A look into history

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POCATELLO — Fifty guests at the Idaho National Laboratory on Friday became scouring archeologists for the day.

Over the past 10 years, INL archeologists have been allowed to lead one group per year on a tour of the site. The tour gives members of the group free access to peruse the historical sites under the experts’ supervision.

Archaeologist Hollie Gilbert said scattered throughout the 890 square miles that make up the government-owned property of the INL, 2,000 archeological sites have been preserved since the mid-1980s.

The guided tour provided the group with the chance to interact with a few of those sites, and archaeologist and anthropologist Brenda Pace said the goal was to give the public a rare chance to see those treasures that surround the INL.

“We do this tour entirely for you,” Pace told a group on a tightly-packed tour bus. “This is our chance to share our 890-square-mile office. There is much more out here than just sagebrush and desert.”

As it was guided through the barren surroundings of the Arco Desert, the group saw nearly 12,000 years of history in little more than eight hours. Pace conducted the first part of the tour that covered artifacts from the prehistoric people who once occupied the area and the kinds of animals they cohabited with.

She said mastodons and mammoths were particularly fond of the area because of a fresh-water lake that once made up what is now the northern part of the INL site. Due to the ancient weapons found there, Pace said people were drawn to that area to hunt the enormous animals.

Following Pace’s part of the tour, Shoshone-Bannock tribal member Willie Preacher made a brief presentation to explain how the INL works with the tribes to preserve the Native American culture and habitat.

He said the area had always been occupied by Shoshone-Bannocks, and everything there had significance to them. To ensure that tradition isn’t tainted, Preacher and other members of the Cultural Heritage Tribal Office “survey and monitor transportation of materials and land issues on the site” to make sure the Native American sites aren’t disturbed.

Adding to Preacher’s history of the natives, geologist and archaeologist Dino Lowery explained what has been learned about the tribe from the geological materials of the recovered arrowheads and spear tips.

As the group walked through the dried river bed of the Big Lost River, hundreds of obsidian arrowheads could be seen embedded in the banks. Lowery said that the presence of obsidian proved the native people traded and had interaction with other tribes.

“People see the obsidian tools and ask me if it is natural to the area,” Lowery said. “The answer is no. Every piece of obsidian had to be carried in from somewhere else.”

Lowery said each individual piece of obsidian carries a signature of sorts, which, under a microscope, can tell the scientists the region it came from. Some ancient pieces of obsidian at the INL site have been traced back to areas as far away as the Missouri River Valley.

Not far from the river bed were the remains of a century-old town site that had become nearly invisible under the overgrown sagebrush. There, historian and archaeologist Gilbert took over the presentation, explaining that the town there was originally formed as a stop along the Oregon Trail.

The town, once known as Powell, Idaho — a tent-city that featured a hotel and a restaurant — is now a few concrete foundations and a washed up main street. Powell used to be a staging town, but when a railroad was built to run through it, its purpose of being a useful stopping place for wagons carrying shipments was eliminated. Shortly thereafter, it was abandoned.

Antiquated cans and dishes littered the ghost town, and the purple glass there dated the former community to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through research, Gilbert has found records that indicate the town boomed in 1917.

A 15-minute bus ride from Powell, the last stop of the tour was hardly history to some of the former INL employees that were part of the group. Egon Lamprecht, who once worked as fire chief at the site, remembered when the INL still used the now-dilapidated building that once served as a weapons testing site.

Nuclear archaeologist Clayton Marler walked the group around a concrete building where heavy artillery guns and weapons were tested during World War II. He said some of the weapons tested there were enough to launch a 2,000-pound projectile 30 miles.

The building featured a room surrounded by 5-foot-thick concrete walls, where employees would stand during testing in case something went awry. After the guns were tested, they were shipped by rail to Pocatello, where they were then sent overseas.

Though the building hasn’t been in use since the ’60s, Marler said one remnant gave workers on the site a scare seven years ago.

“One of the 2,000-pound projectiles was found, and it was live and highly explosive,” he said. “We called in the (INL’s) explosive experts to handle it. They did a controlled detonation, and no one got hurt.”

The scientists said the archaeological sites were all discovered during INL expansions and new developments. Before a new parking lot can be built, or a new road can be constructed, the team of archaeologists first goes in to survey it. If something is found, the INL moves the location of the planned development, if possible.

In some cases, however, preservation of the original archaeological site isn’t feasible, so the artifacts are gathered and sent to Idaho State University to be preserved.

“Preservation is the most important thing to us,” Pace said. “Sometimes it isn’t possible to keep the site intact, so we do everything we can to excavate and rescue what we find.”

By Adam Chambers

achambers@journalnet.com

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