who continue the work. News of the excavation has spread among the river users; drawing many groups of rafters to the site where Dr. Davis or his students explain the project and show visitors some of their findings, including stone tools, debitage from tool making, and mussels which provide data to determine paleoclimatic conditions.

More Links

Summary of Early Idaho Archaeologic Sites

Cultural Chronology of the Lower Salmon River (pdf), DAVIS, Loren G., Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University

Measuring Late Quaternary Geoecological Relationships In The Lower Salmon River Canyon, Idaho, DAVIS, Loren G., Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University

Geoarchaeological Perspectives and Archaeological Interpretations of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Cultural Behavior in the Lower Salmon River Canyon, Idaho, DAVIS, Loren G., Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University

Mussels record paleoclimates

Evidence of the past can be easily damaged by current activities. Along the Lower Salmon River the degree of damage from various sources of deterioration is accelerating. Thus, public land users must be more aware of what the cultural resources represent, how irreplaceable these resources are, and what actions each person can take to ensure evidence of past human activity is not destroyed. We hope your activities along the Lower Salmon River are enjoyable and that the people who preceded you left the environment in a condition suitable for your use, as we hope you leave it for those who follow you.