The Ancient Mudslide That Perfectly Preserved a Makah Whaling Village Until 1970

Makah Cultural Center, Washington

A winter storm in 1970 ripped apart a muddy bank near Cape Alava, spilling 500-year-old wooden bowls and baskets onto the beach. What started as erosion became one of the most important finds in North American history.

Here’s how it unfolded, and where you can see these ancient treasures today.

A Winter Storm Reveals Ancient Treasures

Ed Claplanhoo, the Makah tribal chairman, got a call after that storm. People were taking objects from what looked like an old building at Ozette.

Claplanhoo checked the site and saw all the artifacts brought up by the waves. He called Richard Daugherty, an archaeologist at Washington State University who knew the area. By April 1970, the dig at Ozette had started.

Innovative Water Excavation Techniques

Regular digging tools would damage the wet wooden items in the thick mud at Ozette. The team needed a new way to work.

They created a system using water pressure to wash away mud without harming the objects inside. Workers first cleared areas with high-pressure hoses.

When they saw artifacts, they switched to garden hoses with lower pressure. This water method worked so well that other archaeologists started using it at wet sites across the Pacific Northwest.

An 11-Year Archaeological Journey

The Ozette dig became a huge research project lasting from 1970 to 1981.

College students worked with Makah tribal members throughout the project, and they eventually found six cedar longhouses that had been saved by the ancient mudslide.

Each season brought new finds as the team carefully uncovered more of the village. By the time the dig ended, they had found tens of thousands of objects from daily Makah life.

Unprecedented Artifact Preservation

The mudslide that buried Ozette created perfect conditions for saving items. The thick, clay-like mud kept out air, stopping wood and plant materials from rotting.

This rare situation allowed the team to recover over 55,000 artifacts. About 30,000 of these were wooden, which almost never survive in ancient sites.

The items included wooden boxes, woven cedar hats, baskets, rope, and even clothing pieces. Most archaeological sites only have stone, bone, or metal because plant materials quickly decay.

Workers treated each wet item with special wax to preserve it for the future.

The Makah-Archaeological Partnership

The Ozette project created a new kind of partnership between university archaeologists and the Makah Tribe. This teamwork respected tribal ownership of cultural items from the start.

Makah elders helped identify strange artifacts. When dig workers found objects they didn’t recognize, tribal elders knew what these tools, games, and household items were from stories passed down for generations.

Young tribal members joined as diggers, preservers, and lab workers. They learned archaeological methods while sharing cultural knowledge.

A Whale Hunting Culture Revealed

Whale remains made up three-quarters of all animal bones found. This showed that whales were the foundation of Makah food and trade for centuries before Europeans arrived.

The team found specialized hunting gear including 13-foot harpoons, hunting canoes, sealskin floats, and cutting tools. The most amazing find was a carved cedar killer whale fin with over 700 sea otter teeth set into it.

Baskets and Fiber Arts Emerge Intact

Workers found more than 500 complete cedar bark baskets from the late 1400s and early 1500s at Ozette.

These ancient examples helped bring back traditional Makah basketry. Modern Makah weavers studied the old pieces to learn techniques that had been lost over time.

Establishing the Makah Cultural and Research Center

By the mid-1970s, the growing collection needed a permanent home. Ed Claplanhoo fought to keep the artifacts on Makah land, and he rejected sending them to universities, insisting they should stay with the Makah people.

The Economic Development Administration gave $1.46 million toward building costs. More money came from arts programs, the Makah Tribal Council, and private groups.

Fred Bassetti and Company designed the 23,000-square-foot center, which opened in 1979. This created a permanent home for the collection within the Makah community.

Visiting Makah Cultural Center

The Makah Cultural and Research Center is located at 1880 Bayview Avenue in Neah Bay, Washington.

Spend time at the Ozette artifact gallery and don’t miss the full-scale longhouse replica as well as the whale fin with 700 sea otter teeth.

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