McCallum, Mark Heritage Program Manager, Tongass National Forest
What’s It All Mean?: A Review of Over 50 Years of Radiocarbon Dating on the Tongass National Forest Archeological investigations in southeast Alaska began in the early Twentieth Century, corresponding roughly with establishment of the Tongass National Forest. Frederica de Laguna’s pioneering work near Yakutat in the 1950s yielded the first radiocarbon dates from an archaeological context. Investigations by Robert Ackerman in the 1960s along Icy Strait lead to discovery of Ground Hog Bay 2, confirming that human history in southeast Alaska spans over 10,000 years. The Tongass hired its first archaeologist in 1974 and in the ensuing years over 700 radiocarbon dates have been obtained from archaeological investigations. Ancient shell middens and fish traps have yielded many of these dates. This paper examines the history of archaeological radiocarbon dating on the Tongass, attempts to make some sense of what we have learned, and offers some suggestions for future research.
