Archeology 101, part 1

This morning, I headed out with Jan and Karl Smith, volunteers extraordinaire, on a tour of Malheur NWR from their perspective.  They have been volunteering here for fourteen years as amateur archeologists!  But, as Karl says, they have more field experience than most professionals.  This is a picture of them and Harry.  Harry is a picture of a doll that was given to Karl when he was one year old.  Harry has followed Karl on his travels for 72 years now!  He used to come in person, but suffered a trauma that could be described as a near decapitation last year, so now only his likeness appears in their travel pictures.  :)

We left pretty early this morning and headed for Frenchglen for breakfast at the historic Frenchglen Hotel which is now a state park.  As we drove to the Hotel, Karl and Jan gave me a welcome lesson in the geology of this area.  I learned all about volcanic eruptions, and balsamic layers and columns. 
After breakfast, our next stop was an actual sod house.  They don’t know when it was built, but it’s probably over 100 years old, and was actually lived in through the 1930’s.
It’s in a state of rather disrepair, and as I looked around, I couldn’t help but think of Little House on the Prairie.  :)   What Spartan living conditions!  However, in the bottom right picture you can see that in later times they did have electricity!  (click pics to enlarge)

Besides the sod house, there is also the remains of the stick coral for livestock.
This homestead is not open to the public, so I really enjoyed imagining how it would have been for early settlers.  This is such a harsh environment in the high desert to try to homestead.  Can you imagine trying to eke out a living here?  Behind the sod house, an orchard was planted with what I think were plum trees.  The trees were large, but their fruits at this time had not yet ripened.  A hard freeze is not long off at this elevation, so it makes me wonder if the fruits will ever ripen.
The biggest necessity for living in this region is water, and this homestead had a very inviting warm springs.  That’s why those folks settled here.  As I dipped my hand into the spring, I could just envision having a nice long soak in those warm waters!  :)
There were many teasels surrounding the springs, and lots of dragonflies. (I can’t remember the difference between dragonflies and damselflies right now, so I’m going to call this a dragonfly)  I loved the brilliant blue color of this one.

The three of us visited quite a few more places today, and I learned a lot more about archeology, but I’m going to save the rest for tomorrow’s post.  This is long enough.  :)

I will leave you tonight with another pic of this morning’s sunrise…
Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy