Archeology of the Little Beaver Watershed: North Cascades National Parks Service Complex, Whatcom County, Washington

Mierendorf, Robert; National Parks Service - North Cascades NPS Complex; Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission

This technical report describes the results of an archeological survey funded by the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (SEEC). The goal of such a survey is to recognize and record the archeological remains of past human activity from both the pre-contact and contact time periods. The survey was conducted by National Park Service (NPS) staff in the watershed of Little Beaver Creek, which is a large tributary of the upper Skagit River in eastern Whatcom County, Washington (Figure 1). With the exception of a small area at the mouth of Little Beaver Creek, the watershed is within the Stephen T. Mather Wilderness, which is administered by North Cascades National Park Complex (herein, “the park”). The portion not managed as wilderness is within in the Ross Lake National Recreation Area, which is also managed as part of the park complex. The survey targets the upper-most elevations of the watershed, comprised of the subalpine and alpine vegetation zones. The area is high in elevation (1525-2130 m above sea level), remote, and mostly lacking in maintained trails. Prior to implementation of this survey, only limited investigations had been made in the high country of the Little Beaver watershed. All phases of the project were directed by R. Mierendorf, park archeologist for the park. Fieldwork was conducted during the summers of 2002 and 2003 by a team of archeologists consisting of between two and four members. In 2002 the team consisted of the author and Brooke Larrabee (park staff); in 2003 it consisted of the author, Andrea Weiser (staff archeologist at the park), Dave Conca (NPS archeologist at Olympic National Park), and Greg Burtchard (NPS archeologist at Mount Rainier National Park). The first surveys in the project area were conducted by the author and his archeological staff (Lance Martin and Greg Sullivan) between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s. The primary goal of this report is a comprehensive technical and descriptive record of the archeological resources in the project area. Such a goal typically dictates the use of a scientific writing style that many will find overly technical, particularly in the use of archeological terms having specific and often highly esoteric meanings. The language and style of scientific writing also reflects the need for objectivity and for a clear accounting of the relationship between the methodology applied to the problem and the data thusly acquired. In order to render the technical language more comprehensible to a general audience.