El Sobrante Library
El Sobrante LibraryVillage site and shellmoundElevation 95 ft.Another one of Joel’s discoveries.The library was constructed right on top of a major village site, but you’d never know it.Midden soil.
Feature: Midden Deposits
Glen Cove Park, aka Sogorea Te
Glen Cove Park, aka Sogorea Te3,500 year old village site, shell midden, and burial ground.20+ bedrock mortars visible at low tide on wave-cut benchs.Elevation 10 ft.Thanks to Joel for leading us here.Inhabitants of this village crossed the Carquinez Strait in tule balsas to greet the Fages expedition in 1772. Fages noted in his diary that […]
Goat Rock Beach midden
Goat Rock Beach middenElevation 23 ft.Joel, who we now call “midden man,” led us here on a tour of his recent North Bay discoveries. Shell and bone fragments litter this mound of dark sandy soil. This is not a natural deposit.When we visited this site in December of 2011 a sand bar blocked the mouth […]
Keller Ranch
Keller RanchTwo portable stone mortars incorporated into the ranch house foundation, which was constructed on an extensive midden deposit.Elevation 393 ft.A major Chupcan village occupied this area at the confluence of Donner, Mitchell, and Diablo Creeks.One of the portable mortars in the ranch house foundation.Obsidian debitage picked up from the ground surface around the ranch […]
Mare Island shell midden
Mare Island shell middenDeteriorating shell middenElevation 23 ft.Joel seems to have a nose for midden. Keep sniffing ’em out Joel!This is probably one of the two “shell heaps” on Mare Island marked on N. C. Nelson’s 1909 map. Note the contrast between dark midden and tan soil.Joel thinks the shell fragments and midden soil are […]
Albany Hill
Albany Hill4 bedrock mortars and rich midden on the northeast side of Albany Hill near Cerrito Creek.Elevation 24 ft.There was an Ohlone settlement here. In addition to the shell middens at this site (Nelson’s 1909 map shows four), there were two on Point Isabel, which was once just offshore of Albany Hill.One of Nelson’s four […]
Miwok Meadows #1
Miwok Meadows #1Shellmound midden at the mouth of Miwok Meadows in China Camp State ParkElevation 25 ft.There are three known shellmounds in this general vicinity. We’ve found two. The map accompanying N. C. Nelson’s Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region showed eleven shellmounds along this stretch of shoreline. Undoubtedly this was one of them.This […]
Alvarado Park
Alvarado Park2 bedrock mortars, 275+ cupules, 2 PCNs, and midden behind gazebo.This chlorite blueschist outcropping on Wildcat Creek has more cupules on it than any other we know of in the Bay Area. Was it just the blueschist found here and on Baxter Creek that attracted cuple-makers, or was something else at work?Jim and Heather […]
Miwok Meadows #2
Miwok Meadows #2Shellmound midden at the head of Miwok Meadows in China Camp State ParkElevation 43 ft.Looking over the mound with San Pablo Bay and the Napa Hills in the background. There was a Miwok village at this site. The map accompanying N. C. Nelson’s Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region showed eleven shellmounds […]
Buckeye Canyon Mound
Buckeye Canyon MoundShellmound in a beautiful canyon settingElevation 242 ft.Thanks to midden man for directing us here.The map accompanying N. C. Nelson’s Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay Region showed six shellmounds clustered along the south shore of the now-filled Brisbane lagoon. Undoubtedly this was one of them.Looking out over the mound. We estimate its […]