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The Archeological Excavation of Waiilatpu Mission
1947 Report, Part 4
Artifacts and Conclusions
THOMAS R. GARTH
Published in
Oregon Historical Quarterly June, 1948.
Volume XLIX, Number 2, pages 117-136.
Table of Contents 1947 Archeological Report
A wide variety of artifacts was recovered which
can be identified with fair certainty as belonging to the mission
period. Those found on or very near the cellar floor of the first
house probably in the house when it burned. Among these are harness
buckles (found in close association as would occur when a section
of harness had burned), a grub hoe, a compass for describing a circle,
as well as thin window glass (purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company),
and square nails. Occasional squash seeds, as yet unidentified as
to species, were also found on this floor.
The greatest concentration of artifacts, however,
was on the Indian occupation floor thirteen inches or more above.
These must as least partially represent mission property which was
plundered or broken and scattered about the premises by the Indians.
Other items, no doubt, the Indians obtained from the Hudson's Bay
Company in trade-particularly the gun flints, percussion caps, musket
balls, and beads. The musket balls range from 50 calibre to 30 calibre
in size. Approximately twenty pounds of nails were recovered from
this floor, particularly from the hearths. The larger nails, those
over 6 penny size, are for the most part handmade, while those smaller
are almost exclusively the flat-headed machine-cut variety. The
handmade nails differ in that their heads have been manufactured
by three or four stiff blows with a hammer and thus exhibit an uneven
and often semi-conical shape.
Bone buttons with four or five perforations (oftimes
irregularly spaced, indicating hand manufacture) were common, most
being about five-eighths inches in diameter though a few were smaller.
The single perforation type of horn button was relatively scarce.
In the three examples found the metal loop by which the buttons
were attached. is lacking. Several globular gold gilt buttons and
brass disc buttons with a metal loop on the under side for attachment
occurred. One of the latter along with one from the mansion house
ruin had the inscriptions, "Orange Colour," or "Warranted rich orange,"
on their under side. These may be Hudson's Bay Company issue as
a similar button inscribed "Warranted orange gilt" was found in
the recent excavations at Fort Vancouver. 20
Ball-headed pins were found in quantity along with a few flat-headed
pins similar to those of today. One of these had been bent into
a fish-hook. Doubtless the Indians were responsible, as the numerous
fish bones - mostly salmon - in the hearths show that fish was a
common article on their menu. More specific items include a half-round
file, a triangular bar of ammunition lead, a metal door latch, a
clay pipe bowl with a raised leaf design, two large brass finger
rings, a scratch awl (?) for marking lumber, two fine-toothed combs,
two pencils (?) of lead.
One of the most interesting discoveries was a
lead seal made of two thin discs of lead held together by a thin
lead loop. On one side is the Hudson's Bay Company emblem with their
motto, "Pro Pelle Cutum," -a skin for a skin- on the other side
the number "23" was crudely scratched. The seal or tag may have,
been used to label bundles of skins purchased by the company. Only
a negligible number of artifacts, mostly nails and window glass
fragments occurred in the adobe brick rubble layer above the Indian
floor. Ten feet west of the ruin at a depth that must have been
ground level during mission times was a hollow four-inch cannon-ball.
It seems certain that this was one of those stored at the mission
by John C. Fremont in 1843. 21
The howitzer which Fremont brought with him shot an exploding ball
(called a bomb) of this type and calibre. Two similar cannonballs,
said to be from the mission site, are known. One of these is in
the Whitman College Museum.
Although only a small amount of digging was done
in the mission house ruin, there was enough to indicate that flatheaded
"cut" nails were used almost exclusively in its construction.
22 On three large iron objects recovered from the ruin
was an interesting phenomenon which makes for almost certain identification
as mission property. Embedded in the rust of two picks and a half-inch-thick
stove fragment is the imprint of straw and in one instance a piece
of charred straw. When the dirt roof of the building collapsed in
the 1848 fire the layer of straw underneath must have become impressed
on the hot surface of the objects in question where it charred,
being prevented from complete combustion by the dirt above. When
the iron rusted later the imprint of the straw was left in the rust.
In another area a quantity of this charred straw, which appears
to be rye grass, was found-intact. The only other important object
found in this ruin is an eighteen-inch-long blade resembling a crude
bayonet. Conceivably it could have been made in 1848 by one of the
Oregon Volunteers. Quantities of less diagnostic articles such as
school slates and slate pencils, window glass, chinaware sherds,
and bottle glass fragments were found here as in both the first
house and mansion house ruins.
Adobe brick
from the First House and pick from the Mission House.
Dimensions of brick are five by seven by ten inches.
Pottery (chinaware, etc.) of the mission period
is predominantly English. This is not unexpected, for when the missionaries
came west in 1836 they were forced to leave most of their household
goods along the trail when they abandoned their wagons. Thus most
of their chinaware was purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company.
The wares which predominate are Copeland & Garret, late Spode, Staffordshire,
Woods, and Adams.. There are also a few American wares, with Bennington
(made in Vermont) the best represented. The patterns are mostly
in light blues, and practically all sherds show some decoration.
No complete dishes have been found, and very little crockery and
glassware, other than bottle fragments have so far been recovered.
The only notable find in the mansion house ruin was a badly corroded
pistol butt. However, particularly plentiful here were fire-warped
fragments of green liquor-bottle glass. 23
Without doubt there was a quantity of this glass in the house when
it was burned, probably the second time (in 1855). Some of this
glass, though unburned, was also found at the level of the timbers
of the mill foundation. In the first house a fragment of the glass
occurred one foot above the Indian occupation floor among brick
fragments from the fallen walls, but there was none on this floor
or on the cellar floor below. This may indicate that neither the
Whitmans, who were teetotalers, nor the Indians, used the glass
to any extent. It may well have been brought in 1852 by the stockmen,
who were far from abstemious, or by the Oregon Volunteers. The glass
occurs abundantly in the level above the mission level.
Two harrow teeth, a man's ring and a small horseshoe
were found on or near the floor of the blacksmith shop, besides
some miscellaneous iron fragments. Several heavy iron pins and an
iron bar from the grist mill site may prove to be part of the mill
machinery. There was also a copper spoon with the initials "J. B."
and a picture of three feathers on the back, and other items of
less importance or which we are as yet unable to identify.
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Except for the grist mill the ruins all exhibit
various levels of packing that have some relationship to the chronology
and history of the site. In every case on the old mound surface
(formed when the ruins first became heaps of fallen adobe rubble)
there was packing and a decomposition of bones of livestock. Again,
the ground level during mission times was discernible by exceptional
packing in many instances. The grounds during the eleven-year mission
period saw a pitch of activity by Indians, missionaries, and immigrants
that it has not .seen since. The ground, especially in the area
around the buildings, was tramped to an exceptional hardness. These
packed levels are our chief means of dating finds. In many cases
they offer interesting possibilities in interpreting the history
of the site. In the mission house ruin, particularly, each major
period of occupation seems to be represented by a packed level or
floor.
We have been able to place little dependence on
flood deposited strata to date finds, etc. The soil of the valley,
called Walla Walla fine sandy loam, is very uniform in color and
texture. From the color of the soil it is almost impossible to tell
when one flood deposited layer begins and where another ends.
A thorough excavation of the three acres comprising
the mission site should be profitable in locating small out-buildings,
corrals, fences, paths and the like. One of our chief problems will
be to identify structures built by the Oregon Volunteers. The seven-month
period of occupancy of the site by the Volunteers is the one hiatus
in an otherwise fairly complete history of the site. Should the
more than 1000 manuscripts pertaining to the Cayuse wars and lost
or misplaced after 1900 be recovered, it would do much to throw
light on the situation. 24
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Web Editor's Note
(by C. Boehle)
When you visit Whitman Mission National Historic
Site today, you will not see much evidence of Garth's 1947 archeological
work. The sites were covered with dirt and gravel after the dig
in order to preserve them (this is one of the best ways to preserve
an archeological site after digging it). What you will see is the
outlines, or "footprint", of the buildings, marking the size and
location of each structure.
If the National Park Service had chosen to
leave Garth's work exposed to the elements for visitors to see 50
years ago, we would have destroyed what was left underground. Part
of the mission of the National Park Service is "to conserve the
scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein
and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and
by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of
future generations" (NPS Organic Act, 16 USC 1). The re-covering
of the sites allows future archeologists to re-dig if necessary
or use new technology as it becomes available to learn more about
Waiilatpu. There is currently no archeological field work occurring
at Whitman Mission National Historic Site, however conservation
work of artifacts excavated over 50 years ago continues. cmb
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Endnotes
20 L. R. Caywood,
"Exploratory Excavations at Fort Vancouver," National Park Service,
Vancouver, Washington, 1947.
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21 Statement by Catherine Sager Pringle
tinder date, "October, 1885," in Myron Eells ms. in Whitman College
Library.
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22 The adobe Fort Walla Walla of the
Hudson's Bay Company was constructed about this same p eriod (1842)
also primarily with "cut" nails which must have been coming in in
quantities. At the Methodist mission near Salem, Oregon, twenty
kegs of nails were on hand. These probably were of the "cut" variety.
See C. H. Cary, ed., "Diary of Reverend George Gary," Oregon Historical
Quarterly, XXIV (March, 1923) 91.
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23 Although the body of the bottles
was mold brown, the neck seems to have been drawn and shaped. The
glass is found in quantities in Hudson's Bay Company sites, although
it was undoubtedly in common use years after the company left the
region. Glass of a similar type has been found in recent excavations
at Sutter's Fort and Fort Vancouver. See F. Fenenga, "Artifacts
from Excavation of Sutter's Sawmill," California Historical Society
Quarterly, XXVI June, 1947) 161.
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24 These manuscripts were used by Mrs.
Victor in writing Early Indian Wars of Oregon.
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