Wind Mountain Spirit Quest Site

I really wish I could say that I've found a lot of information on this but unfortunately I haven't. Here's what I do know though. Everyone and their dog, in the Columbia Gorge, knows about Wind Mountain. It looms over Home Valley, towering at such an impressive height its hard to imagine ever climbing it. Despite its daunting appearance, many people climb up this rather large hill every year and have been for thousands of years. Because I'm far crazier than a human ought to be, I've always looked at it as a fun little challenge, a hike I would love to do one day. As of March 10th 2013, I can officially check it off my bucket list. Score! It wasn't just for the challenge of hiking up it that I was interested. What I really wanted to see was at the top. A real Native American Spirit Quest Site that is protected by the National Forest Service as an archeological site. I had absolutely no idea what to expect at the top but once I got up there it was truly amazing!

Just before you hit the site the forest service has a nice little informational board. Along with information about its history and the fact that many Native Americans still visit the site today, there is a nice little, polite warning about disturbing stuff. This is well warranted. Why? Because this is not a site that you have to dig. Everything that is of significance is on the surface. Walls constructed out of rock, rocks stacked in impossible configurations, circular rock walls, straight rock walls, etc... I highly recommend that if you go to this site to STAY ON THE TRAIL! Every where you step off trail is a potential to damage something of significance. One careless trip and you could knock over walls that took time to build and were put up 200-1000 years ago.

Here is the message on the board from your friendly forest service:

"This archaelogical site is extremely fragile. Just walking over it will damage important cultural features. Therefore, the USDA Forest Service has closed the site to hikers. All visitors must stay on the trail or within designated areas shown on the map." 

So, as any good little blogger would do, I snapped a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Sign just before you enter the site

 

Husband reading the rules like a good boy :)

View to the West. If you look at the bottom center there is a rock wall

Same rock wall, closer view.

Just thought I would stress, that I got pretty close to the trail edge to take the above picture. As far as I could see there was nothing on the other side of that wall. Just a sheer drop. Crazy wall builder! 

Last time I checked, rocks don't generally tend to stack themselves on their sides.

More rock art...

See the little rock pit and the circular walls? Awesome!

Another little round rock hut.

When looking at the above round rock wall configuration, my husband and I were talking about how we figured they were probably used as some kind of shelter from the wind. There is a reason they call this WIND Mountain...lol

See the little rock trenches? Look closely....

Another view of the rock trenches to the left and rock hut to the right

More rock trenches...and that view...

Someone is a little chilly in the wind...lol

I've got to say that visiting this site was absolutely amazing and I would love to learn more about it. The Native Americans really left their mark on this land and I enjoy exploring each of the places they left for us all to find. Hopefully we can honor their memory by respecting these sites and maintaining them for future generations.

Happy Trails...

Rachel B.

A Little Fun...

Who says that Anthropology has to be a stuffy subject...here is a little fun for those of you who enjoy this stuff as much as I do. ;) You know who you are, you sly fox you...

lol...Got any others you wanna share? These all came from Pinterest...


Have a happy day! Goodness knows we all need it...

Rachel B.

Ay, caramba! It's been sooooooo long since I've been on here. No excuses, just life. lol. I saw a quote today that made me think of my blogs and how I should do some posting. The quote was "You are what you do. Not what you say." Well, I tend to say a lot but do I do a lot? Hmm...In the past month or so since I last posted it feels like I have done a lot. With relevance to this blog I have done quite a lot. For starters, for my birthday, my husband took me on a hike up Wind Mountain. At the top of Wind Mountain is an archeology site. I have tons of pictures and have yet to post them. Sigh* I also just got back from Missouri where I was visiting family. How is that relevant? Well...my awesome Grandma lives on what used to be a Native American site. Technically it should be an archeological site, but since she doesnt want people digging up her yard, I guess we will leave that one alone for now. But...that did not keep me from digging up just a little bit of it...I'm her granddaughter so its okay. I have pics of that too and fun stories to tell of what me and my little mini-explorers found. But alas, I still have not posted them.

So why am I rambling? I have no idea. I guess I've realized a few things. For starters, I'm not so sure anymore that I want to be a professional, masters/Ph.D level archeologist or anthropologist. There are just waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to many things that I love and am interested in. There is no way I could ever hope to pick one or two and specialize in them. That realization kinda sucked but what are ya gonna do. Life is about finding what makes you happy and going with it. I am happiest when I am able to explore many different things. When I have exhausted my resources of information on one topic, I move on. I am a lifelong student. When I think about picking one thing or narrowing in on one field, the four year old in me stomps her foot and yells, "I don't wanna!" So what does this mean for my future in the field? It means awesome, awesome things. Will I work as a professional? No. But I will continue on as an amateur archeologist, anthropologist, historian, etc... Because reading up on it and studying anything I can get my hands on is so worth begin able to wander around in the field. Professionally, I will stick with what I am good at. Business, marketing, fundraising...those sorts of things. But at heart, I will always be an Anthropologist. I will just join those who have decided to enjoy the field peripherally, exploring, researching, and discovering whatever fleeting fancy they happen across. Here's to amateur and arm chair Anthropologist, past, present and future. Keep the interest alive!

Rachel B. 

The Plague

Well, well, well...England has gone and done it again. Archaeologists there have unearthed what is believed to have been a burial ground for plague victims. You gotta love Europe. Their rich, long history does amazing things for history seekers.

(click here for article)

The thing I love about this is the questions it brings with it. I have never really studied the plague. I know it happened. I know the song "Ring Around the Rosies" was created because of it. I know a lot, and I mean A LOT of people died from it. But beyond that my knowledge is limited. I've heard stories about how some people believe that because cats were killed due to witchy superstitions that there were no animals to kill the rats and therefore they ran amok spreading disease. I have heard stories about how it was really caused by a lack of plumbing where buckets of human waste were thrown out windows onto the streets. Do I know what caused it, no. I've never studied it or read up on it. What I find interesting about this find is the fact that the victims were buried in neat little rows.

I know that in other locations where the plague killed large numbers of people (ie; Italy) they burned the bodies and dumped the ashes in fields. Its my understanding that the Island of Poveglia in Italy was used to quarantine plague victims. Once they died there they were cremated. So why did they bury victims in England? Or was it that some victims were buried and others were burned? Could be something fun to start reading up on. I don't know. What I do know though is that I thought I would post this on here because it just goes to show all the cool things we have yet to unearth. Not to mention, I know that some people find stuff like this to be very fascinating and I wanted to give them something to dive into for the weekend. I hope it will encourage someone out there to do a deeper search into history or visit their local library for more information.

Rachel B.

Stonehenge

What a great way to start off my birthday with an article trending across the page of MSN about Stonehenge! I don't know about you, but Stonehenge is pretty awesome. Never been there but Ive pretty much been obsessed with it ever since I first heard about it...in elementary school. I mean, who isnt obsessed with it. So without further ado, here is the piece trending on MSN right now... I would ellaborate more on this but it is my birthday after all and I kinda wanna be somewhere other than on the computer.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday to all of you too!

Rachel B.

Creepy finds...

Since I have nothing really new to report this week, I thought I would share a slideshow with you from LiveScience.com. This was put together in April of 2011 so you may have seen it before. Personally, I think it's interesting because humans do tend to have a knack for enjoying the macabre and it seems that the most grisly finds tend to be the ones that make the news. (Go figure.) Click on the pic to go to the article titled "8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries."

As a final note for the day...it would appear that I am going to need to focus on something other than Archaeology, unfortunately. More matrixing lead to another intense headache today. I guess my eyes really are going to be a problem at moving forward in the field. Its a good thing Archaeology isnt the only thing that I like about Anthropology.

Rachel B.

Matrix and 20/20 vision...I wish...

I spent 3.5 hours at the Fort yesterday doing what is referred to as matrixing. Basically, they give you a giant bag of dirt taken from a specific layer at the dig site. This bag you then dump, little by little, into a tiny box and begin the slow process of sifting through it with tweezers for micro artifacts. (For a more thorough, educational explanation click here). Sounds like it could be pretty boring but its actually not. At least for me it wasn't. I found glass, seeds, tiny pieces of ceramics and what had to be the tiniest little red bead I had ever seen. Literally as small as the head of a pin. All in all, it was a pretty interesting experience. It reminded me of looking for beach glass only on a much, much smaller scale.

However, as this was my second trip to the fort, I noticed a repeat issue that arose. The two times I have gone there, I have left with sore eyes and a massive headache. Of course to me this is pretty concerning. Part of being an archaeologist is using your eyes to find tiny things. The first time I went I was analyzing fragments and artifacts. This time it was sifting through dirt for micro artifacts. Here's why this is concerning. I have bad eyesight. As in, the last time I went to the eye doctor he told me I was in fact, legally blind (20/400). A visual for you to see the difference between 20/20 and 20/400...

This is correctable vision though with glasses and contacts. I worry that it is my bad eyesight that is causing the problems and that this may hinder my ability to work in this field. That doesn't mean I couldn't be an Anthropologist, per say, I just couldn't be an Archaeologist.

So here's my plan. I will go to the fort again during the next two weeks. If the problem persists then my only option is to contact my eye doctor again and get his opinion on whether or not the issue really is what I think it is. If that's the case, I may need to refocus my efforts. To me that's not too big of a deal however because I am also interested in ethno-history and Cultural Anthropology so I can always go down those routes. As it stands, my eyes still hurt today (nearly 24 hours later). Would it suck to have to back out of the archaeology track? Heck yes! But who knows, maybe the eye doctor will have information on how I can strengthen my eyes so that the strain isn't so bad.

Here's lookin at you kid...

Rachel B.