The East Wenatchee Clovis Site (also called the Richey-Roberts Clovis Site or the Richey Clovis Cache), with the site designation of "45DO482", is a deposit of prehistoric Clovis points and other implements, dating to roughly 11,000 radiocarbon years before present, found near the city of East Wenatchee, Washington in 1987. Accidentally discovered on an apple farm, the site contained some of the largest known stone Clovis points. It lies just west of the Columbia River.
Archaeology
The site was accidentally uncovered on May 27, 1987 as the foreman of the orchard, Mark Mickles, and farm employee Moises Aguirre Calzada were installing an irrigation line.Mehringer, P. J., Jr., "Of Apples and Archaeology", Universe (WSU Graduate School Magazine), 1(2):2-8, Reprinted in Mammoth Trumpet 5(2):1, pp. 4-5, 1989 They unearthed 5 fluted points, 14 other stone tools, and 4 bone rods which were at first mistaken for tools left by contemporary Indian tribes.Waitt, Richard B., "Megafloods and Clovis cache at Wenatchee, Washington", Quaternary Research 85.3, pp. 430-444, 2016 Orchard co-owner Rich Roberts and his wife Joanne later showed the items to local amateur archaeologist Russell S. Congdon, who identified them as Clovis tools and contacted archaeologist Robert Mierendorf who confirmed the identification as Clovis.
An excavation in April 1988, led by Peter J. Mehringer of Washington State University with a team of experts in Paleo-Indian archaeology and members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, discovered 22 more stone and bone tools, but removed only five stone objects including two 23.5 centimeter long fluted Clovis bifaces. Two backhoe trenches were dug 40-625 meters north-northeast of the tool discovery location. Excavated volcanic tephra (from the Glacier Peak and Mazama eruptions) produced a date of 11,125 ± 130 14C yr B.P. (Before Present). The date is based on Glacier Peak volcanic ash adhering to Clovis artifacts.Mehringer, P. J., Jr. & F. F. Foit, "Volcanic ash dating of the Clovis cache at East Wenatchee, Washington", national Geographic Research 6(4), pp. 495-503, 1990Mehringer, P. J., Jr., "Clovis cache found: Weapons of ancient Americans", National Geographic Magazine, 1988, 174(4), pp. 500-503, 1988Mehringer Jr, Peter J., John C. Sheppard, and Franklin F. Foit Jr., "The age of Glacier Peak tephra in west-central Montana", Quaternary Research 21.1, pp. 36-41, 1984Mehringer Jr, Peter J., "The Richey–Roberts Clovis Cache, East Wenatchee, Washington", Northwest Science 62, pp. 271-272, 1988
After Mack Richey became sole owner of the site in November 1988 excavation resumed under archaeologist R. Michael Gramly of the Buffalo Museum of Science and the North Central Washington Museum of Wenatchee in October 1990. Finds included 30 bone (including 14 bi-beveled bone rods) and stone tools including a 24.5 centimeter long fluted Clovis point, at that time the largest ever found. Blood residue on 3 of the stone tools matched bison, bovine, deer, and rabbit. The bone rods were later determined to be used to haft projectile points.Gramly, Richard Michael, "The Richey Clovis Cache: Earliest Americans along the Columbia River", Great Lakes Artifact Repository Buffalo, NY 14203. Persimmon Press, 1993Gramly, Richard Michael, "The East Wenatchee Clovis Site (Richey–Roberts Site): summary of findings and current status", Current Research in the Pleistocene 13.19, e21, 1996Gramly, R. M., D. C. Waldorf, and V. Waldorf, "Observations about the raw materials present at the East Wenatchee Clovis site", The Amateur Archaeologist 10.1, pp. 41-45, 2004Gramly, R. M., "Narrative for Color Slide Set of the 1990 Excavations and Artifacts of the East Wenatchee Clovis Site", Douglas Co., WA, 1993Gramly, Richard Michael, "Blood residues upon tools from the East Wenatchee Clovis site, Douglas County, Washington", Ohio Archaeologist 41.4, pp. 4-9, 1991 The methods and results of this excavation have been questioned.Mierendorf, R., "Comments on the East Wenatchee Clovis Site (45DO482), Washington State, As Reported on by Rilchard M. Gramley", Current Research in the Pleistocene, 1997, V. 14, pp. 57-59, 1997
In 1992, Richey donated all the recovered Clovis artifacts and sold the archaeological rights to the 35-square-meter site for $250,000 to the Washington State Historical Society, which owns them in perpetuity. The sale contract stipulated that no archaeological work could take place for 15 years after the purchase; that moratorium expired June 1, 2007, although no new scientific digging has since taken place. Richey sold the entire orchard to a new owner in 2004. At this time what was once an archaeological site was re-filled with dirt, covered with a cement slab, and restored to be part of the orchard.Croes, Dale R., Darby C. Stapp, and Julia G. Longenecker, "Pacifc Northwest Archaeological Society (PNWAS): Reaching the Northwest Advocational Public for 36 Years", "How do we Reach More? Sharing Cultural and Archaeological Research with Others", Northwest Anthropology, 35-45, 2021
The site continued to operate as a commercial apple orchard as of 2007. As researchers Ruth Kirk and Richard D. Daugherty wrote, "Despite all the care taken, certain risks to the site remain. How will orchard chemicals and irrigation water affect bone still in the ground? And what about ongoing bioturbation, the disturbance caused by roots and rodents? The site in the orchard was essentially undisturbed when its window to the past was opened, albeit slightly. It has been sampled but not fully excavated. Enigma remains."Kirk, Ruth and Daugherty, Richard D., "Archaeology in Washington", University of Washington Press, 2007
See also Clovis culture Clovis point Paleo-Indians Archaeology of the Americas
References
Further reading Huckell, Bruce, Bruce A. Bradley, and Peter J. Mehringer, "Flaked stone artifacts from the East Wenatchee Clovis cache", Texas A&M University Press, 2026 Johnson, Michael F., "Dissecting Clovis Point 325 from 45D0432 in East Wenatchee, Washington", Archaeological Society of Virginia Quarterly Bulletin 48.2, pp. 64-72, 1993 Lyman, R. Lee, Michael J. O'Brien, and Virgil Hayes, "A mechanical and functional study of bone rods from the Richey–Roberts Clovis cache, Washington, USA", Journal of Archaeological Science 25.9, pp. 887-906, 1998 Robbins, Jefferson, "Clovis: Ancient site, modern world", The Wenatchee World, Wenatchee, Wash., May 27, 2007 Becker, Paula, "Moises Aquirre and Mark Mickles discover prehistoric Clovis point artifacts in an East Wenatchee apple orchard on May 27, 1987", Oct 3, 2006
External links
Moises Aguirre and Mark Mickles discover prehistoric Clovis point artifacts in an East Wenatchee apple orchard on May 27, 1987.