The Goslin
Mountain survey was conducted in July 2003. It is somewhat unique in PIT
projects as it surveyed an area that burned the year previously in the Mustang
fire.
Our
archeologist mentioned we were seeing the effect of a century of wild fire
suppression. The fuel load that had built up was such that the heat of the fire caused great spalls of bedrock to break off in the pinon-juniper areas. It was
referred to as a “1,000 year fire.”
Goslin Mountain
is right on the Utah- Wyoming border. The closest town is Dutch John next to
the Flaming Gorge reservoir. Driving north you enter Wyoming through a gap in a
curtain wall. Then the route becomes dirt roads, steep uphill grades, and
finally deeply rutted trails climbing the mountain. The site surveyed was on an
extensive, grassy benchland or plateau along the south face of the mountain. It
is several hundred feet above the Green River which lies to the south. The
slopes above and below and occasional locations on the bench, had been covered
in pinyon-juniper trees before the fire. The nights were chilly and the days
hot. For the team to report in by radio, the directions were “Drive to the top
of the mountain, then walk along the fence line to the second or third post to
get reception.”
The campsite
had no water and one porta-potty. Once during the week the porta-potty became
an accidental target for atlatls. No hits were made. The winds were such that
at least one dome tent blew away and started rolling. This was followed by the
owner chasing it.
My
expectation was that the fire would have cleared the ground making artifacts
and features easily visible. That wasn’t the case. Without the vegetation the
rains after the fire caused a great amount of erosion. Tall grass that grew
after the fire made it difficult to see artifacts. You’d repeatedly find fresh
sentiment deposits and nothing on the surface. The survey crews found a number
of artifacts and features showing the effects of the fire itself, and of
post-fire erosion. Some chipped stone artifacts we noted had burnt surfaces
where they had protruded above the surface, but were unburnt below. The pattern
of the patina on the rock of a slab-lined basin or pit oven showed that the
surrounding sandy surface had lost several centimeters to erosion after the
fire.
Much of the
plateau area was open with unburned brush. It was surveyed with a few artifacts
being found. While a metate was excavated, there was no evidence of long term
habitation. At the open area of the survey, most of the time we walked through
brush taking rest stops when there was shade to be found. It wasn’t a good
place to live.
As we
reached the edges of the mountain the foliage increased and more trees were found.
This was also where the burned area was. Not surprisingly, the number of
artifacts increased. The location there would have been shaded with a breeze for
keeping the insects away. Additionally, the
erosion on the slopes may have generally tended to expose artifacts. On the flat benchland, wind and water borne
sendiments may have tended to cover, as well as expose, artifacts.
There was a
known rock shelter in the survey area. It had been protected before the fire
and had no damage. That fact that it was there wasn’t widely disseminated. This
resulted with a couple of us stumbling over it.
Surprise!
There was a
pit oven found. These are always found to be emptied and what food resource was
being cooked is unclear. Various lab analyses have suggested that they were
used somewhat in the manner of Dutch ovens to slow roast various edible roots,
tubers or cactus pads.
As can be
seen in the photos, the extensive fire burned extremely hot in places and
damaging thousands of acres. Since the fire, the rains had removed the ash and
redistributed areas of the surface sediments. Most of the material found was debitage and chipped
stone bifaces. There were the occasional projectile points dating mostly to the
Archaic period.