The 200-Year-Old Riddle That Remains Unsolved
OregonLive.com
Richard L. Hill
___________
Astoria, Oregon (US):
A three-week archaeological excavation at Fort Clatsop near Astoria ends today with no physical evidence that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark spent 106 dreary days there in 1805-06. Despite decades of searching, the precise fort site is uncertain.
"The search continues," said Doug Wilson, an archaeologist with the National Park Service who led the most complete excavation of the site where a 50-year-old fort replica stood until a fire Oct. 3. Although the dig didn't uncover any signs of the 33-member Corps of Discovery's camp, the work found artifacts from Clatsop people who used the site before Lewis and Clark's winter stay and from early settlers who arrived in the decades after the explorers, Wilson said.
About a dozen archaeologists scrutinizing the site found stone chips left by Native American tool-making; fragments of ironstone china linked to the W.H. Smith house built in the 1870s; and a bottle fragment from a house built by Carlos Shane in the 1850s. Parts of a doll, marbles, square nails and broken glass also point to the 19th-century pioneers.
"The research helps to tell the long land-use history of this important site and will help guide future investigations," Wilson said. Other excavations near the fort replica in the past 50 years also failed to uncover artifacts conclusively tied to Lewis and Clark. Archaeologists in the late 1990s found a blue glass bead, a brass bead and a flattened musket ball, but the source of those items could not be determined.
Nov 23, 2005
OregonLive.com
Richard L. Hill
___________
Astoria, Oregon (US):
A three-week archaeological excavation at Fort Clatsop near Astoria ends today with no physical evidence that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark spent 106 dreary days there in 1805-06. Despite decades of searching, the precise fort site is uncertain.
"The search continues," said Doug Wilson, an archaeologist with the National Park Service who led the most complete excavation of the site where a 50-year-old fort replica stood until a fire Oct. 3. Although the dig didn't uncover any signs of the 33-member Corps of Discovery's camp, the work found artifacts from Clatsop people who used the site before Lewis and Clark's winter stay and from early settlers who arrived in the decades after the explorers, Wilson said.
About a dozen archaeologists scrutinizing the site found stone chips left by Native American tool-making; fragments of ironstone china linked to the W.H. Smith house built in the 1870s; and a bottle fragment from a house built by Carlos Shane in the 1850s. Parts of a doll, marbles, square nails and broken glass also point to the 19th-century pioneers.
"The research helps to tell the long land-use history of this important site and will help guide future investigations," Wilson said. Other excavations near the fort replica in the past 50 years also failed to uncover artifacts conclusively tied to Lewis and Clark. Archaeologists in the late 1990s found a blue glass bead, a brass bead and a flattened musket ball, but the source of those items could not be determined.
Nov 23, 2005
