Did you stay in contact with Dr. Cressman?
Yes, I did. In the 1930’s, I think it was about 1936, I was in the blown off part of the Lower Klamath Lake. It was a virtual desert, the whole thing, at that time. I found some artifacts in association with fossil bones. So I kept them, and I kept them separate, and I gave the university some of the bones and most of the artifacts that were associated with them. I thought what has happened here is that the wind erosion has blown off so much that these artifacts have worked themselves down to where they’re in association with the fossils. The bones proved to camel bones. No one had any idea that there were people and camels here at the same time, so I didn’t even pretend that they were in association. I think I wrote about it a little bit in that first book that they were together, and I think I said that they probably were not. Before I did the next book, I called Cressman on the telephone. His book published by the University of Utah had come out on ancient man (3). I thought, I’m going to check this out with him. I said, “Do you think that there is any possibility that there were people here at the same time that camel was?” And he said, “In my mind, there is no question that those Indian ate that camel.” So there you see…
Yes, I haven’t seen much on the megafauna in association with early man.
[Do] you see those [artifacts] on the left side of that board up there?
Yes.
Well, those are ones that were out there where that fossil camel was. The one that I removed I sent to Sonoma State University. They made an obsidian hydration test on it and they said it was 10,000 years old. Of course, that would put it with the camel. This was added proof that there were people here when the camels were around.
Who have been your most memorable oral history interviewees?
My most memorable history interviewees were Ida Odell, Charlie Ogle, and Dr. Cressman.
