pip. ?fo^' 2lY" McNARY RESERVOIR — SHINER 171 



It was seldom possible to do more than sample a site. Funds were 

 limited, and there were dozens of sites to excavate before the water 

 began to rise behind the McNary Dam. Thus, four or five houses 

 were usually excavated in a village of several hundred dwellings, and 

 three or four tests were made in the midden. The only site that was 

 extensively excavated was 45-BN-3, a burial site with a remarkable 

 array of material culture. 



EXCAVATIONS IN THE McNARY EESEEVOIR 



During the extensive surveys and excavations in the McNary Reser- 

 voir, River Basin Surveys found no evidence of the well-known "Early 

 ]\Ian" tools such as have been related to Folsom, Yuma, and other 

 cultures. No fossils or remains of extinct animals were recognized 

 in association with cultural material. 



The earliest cultural evidence comes from two sites, 35-U1M-5 (Hat 

 Creek) and 35-UM-3. The former, which is situated on the east bank 

 of Hat Creek near the Columbia, was extensively excavated. Site 

 35-IIM-3 was only tested in several areas. In order to determine the 

 relative age of the culture represented at the Hat Creek site, the 

 geological stratigraphy must be considered. At both 35-UM-5 and 

 35-UM-3 all of the cultural materials were found beneath a thick (1 

 to 2 feet) mantle of pure volcanic ash. The continuous layer of ash 

 was unbroken except for small rodent holes, and formed an effective 

 isolating mantle for the cultural material beneath it (pi. 30, h). 



Disappointingly little is known of the origin of the volcanic ash. 

 Efforts to tie it definitely to a specific volcano have not succeeded, 

 mainly because there are too many of them, Williams notes: 



Too much space would be occupied by listing the signs of postglacial volcanic 

 activity elsewhere along the crest of the Cascades, for there are youthful flows 

 and cinder cones by the score. [Williams, 1948, p. 51.] 



For an idea of what takes place in volcanic eruptions of this sort, 

 consider the example of Mount Katmai in Alaska which erupted vio- 

 lently in 1912 (Martin, 1913). This was one of the most dramatic 

 explosions known to history and occurred in three stages, one on the 

 sixth of June and two on the seventh. The result of the explosions 

 was something like that which took place when Mount Mazama ( Crater 

 Lake) blew apart. Several cubic miles of rock were pulverized to 

 finely divided dust and were blown high into the air. At the town 

 of Kodiak, 100 miles from the mountain, darkness lasted 60 hours. 

 Fifteen miles from the volcano the ash was 5 feet deep, 118 miles away 

 it was 31/^ inches deep, and some of it drifted 900 miles to the east. 



On the island of Kodiak, 50 to 100 miles east of Katmai, brush and 

 trees were buried, but a high percentage came up through the ash 

 and survived. Marine life apparently suffered more than did the 



