In 1852, a Hawaiian native operated a one-man cooper’s shop at Fort Vancouver, assembling wooden barrels for the Hudson’s Bay Company’s global trading empire.
The scale of production on the site increased considerably 65 years later, when the U.S. Army built the world’s biggest spruce mill for World War I military planes.
Both eras will share the focus of this summer’s archaeology field school at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
The National Park Service partners with Washington State University Vancouver and Portland State University in the annual session, which gives college students some hands-on experience in archaeology. It also gives members of the public a chance to observe the careful excavations, the precise record-keeping and the preservation of artifacts involved in an actual archaeological project.
This year’s field school, which begins on June 23, will be in a very accessible, user-friendly spot for the public. It is an open area just south of East Fifth Street, between the fort stockade and Pearson Air Museum.