The Physical and Cultural Background

The Sunken Village wet site (35MU4) is on one of the most important river junctures on the Northwest Coast of North America – where the Columbia River drainage of British Columbia, Canada and Washington State, U.S.A. is joined by the Willamette River flowing through much of western Oregon State, U.S.A. (Figure 2.1). The site is on Sauvie Island, where a major aquifer pumps under the natural levee into Multnomah Channel, providing a unique 125 m wide beach area where acorns placed in shallow hemlock bough-lined pits were leached in huge numbers by ancient Multnomah Peoples (Figure 2.2).