Oregon Petroglyphs Being Protected By Forest Service

AGNESS, Ore. - On the surface, they seem like inconsequential depressions in rock. Some are round, with the largest about the size of a fish, while others creep across the sandstone surface in zigzag patterns.

But these designs, chiseled into boulders beside the Rogue River near Agness, provide clues to the spiritual lives of the earliest residents of southwestern Oregon.

U.S. Forest Service archaeologists and a team of volunteers spent a week cleaning, photographing and researching the prehistoric petroglyphs believed to have been created by Athapascans thousands of years ago.

Janet Joyer, an archaeologist with the Siskiyou National Forest, was one of those on the site, which was considered the only known petroglyph area in southwestern Oregon. During the study, a second site upriver also was discovered and is now being assessed by Forest Service personnel.

"We think they used them in conjunction with fishing rituals," Joyer said. "In a way, petroglyph sites are one of the few glimpses into the spiritual lives of these people."

From what the ethnologists of the past have gleaned through interviews with Native Americans, such places were spiritual gathering points for tribal members seeking improved fishing.

Archaeologists believe that Athapascan Indians would use hammer stones to pound repeatedly into the boulders, located between high and low water, as they prayed.

"This would have been recognized as a sacred place and used that way for a long period of time," Joyer said.

The 22 volunteers, under the guidance of three Forest Service archaeologists and an assistant, studied the 20 boulders at the site to record the types and number of indentations, as well as map the site using a special global positioning system that determines location with the aid of a satellite. Work was directed by petroglyph expert Dan Leen of Seattle, who was contracted by the Forest Service for the study.

Located at Twomile Creek, about two miles below Foster Bar near Agness, the area is one that the locals have known about and visited for generations.

In the early 1970s, the Forest Service became aware of the petroglyphs and did some preliminary research on the designs.

This time, though, the Forest Service aimed to more precisely inventory the area to be able to protect and interpret the resource for the public.

"We started by pulling the moss off the rocks so that we could see what was there," Joyer said. Then, the rocks were scrubbed with natural-bristle brushes and water to clean the surface.

To see the indentations more clearly in photos, the depressions were painted with an aluminum oxide paint. After photos were taken, this mixture was scrubbed out to leave the boulders unchanged.

Additionally, the team created "rubbings" of the boulders. Muslin sheets were stretched across the rocks, then a hard wax was rubbed over the surface to obtain a reverse-look imprint on the muslin.

"We were amazed at the things that showed up on the rubbings that we hadn't been able to see," Joyer said.

The petroglyphs generally do not represent animals, birds or other objects of the Athapascan world. Rather, they are circular depressions, called "cupules," along with zigzag lines and rectangles.

"As far as what we will learn from this site, this is just one more way to make a connection between the tribes of this area and other areas," Joyer said. For example, researcher Dan Leen, who has studied such sites throughout California and the Pacific Northwest, believes that the Rogue River site is more similar to those of California than the Pacific Northwest.

Also, within the next year, the Forest Service plans to erect an interpretational sign at the site to explain to fishermen and other visitors the meanings behind the rock indentations.