Oak Harbor’s archaeologist saves history before it’s dug up

OAK HARBOR — During a typical day at the office, Gideon Cauffman is probably not at the office.

Cauffman is the city of Oak Harbor’s first staff archaeologist.

If a shovel is involved, he’s probably on site.

He monitors city projects big and small: putting in a new street sign, fixing a water line, installing a new storm drain.

If an underground sprinkler head needs repair, he’s there.

The city hired him in May to not only document and preserve cultural artifacts, but to make sure the city complies with state and federal laws. If artifacts are found, he identifies them, evaluates their significance and advises how to handle the site.

Some of the sites he’s investigated include places where native people once camped, cooked and made tools. Some of what he’s found includes historic animals bone, shell midden and fire modified rock.

Oak Harbor is one of the few cities nationwide to employ a full-time archaeologist.

Since 2012, the city has spent roughly $3 million dollars on contracted professional archaeology services. Those costs do not include Cauffman’s salary. A good portion of those costs are associated with the Pioneer Way Construction Project and building a new multi-million dollar wastewater treatment facility on the waterfront.

But not all of them.

More than 50 percent of the city is located on land that has a high or very high probability of uncovering artifacts, said City Engineer Joe Stowell. That’s based on a model that estimates the likelihood of cultural resources based on factors such as proximity to water, shelter and food.

Gone are the days when the city — or anyone else — can dig without taking the proper steps to protect those resources.

“Laws and regulations and the culture have changed,” he said. “We have a responsibility by state and federal law to preserve cultural resources.”

The city learned that lesson the hard way.

All of it started with bones.

In 2011, construction workers were in the middle of a project to turn the main road through downtown, Pioneer Way, into a one-way street. The project was intended to make downtown Oak Harbor more pedestrian friendly.

A construction worker unearthed what appeared to be a femur, a rib bone and fragments of a skull. In the coming months, archaeologists recovered more than 4,300 human bones or bone fragments.

The city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on archaeological services and other costs associated with unearthing ancient burial grounds.

City leaders overlooked an advisory from the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation about the likelihood of cultural remains in the area as well as a recommendation to hire an archaeologist.

For hundreds of years, a native village and burial ground were located on the waterfront of Oak Harbor at a place called Tequcid. The Skagit and Swinomish people lived in the village. Under terms of an 1855 treaty, the native people were forced to move to the Swinomish Indian Reservation.

In March 2014, the city and three contractors reached a settlement with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community over desecration of Native American burial grounds. The city’s insurer paid $1.2 million and the insurance companies for the three contractors paid a total of $800,000 to the tribe.

The city also agreed to turn over the deed to the old city shop property to the tribe to serve as a future cemetery.

“We encountered human remains in Pioneer Way in the worst possible way,” Stowell said.

“We don’t want to go through that again.”

Before, the city wasn’t tuned into the seriousness of the issue — but it is now.

In addition to hiring an archaeologist, the city continues to contract with a separate archaeology firm to monitor the wastewater treatment plant project. It also trains public works employees on signs that indicate a worksite could contain artifacts.

The right thing to do

Making sure it doesn’t happen again is the right thing to do, Stowell said.

Officials also are wary of putting the city into financial trouble by not doing due diligence.

Having an archaeologist onsite is a bit like wearing a seatbelt, Stowell said. It’s something people didn’t use to think about that’s now a necessity. In the long run, a staff archaeologist saves money by preventing lawsuits and expensive delays on projects. There’s also value in having an individual who knows the area well. The better a city archaeologist understands the area, the better he’ll be able to predict where artifacts are likely to turn up.

“We’re truly trying to be good stewards,” he said. “It’s a level of understanding we didn’t have before. We are trying to protect an important resource.”

There’s precedence for other government projects going very badly. A dozen years ago, the state Department of Transportation made a costly mistake when it didn’t thoroughly investigate a site in Port Angeles where it wanted to build a massive dry dock.

Under industrial fill were the remnants of the largest Indian village ever discovered in this state. Workers went on to uproot a major burial ground, where more than 300 skeletons were found. The department eventually walked away from the project after spending millions of dollars.

Since 2012, the city has contracted with two different companies that provide archaeological services. The lion’s share of the work was performed by Equinox Research and Consulting International Inc., based in Mount Vernon. It charged the city for about $2.6 million of work during that time period. The company describes itself as “archaeology and historic preservation specialists.” Clients include developers, tribes and governments.

Equinox handles work associated with the city’s wastewater treatment plant now under construction. It’s also provided work on other major projects, including an outfall pipe and a 400-gallon reservoir.

The other company, SWCA Environmental Consultants, is a “comprehensive environmental planning, regulatory compliance and natural and cultural resource management services to businesses and government clients across the United States,” according to its website. It purchased another contractor, Northwest Archaeological Associates, which also provided services to the city. Since 2012, they’ve charged the city nearly $350,000. Most of that was for work around the Pioneer Way project. It also did the initial study on a 42-inch outfall pipe the city installed, and sorted through thousands of yards of material taken from Pioneer Way.

Heavy price tag

Oak Harbor City Council reviews professional services contracts and keeps an eye on what’s is spent on archaeological services, said Councilman Jim Campbell. While he wishes the city could spend less, it’s a necessity.

“The price tag is heavy,” he said. “Is this important? Yes. This is to make sure we protect ourselves.”

As Oak Harbor grows, this issue is likely to resurface.

In January, the city removed human remains found in December while excavating at the site of the wastewater treatment plant. The city didn’t tell the public until a week after the remains were recovered. Instead, they privately worked with representatives from eight local Indian tribes, the EPA and the Department of Ecology to remove the remains.

Nine days later a press release about the incident explained that all archaeological activities are kept confidential out of respect for local tribes, in accordance with state law and as outlined in an agreement about how to handle such discoveries that the city signed prior to starting the project.

“We are building one of the largest projects the city will ever see,” Stowell said. “There’s an intense focus on archaeology.”

Around the city and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island there are at least 25 recognized archaeology sites. NAS Whidbey has its own archaeologist. The city isn’t allowed to reveal where the sites are located under federal rules meant to prevent looting.

Many larger cities nationwide employ a staff archaeologist but Oak Harbor is probably one of the few small ones that does, said Allyson Brooks, with state the Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation.

“More cities have become aware that it’s important to hire an archaeologist in advance so projects don’t stop,” she said. “Between the issues in Port Angeles and Oak Harbor, the awareness of what types of resources need to be protected has increased dramatically.”

It’s hard to know how many cities statewide employ an archaeologist — but it appears most contract for those services as necessary. King County has one on staff. Seattle doesn’t have a full-time archaeologist, nor does Spokane, Tacoma or Everett.

The city of Spokane spent a little more than $100,000 in contracted archaeological services last year, said Brian Coddington, Spokane city spokesman.

Everett usually contracts for those services during the environmental review of public works projects, and it’s so little money it would be difficult to track down the cost, said Meghan Pembroke, that city’s spokeswoman.

Cities by water

Any Northwest city by the water has a high likelihood of having sites with cultural resources because that’s where native and modern people like to settle, Cauffman said.

This isn’t just a concern for municipalities. Private property owners could be on the hook for fines and lawsuits. During the permit process, the city identifies projects located in areas that might be a concern and advises owners to hire an archaeologist.

“If we think it’s a hot zone, we can give them a heads up,” Stowell said.

Sometimes there’s resistance because the owner doesn’t want to pay the extra cost. It’s not required unless it’s a known site, but Stowell said he tries to talk owners and developers into doing so, since it can head off expensive delays later on. He pointed to the remodel of Whidbey Coffee on Pioneer Way as an example of a project that went right. The business is close to known sites. The owner hired an archaeologist to survey the site and monitor work, which helped the project to finish on time.

Cauffman loves his job. He wants people to know what he does is more than about following rules. He’s excited to learn about the history and share what he learns with others.

He’s available to give brown bag talks to local groups — anyone from local school groups to contractors.

Debra Vaughn: dvaughn@whidbeynewsgroup.com; 360-675-6611, ext. 5075.