Archaeology started at Fort Vancouver in 1947. But we can’t overlook the crucial groundwork that began in the 1820s. That’s when people at the new Hudson’s Bay Company fur-trading center started losing stuff. Or they just tossed it out.
Almost two centuries later, those lost and discarded items are known by another name. Now they’re artifacts, and there are about 2.8 million of them at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
Assistant curator Meagan Huff shared some of their stories with visitors Friday in Fort Vancouver’s archaeology lab. The artifact showcase was one of several events offered in observance of the 101st birthday of the National Park Service. Admission fees to all 417 national parks were waived Friday.
State parks also got into the act. Admission was free to all locations in the Washington park system, including Battle Ground Lake State Park, 18002 N.E. 249th St., Battle Ground.
Washington State Parks and the National Park Service will both have three more fee-free days in 2017.
Many of the attractions at Fort Vancouver are always free, but there is a $5 fee for those 16 and older to enter the replica stockade. Access to the artifact collection is offered only on special occasions, such as the birthday of the Park Service, which was established on Aug. 25, 1916.
One of the signature artifacts from the Hudson’s Bay era is Spode dinnerware. It was a British product but featured exotic patterns.
“It was one of the most-seen images in the history of the world,” Huff said.
Even broken bits of clay pipe stems — the 1840s equivalent of cigarette butts — say something about people of that era.
“Where you find a lot of fragments, that’s where people would gather and take breaks together,” Huff said.
Archaeologists also found a cache of discarded liquor bottles in an out-of-sight corner behind a building.
“That’s where they could hide and drink,” Huff said.
One of the most popular items in the collection goes back a couple of thousand years — a brick that was made when Romans occupied England. Huff pointed out a couple of paw prints that were made when a cat stepped in the still-wet clay.
“Oh,” exclaimed tour member Nancy Tessman.
“It’s wonderful to see when history tells stories about things that happened so long ago,” the Vancouver resident said.
