HomeMy WebLinkAboutLithia Archaeological site 120 Wimer Street
Ashland, Ore, on 9?520
September 8~ 1987
Allen A. AlsinS
Director o~ Public Works
Cit9 of Ashland
20 East Main $treet
Ashland~ Ore, on 97520
Dear Al:
This is to call ~our attention to a potentiall~ important
archaeological site within the Cit~ of Ashland.
I know ~our personal concern that Ashland historical
materials have been lost because people haven't known where
to donate them. I share that concern~ and in the last half
dozen ~ears I've fried to track down survivin~ documents~
convinced thai we can ~et a fuller picture of prehistoric
and early historic Ashland b~ locatin~ and studyin9 these
materials.
Work with some of this previously unused data indicates that
there are several sites in the Ashland area which deserve
archaeological investigation. One of these iS located on the
east bank of Ashland Creek~ in the area now occupied bN the
Ashland Plaza and the entrance to Lithia Park.
As you are probabl~ aware$ Ashland folklore and sesondar~
historical accounts have placed an Indian village tn the
vicinitS of the Ashland Plaza. These sources include a
manuscript b~ Almeda Helman Coder~ Walling's NISTOR~ O[
SOUTHERN ORE~ON~ and cornerstone documents from the Masonic
Buildin~ which date from 1879. Support is ~iven to these
accounts bS the discover~ of projectile points during the
excavation of the basement for Rare Earth~ discover~ of
"flint chips and arrowheads" durin~ excavation for the
Bowmer Theater, and the deposit of artifacts downstream from
the Plaza on the flood plain between Helman and Oak Streets
durin~ the 1974 flood. Clearly~ some aboriginal activities
took place alon~ Ashland Creek.
A major village location on or near the Plaza is corroborated
by two manuscripts that I've found in the Bancroft Librar~
in Berkeley. One is b~ James Cardwell~ who arrived in Ashland
with the Helman part~ in Januar~ of 1852. The o~her is
Captain Thomas Smith, who settled in Ashland in November
of 1851. Cardwell, writin~ in 1879, describes the village as
"where Ash Land now stands." Smith, in 1885, places the
village "on the flat now occupied by the Ashland Mill."
The site has considerable potential importance for several
reasons. One is that so little archaeolosical work has
been done in the Ashland area, and in Jackson County. South-
west Oreson in seneral is identified as "Oreson's archaeo-
logical frontier." New work in this re~ion adds a ~reat deal
identified with a particular ethnic Stoup; there is little
doubt in my mind that at the time of white settlement, the
village was occupied by Shasta Indians. Aboriginal terri-
torial boundaries for this area have been debated since the
1920's, and there is no consensus as to whether Shasta or
Takelma controlled this area. Ethnographically, the material
cultures of the Shasta and Takelma are virtually identical.
However, given a historic ethnic identity for the "Plaza
People," archaeological identification of diagnostic arti-
facts or other cultural "fingerprints" at the site may be
possible, and could stye new clues to resional
The site is also important because of its size. Both Cardwell
and Smith put the winter village population at over I00
people. This is much hi~her than the average Shasta village
size estimated by anthropologists (40), and hi~her than the
averase village size recorded in the 185I sovernment field
census of California Shasta villages (60). However, the two
independent eyewitness accounts are supported by Peter
1827 description of a village of similar size on the Rogue
River. The size of the Ashland Creek village suggests that it
was the main focus of aborisinal settlement for a territory
that I believe took in the ~ear Creek Valle~ from at least
Wa~ner Creek to the Siskiyou Summit, extendlnS into the
Of the Applesate drainase~ and east to the Cascade Crest, As
abori9inal adaptation to the area.
Aboriginal use of a permanent village site over a lon~ period
of time should result in the deposition o~ considerable
cultural material. Whether this material has survived the
periodic floodin9 of Ashland Creek, and the intense Euro-
American use o~ the area since 1852, is hard to
is an exciting opportunit~ for the Cit~ and the College to
the people who lived in Ashland before us.
At 9our convenienceS I'd like to sit down with 9ou and Rich
Otmo, the archaeologist at the College, and discuss what the
Cit~ of Ashland might wish to undertake regarding the site.
Thank
Nan Harmon
pc: Rich Olmo
Marjorie O'Harra