Throughout this project, I uncovered fascinating and sometimes surprising pieces of history, both during archaeological excavation and in interviews with area residents.

Over the next few posts I will describe what I found and what I found out. Because the project area is relatively large, I divided it into five sections as a convenient way to present the results. I determined the section boundaries by grouping properties where I excavated and by identifying site-level connections. I will discuss one section per post, and will describe what I found out in each section as a whole without revealing any specific locations. Discussing general locations instead of specific properties protects the confidentiality of project participants as well as the archaeological resources.

The map below shows how I divided the project area. Moving from west to east, I will first discuss Section 5, then Sections 4, 3, and 1, and I’ll save Section 2 for last, because Section 2 has the most relevance to the search for the first Fort Vancouver.

Keep checking in to find out the intriguing results of the Search for the First Fort Vancouver!

Notes on terminology in upcoming posts:

• During this project I excavated what archaeologists call shovel test probes. These are round holes that we dig to test an area for archaeological sites and to find site boundaries. The shovel test probes that I dug were 40 cm in diameter and averaged about 50 cm deep. I excavated each shovel test until I reached sterile soils, meaning there is no more evidence of human occupation, or until I met an obstacle like a large tree root.

• Artifacts are anything made and/or used by humans in the past. In general, items that are 50 years old or older are typically considered artifacts. However, in my work, I documented all excavated items no matter the age. I refer to newer items as modern artifacts (those potentially dating from the mid-20^th century to the present), and anything that seems to be from about the 1950s and earlier as historic artifacts.

• Dating artifacts, or figuring out an artifact’s age, is often challenging. One reason is that there are different ‘ages’ that can potentially be assigned for a single artifact: date of manufacture, dates of use, and date of deposition in the archaeological record all represent important events in an artifact’s life. Figuring out these dates helps archaeologists interpret the who, what, when, how, and why of an archaeological site. Because an exact date cannot be assigned to an artifact without indisputable evidence, archaeologists often assign date ranges or earliest dates for which an artifact type was manufactured, used, etc. This approximate dating technique ensures we are reporting information accurately. In upcoming posts, I will usually refer to potential date ranges or time periods for the artifacts I found, and these often span a couple or even several decades.