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Northeast Information Center
Henry Davis
March 18, 1999
Founded in the early 1970s, the Northeast Center of the California Historical Resources Information System (NEIC) is one of eleven Information Centers under contract to the State of California Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) in Sacramento. These Information Centers are non-profit organizations located at various universities and museums throughout the state of California. The NEIC is supported, in part, by the Department of Anthropology, CSU Chico, and its offices are located on the university campus. Each center serves a specific geographic area within the state. The NEIC service area includes 11 counties; Butte, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama and Trinity Counties. These counties comprise over 20% of the state of California with a population of half a million people.
The NEIC staff includes; Dr. Makowto Kowta as Coordinator, Dr. Frank Bayham acting as Interim Coordinator, Lisa Swillinger as Assistant Coordinator, Lucia Ledwith as Curator of Records, and Henry Davis as Assistant Curator of Records. It is our responsibility to manage and maintain all information on known prehistoric and historic resources. The NEIC has a comprehensive library of historic and ethnographic books, published articles, newspaper accounts and maps. We maintain over 6,000 Reports of Archaeological Studies and more than 20,000 archaeological records. Locational information on cultural resources and surveys is maintained on USGS quadrangle maps. The area we serve requires the use of over 500 USGS 15 quadrangle maps and over 1,200 USGS 7.5 quadrangle maps. All of these sources have to be readily accessible for research. We also maintain a list of qualified professional archaeologists, historians, and architectural historians that is available on request.
The NEIC staff provide research and information services regarding Northeastern California history and prehistory. A large part of the research and information we provide is directly related to the timber industry. There are nine National Forests, large tracts of privately owned forests, and many small stands of privately owned timber in the geographical area covered by the NEIC. We work closely with CAL FIRE to enhance California archaeology and historic preservation by providing Registered Professional Foresters (RPFs) with information on cultural resources needed to complete Timber Harvest Plans (THPs). This relationship bridges the academic, professional and industrial aspects archaeology.
The timber industry makes a significant contribution to California archaeology. We usually process over 400 "Archaeological Record Check Request for a CAL FIRE Project" forms per year, with acreage ranging from one to thousands. Using the THP project maps provided by RPFs, we use our official base maps and records to find previously recorded archaeological sites. The information we have on cultural resources within the project area is then provided to the RPF. Because only 5 to 10 % of our 11 county service area has been surveyed for cultural resources, the RPF is usually required to conduct a cultural resource survey on all or part of the THP project area. Any new archaeological sites discovered as a result of the survey are then recorded, often by the RPF or a CAL FIRE archaeologist.
Evidence of the prehistory and historical settlement of California is often hidden in remote forests or near mountain communities. RPFs have a unique responsibility and opportunity to discover prehistoric and historic archaeological sites while surveying timber harvest areas. These RPFs are required to complete an archaeological training program conducted by the CAL FIRE that provides minimal knowledge of the large array of California archaeology. Through compliance with CAL FIRE regulations, RPFs and CAL FIRE archaeologists provide the NEIC with archaeological data collected in the field. RPFs are required to submit maps to the NEIC that indicate the areas of their project which were covered by an archaeological survey. These data are plotted on our base maps and become a part of our ever-expanding database. Approximately 350 new archaeological survey reports per year are generated through timber harvests. RPFs also describe and often formally record archaeological sites discovered as a result of their field surveys. Dozens of new site records are added to our database each year as a result of timber harvests.
The prehistory of California presents a puzzle to archaeologists for which a large number of pieces are not even out of the box yet. The importance of our understanding California prehistory can hardly be overstated. Few geographical areas in the world have seen a more rapid change in technology than California. Just 150 years ago, before the California Gold Rush, the technology at SutterÕs Mill and Fort was dwarfed by the industry of Native Californians. Today, practically underneath the high tech computer industries in Silicon Valley, are found clam disk ornaments that indicate another, earlier industry. In the broad scale of human history, the technology than manufactured those clam disks in time past is no less important than that which produces computer chips today. There is a unique compression of time between those technologies in California. Preservation of archaeological sites in California is an important element in piecing together the puzzle of history.
Ironically, historic preservation in California is not only enhanced by the timber industry, but is also, in, part about the timber industry. Early logging practices in California provide fertile ground for historical research and preservation. Most people have some knowledge of the famously rich gold mining industry in California. Fewer people are familiar with the 19th Century state of the art logging industry and the rugged individuals that built roads, logging chutes, flumes, steam donkeys and railroads through the formidable Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and Coast Ranges. The history of the timber industry in California is being recorded and preserved, at least in part, by the continuing development of archaeological preservation and protection by the California timber industry and the CAL FIRE.
We thank the CAL FIRE and the California timber industry in general for their efforts and concern in preserving California's cultural heritage and we look forward to a continued, strong partnership for our mutual benefit.
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