“June-u-ary,” our late spring weather pattern of gray and gloom, is behind us, and high summer is upon us! So unfortunately, remains the coronavirus, tearing through the country during a time that we had hoped would bring a respite before winter. Our family continues to adjust and lay low. I hope that you and yours are faring as well in these uncertain times.
At Mount Rainier this summer, visitor centers and the Paradise Inn remain closed; all roads, trails, and campgrounds are open. Masks are the new trekking poles, with nearly everyone masked up on trails. Park staff wear masks and practice social distancing wherever possible.
My mountain doings each July include field visits with the Evergreen interns (see the May blog for details), who have been thoroughly schooled to take all necessary virus-related precautions. I kicked off this year’s round by visiting the intern on the archaeology crew, in the Carbon River area. Having volunteered at digs near Sunrise, Indian Henry’s, and at Ohanapecosh, I knew what to expect.
We dig a hole in the ground, dump the dirt into buckets, shake the soil through a wire mesh screen, examine the remains, and repeat. The Sunrise, Indian Henry’s, and Ohanapecosh sites have yielded some of the park’s oldest and most important finds. Yakama and Muckleshoot people camped near Sunrise over 4,000 years ago, hunting marmots and mountain goats, and gathering bear grass, huckleberries, and other plants. Near Indian Henry’s, just off the Kautz Creek Trail, Nisqually tribal ancestors made camp for the same reasons. Stone blades, scrapers, projectile points, and tooling debris place people there over 7,000 years ago. The Ohanapecosh Campground site, where researchers recovered stone tools over 8,000 years old, is unique because it sits at a lower elevation than most other sites on the mountain. Cowlitz tribal ancestors (probably) used those campsites as they headed to the mountain’s resource-rich subalpine parklands or back to their lowland villages. Archaeological novice that I am, I expected the crew to be working on a similar site at Carbon River. I was in for a surprise!
Our first step was to use GPS coordinates to mark the four spots for constant volume sampling (CVS), something I’d never done before. In CVS, a specialized posthole digger excavates a cylinder approximately 12 inches in diameter and 60 inches deep. Technicians carefully screen the soils for historic artifacts (charcoal, nails, glass, wire, etc.) or precontact artifacts lower in the column (charcoal, stone flakes, tools, etc.) Based on the CVS results, a full-scale excavation may follow if something interesting turned up, or, in our case of nothing but roots, rocks, and soil, no further testing was necessary.
After CVS testing, we made a ground survey, something else I’d never done before. Again using GPS to find the survey boundaries, four of us formed a straight line, each about 60 feet apart. We then followed a compass bearing, combing the heavy underbrush for any visible human traces like can dumps, building foundations or timbers, or any other clues of human presence. Those familiar with the Carbon River area will appreciate what a difficult task this was, slogging through ankle-deep, boot-sucking muck and clambering over moss-covered logs, trying to avoid old growth stands of devil’s club and nettles, yet staying on the compass bearing. What a challenge!
The day’s best surprise was learning the answer to the “Why here?” question for the CVS sampling and ground survey. The answer connects to the mountain’s geologic hazards. Over the last 10,000 years, more than 60 debris flows called lahars have thundered down Mount Rainier’s slopes. From an Indonesian word meaning “like a thousand stampeding water buffalo,” these slurries, the consistency of wet cement, can top 40 miles an hour, rumbling down river valleys and inundating everything in their path. One of the largest on record, the Osceola Mudflow, tore down the White River and West Fork White River valleys on the mountain’s northeast side about 5,600 years ago. It blanketed the Enumclaw Plateau, covered present-day Auburn and Kent, and filled in 60 square miles of Puget Sound. Another lobe of the Osceola poured west through Buckley and Sumner, running out into Tacoma’s Commencement Bay. Our home in Enumclaw, in fact, sits atop 50-60 feet of the Osceola Mudflow.
Geologists predict that the next major lahar will occur in the Carbon or Puyallup River valleys, and local governments and emergency management teams have invested considerable time and resources to monitor those upper watersheds for clues that might portend a lahar. Along with the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management, the U.S. Geological Survey is upgrading the lahar detection system by installing high-tech sensors capable of detecting movement and transmitting data to alert experts of an oncoming lahar much quicker than the current equipment. Faster data transmission speeds up the warning system process, which in turn may save more lives in the event of a lahar. Prior to installation, though, Federal guidelines require archaeological surveys to assure that no cultural resources are in the immediate area. Our work on the Carbon cleared the way for upgrades to the mountain’s lahar warning system. I’m excited to learn more about it!
Speaking of learning, be sure to check out my two image-rich, online presentations from Tahoma and Its People. Tahoma’s Biggest Stories highlights the presence of Native Americans at Mount Rainier for over 9,000 years, and the effects of climate change that extend far beyond the mountain’s retreating glaciers. A Virtual Field Trip in the Nisqually Watershed covers a host of natural history and restoration stories as it guides viewers over 78 river miles from the river’s origin at the glacier’s terminus to its run out into Puget Sound,. A third talk, Special Birds of Mount Rainier, debuts this fall. In it, I’ll update the status and trends of birds protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The talks are open to the public; details are at https://jeffantonelis-lapp.com/events/.
Late-breaking news: I’ve been selected to write a monthly column for our local paper, the Enumclaw Courier-Herald! All Things Mount Rainier begins its one-year run the last week in August. I’ll share the link with you each month.
I hope to see you on the mountain, where I’ll be smiling under my mask, or at one of the online book talks. In the meantime, keep your spirits high and your boots dry.