Introduction
The Yamhill River Pleistocene Project explores the late Pleistocene and early Holocene of the Yamhill River valley near McMinnville, Oregon. Composed of local volunteers and resources, avocational paleontologists, land owners, and local government working alongside trained professionals and museum staff, our goal is to discover, study, and preserve our prehistoric past.
Totally unfunded, the project relies almost entirely on volunteers and the outstanding contributions in time and equipment from the Yamhill County local community. The project attempts to combine known fossil and artifact finds into a single comprehensive data base encompassing a continuous stretch of approximately twenty five miles along the North and South Yamhill Rivers near McMinnville.
All materials are collected in so far as possible using current archeological and paleontological practices after in situ documentation and study. Locations are noted using USGS maps and GPS technology, and digs are excavated under the direct supervision of the on-scene scientist and overall control of the designated “Scientist in Oversight”. Materials collected are stabilized, restored and preserved locally; and always available to both the general community and the scientific world.
The founders of the project are deeply committed to the concept that the collection not be dispersed and is a resource for the people. As such, the collection and all material, publications and information generated will stay in the public domain, enter State Inventory and ultimately becomes the property of the Condon Museum of Natural History.
Our web site
The project combines the time, skills and efforts of avocational paleontologists and archeologists, volunteers and land owners with local government, area museums, universities and colleges; and experts from around the State and Country in the fields of geology, paleo-archeology and paleontology. With its beginnings rooted in casual fossil and artifact finds along the banks of the South Yamhill River in the 1960’s the project has slowly grown in scope and resources to an annual summer dig aimed at discovering, cataloging and better understanding Oregon’s distant past. What started as an amateur dig has, in recent summers been conducted at project sites by the Center for the Study of First Americans when it was based at Oregon State University, and more recently by the Institute for Archeological Studies affiliated with the University of Oregon.
Main Menu. What you will find in the "Main Menu" is geared to casual intrest, not the mainline scientific studies associated with the project. As such it comprises a synopsis of what we are doing, what the avocational paleontologists, volunteers and resources are contributing to the project, and some photo-galleries of the fun we have been having over the past few years, as I get the scans and uploads done.
User Pages. The "User Pages" contain the fossil and artifact logs: a comprehensive list of finds along descriptions and locations found, identifications if known, and condition. The maps and meter grids in this section tie the entire area of the Yamhill River drainage being studied and helps to corelate fossil and arifact locations, as well as detail the distribution of fossils/artifacts at dig sites.
In the publications section are the papers and reports produced by the Scientists and Organizations involved in our project. These may be a little dry for the casual reader, but will give others more depth into our project and whether it enters their areas of interest.