Preliminary Results of Geophysical Surveys Along the Middle Fork Salmon River, Idaho

Summary

The Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness is the largest designated wilderness in the lower 48 states encompassing over two million acres and two wild and scenic rivers (Salmon River and Middle Fork Salmon River) in central Idaho. Cultural resources were identified as one of the main tenets of the establishing legislation and the Central Idaho Wilderness Act of 1980 mandates "the protection of archaeological sites and interpretation of such sites for the public benefit and knowledge." Over 10,000 visitors float the Middle Fork Salmon River every year and many of their recreation campsites coincide with prehistoric pithouse villages occupied over the last 3-4,000 years. At least 16 sites have been identified as being at-risk from recreational activity. This poster presents preliminary magnetometer results at four of the sites during the 2014 field season. Non-ground disturbing geophysical surveys were conducted to explore the potential for intact near-surface and subsurface cultural deposits. The magnetometer results suggest that subsurface deposits still exist and this information will help us focus our future fieldwork with the ultimate goal of protecting the resource while allowing the recreation to continue.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage