EUGENE–Oregon may seem like one of the world’s quieter spots, but the state’s geological history is violent and dramatic, and some of the continent’s most ancient peoples arrived here at least 11,000 years ago. Oregon, after all, boasts the remains of North America’s oldest house–buried on the shores of Paulina Lake and covered with volcanic ash from the volcanic eruption that created Crater Lake thousands of years ago.

On Saturday, Nov. 13, several noted University of Oregon archaeologists and historians who have described these wonders of Oregon’s past will gather from noon—3 p.m. at the Museum of Natural History, 1680 E. 15th Ave., to sign books, answer questions and meet their readers.

The booksigning is just one of many local open house events sponsored that weekend by MUSE, a coalition of Eugene and Springfield museums.

Archaeologist Tom Connolly, the museum’s research director, will sign copies of his new book on the discovery of this continent’s oldest house, "Newberry Crater: A 10,000 Year Record of Human Occupation and Environmental Change." He will be joined by Dennis Jenkins, field supervisor for the oldest-house excavation and editor of a book on ancient life in Oregon’s high desert country.

Other authors part include UO President emeritus Robert Clark, museum director Mel Aikens, museum director emeritus Don Dumond and anthropologists Jon Erlandson and Madonna Moss, all of whom have written extensively on Pacific Northwest archaeology and history.

Connolly’s book discusses the archaeological project on ancient life in Oregon’s high desert begun when the state began widening of the Paulina-East Lake Highway in the caldera of Newberry Volcano near Bend. It is one of many "rescue archaeology" projects undertaken by UO Museum of Natural History researchers and the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The project was notable, Connolly says, because it "gave us a very long cultural record that spans more than 10,000 years."

Archaeologists on the Newberry Crater project examined a broad area, collected a large assemblage of tools, and then analyzed their finds in detail using technology and methods that weren’t available 15 years ago.

"All of these factors make this the best documented record in the Pacific Northwest covering the early Holocene, the era around 10,000 to 7,000 years ago," Connolly says.

The other authors and scholars signing books on Nov. 13 complement Connolly’s book with related studies of human occupation and environmental change in the Pacific Northwest.

Clark will sign his biography, "The Odyssey of Thomas Condon." One of the original UO faculty members, Condon was both a pioneering geologist and a devout Christian missionary who was in the center of the 19th-century controversy between science and religion that continues today.

Aikens, archaeologist of the Great Basin and Japan and director of the natural history museum, will sign his definitive book, "Archaeology of Oregon." The result of 25 years of concentrated study in the region, Aikens’ book was published as part of the Bureau of Land Management’s public outreach program, "Adventures in the Past."

Jenkins will sign the book, "Archaeological Researches in the Northern Great Basin: Fort Rock Archaeology Since Cressman," that he edited with Aikens. It describes the work at Fort Rock Cave in Lake County since a team led by the late UO archaeologist Luther Cressman discovered a cache of ancient sagebrush sandals there in the late 1930s.

Dumond, museum director emeritus and scholar of Alaskan prehistory and of the cultures of the Yucatan, will sign two books: "The Machete and The Cross," about the Indian rebellion, guerra de las castas, in 19th-century Mexico; and "The Eskimos and Aleuts," the story of the origins of those arctic people and their survival in one of the most inhospitable regions of the world.

UO anthropologists Erlandson and Moss, spouses who have been partners in archaeological projects on the Pacific Coast, will sign their books and journal articles including "Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast" and "Maritime Cultures of Southern Alaska."

Other books by past UO and museum luminaries that will also be available Nov. 13 include:

–"A Golden Journey," the memoirs of renowned archaeologist and museum founder Luther Cressman.

–"Chiefs and Chief Traders" and "Chiefs and Change," the two-volume series by Theodore Stern, professor emeritus and former museum curator, on the Walla-Walla, Umatilla, Cayuse and Nez Perce people and their relationship with white traders and settlers.

The Naturals, junior volunteers at the museum, also will staff a table of books for children and young people.

"It’s great to get all of these people in one room," says UO doctoral student Stephenie Kramer who organized the booksigning. "Lots of people who are interested in the natural and cultural history of Oregon have these books. You can get your whole collection signed at once!"

Museum of Natural History exhibits and the museum store are now open six days a week, from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Group guided tours are available Tuesday through Friday with advance reservations.

For more information about the booksigning event and current museum exhibits, browse http://natural-history.uoregon.edu or call the Museum of Natural History, (541) 346-3024.

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