The Forest Service is kicking off a project to restore and enhance the Starrigavan Watershed from damage sustained during the 2014 landslides. Mike Mullin and Marty Becker joined KCAW’s Erin Fulton in the studio to discuss the project that kicks off today (2-5-2020). Listen here:

Archaeologist Jay Kinsman says some of the lighter-colored scarring was caused by the churning of the landslide. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

A devastating landslide near Sitka last year has produced an interesting discovery: evidence of early human occupation.

Against unbelievable odds, a pair of Forest Service hydrologists mapping the Starrigavan slide found a curiously-shaped rock amid the thousands of tons of rubble. They recognized it instantly as a prehistoric stone tool.

Downloadable audio.

Some finds in archeology are made through careful research and painstaking excavation. But some finds are just an unbelievable stroke of luck.

I’m Jay Kinsman, archeologist for the Forest Service in the Sitka and Hoonah Ranger Districts, and what I’m holding is a t-shaped handmaul. Basically, a prehistoric hammer.

The Starrigavan Valley made headlines last September, when heavy rains brought down over 100 acres of the mountainside in three distinct slides. Starrigavan is about 8 miles from downtown Sitka. A prime watershed, Starrigavan was home to monster stands of spruce and hemlock until it was logged in the early 1970s. The Forest Service has done extensive habitat and stream restoration work in the valley recently — much of which was wiped out by the slides.

Hydrologist Marty Becker was one of the first Forest Service personnel to assess the slide when the area was still considered unstable. He and fellow hydrologist KK Prussian had returned this February to do some geological mapping in safer conditions, when they found the hammer.

Forest Service hydrologist Marty Becker was drawn to the shape of the rock. Once he picked it up, though, he knew it was a tool. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

“KK was just taking some final notes, so I had a little time and I walked up on the base of the slide to take a better look at it. When we had first gone out there I was sinking up to my knees. It had set up by this point, and I was able to walk on it. I was looking at some rocks — picking up some cool ones to give to my kids — and I noticed this rock that was kinda funny-shaped.”

The handmaul is L-shaped, with each leg about three inches long. It used to be T-shaped, but at some time one arm of the T broke off. Nevertheless, paleolithic and later cultures were not quick to dispose of things that still had utility, even if they were broken. Becker realized immediately that this rock was custom-made.

“And I noticed it felt real comfortable in my hand. Like it just fit perfectly. I brushed it off, took a closer look, and realized what it was.”

This kind of T-shaped handmaul is not particularly rare in Northwest Coast archeology — but it is uncommon in the Sitka area. This is only the third of its kind found locally. One other was found by a trail crew at Salmon Lake, another was found near Hoonah.

Inset from Edward L. Keithahn’s paper shows a similar T-shaped hammer. (KCAW graphic)

Edward L. Keithahn, in a 1962 article for the journal “American Antiquity,” says this type of hammer was most often associated with sites that also had petroglyphs, or stone-carved artwork found along the coast. But since this particular tool came down in a landslide far from shore, Jay Kinsman has another theory about how it might have been used.

“My guess is that it would have been used for harvesting cedar. One of the many uses of cedar was as planks. And there was just a tremendous amount of cedar on that slope that came down.”

Kinsman says someone would have used the maul to drive wedges made from a softer material like wood, antler, or bone into yellow cedar trees to split off planks. And as for caching heavy tools on a mountainside, Kinsman says trail crews do the same thing to this day while a job is in progress.

What’s not clear at all — and may never be — is just how old the hammer is. Typically, archeologists date stone and other inorganic objects by dating the carbon-based materials in the sediments in which they’re found. The Starrigavan landslide gave up this object quite miraculously, but at the cost of separating it from its original surroundings. That means we may never really know who made it. There are known archeological sites in the area, ranging in age from 300 to 1200 years old. Iron tools were introduced in Southeast to the Tlingit and Haida in the mid 18th century, but a serviceable stone tool might have been used indefinitely. It could be much, much older. All we know is that at some time in the remote past, a human painstakingly made this object and set it down on a mountainside. Much later, another human — a Forest Service hydrologist — was standing on a mountain of rubble, and was compelled to pick it up.

The main area of the slide encompasses an area of roughly 100 acres. (USFS photo)

Jay Kinsman says this is at the heart of what he does.

“As archeologists that’s one thing that we learn. We train our eye to pick out those things that aren’t quite natural, or are different from the natural environment.”

The T-shaped handmaul is protected by a number of federal laws, starting with the US Antiquities Act. Kinsman says it will become a part of the collection of the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, but could likely end up on permanent loan to an entity in Sitka for display.

Sitka School Board members Jen Robinson, Tim Fulton, Lon Garrison, Cass Pook, superintendent Mary Wegner, and Tonia Rioux take a dunking for ALS. In turn, the board challenged the Kodiak school board, former Sitka superintendent Steve Bradshaw, and the Sitka Native Education Program. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

2014 in Sitka will be remembered for water: Water piling up behind a brand new dam, the most expensive project in Sitka’s history; water falling from the sky that brought down a mountainside, made a major highway construction project nearly impassable, and tested the limits of a high-tech temporary filtration system. And if that wasn’t enough, there was something about ice buckets.

Here’s a look back at our wet, weird year.

Downloadable audio.

The Blue Lake Dam, as it looked in September, 2014. Work finished ahead of schedule, and, thanks to heavy rains, the plant began providing Sitka with power almost immediately.

Although there were several public tours during construction, most Sitkans probably don’t appreciate the size of the Blue Lake hydro expansion — and won’t, until they drive up there next spring and see it for themselves.

Contractors erected the largest construction crane in the state to span the gorge, and raised the existing Blue Lake dam 83 feet — literally building a huge, new dam on top of the old.

Representatives from McMillen LLC, Barnard Construction, and the city cut the ribbon, including (l to r) Andrew Pharis, Dean Orbison, Mim McConnell, Mark Gorman, and Jessica Stockel (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo).

Project engineer Dean Orbison came out of retirement to oversee the two-year endeavor. At the November ribbon cutting, his over-the-top enthusiasm was infectious as ever.

Now that this plant is expanded and it’s bigger, and it’s higher, we can make more electricity from the Blue Lake plant than we can from Green Lake.

For consumers, the project had little direct impact on our lives — except maybe on our taste buds and our scalps. Budgeted into the $157-million for Blue Lake was a temporary filtration plant on the Indian River, to supply Sitka with water during the final stage of construction. While a technological marvel, the plant produced water with a bit more chlorine than the town was used to, and there were plenty of complaints about taste and dry skin. The large numbers of spawning and dying pink salmon in the river didn’t contribute to the water’s appeal. But once the new penstock was installed, the $4-million plant rolled away almost overnight, and Sitka was again awash in some of the best water anywhere.

But awash isn’t always a good thing. Heavy rains in August delayed construction of Halibut Point Road into September. The exposed roadbed wasn’t up to the deluge, and traffic was brought to a near-standstill by the ruts.

The main area of the slide encompasses an area of roughly 100 acres. (USFS photo)

Yet, things could have been worse.

And it wasn’t until we actually climbed through the initial front of the slide that we saw the magnitude of it.

That’s Forest Service hydrologist Marty Becker talking about a 100-acre slide in the Starrigavan Valley. If this slide had occurred anywhere involving human habitation, it might have ranked as an epic disaster. Yet, like the Blue Lake Dam, most people have not seen it.

Over history, we have had our share of human disaster. In March, Sitkans — along with the rest of the state — reflected on the 50th anniversary of the Good Friday Earthquake, the largest earthquake in North America, and the second-largest in recorded history.

Dennis Girardot (left) with his brother John Reitz (right) at the Knik River Bridge in Palmer. Girardot was five year old when he and his family survived the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964. (Photo courtesy of Dennis Girardot).

KCAW produced a four-part series sharing some of these stories of Sitkans who experienced the quake — each tale more amazing than the last. This is Dennis Girardot.

My mother was in the kitchen preparing a pot of chili and this beautiful cake, birthday cake for my brother in a shape of a guitar. He was a Beatles wanna be at that time. I remember hearing her scream and the chili just went all over the kitchen. All over the cake. A door fell open to the closet and my brother’s presents birthday presents flew out of the closet so he got to see what he was going to get.

2014 was also the 40th anniversary of Porky Bickar’s legendary April Fools prank, the Eruption of Mt. Edgecumbe. Like the Great Quake, Porky’s story will be passed on indefinitely.

2014 was a year of big transitions in Sitka. Both school systems got new superintendents: J. Thayne at Mt. Edgecumbe, and Mary Wegner at Sitka High. Wegner was the first to make headlines, from a highly-placed shout-out this fall.

President Obama addresses educators at the ConnectED conference in Washington, DC.

President Obama – And then you’ve got Mary Wegner, the superintendent of the Sitka, Alaska, School District. Where’s Mary? She came a long way. There she is. Give her a hand for coming from Alaska….

When she was not receiving presidential accolades for adopting new technology, Wegner and the school district were dealing with a simmering gender-equity dispute over the use of Sitka’s new ballfield. Although an initial Title IX complaint was settled amicably, the federal Office of Civil Rights may have more work to do in Sitka next year.

In the Forest Service, Perry Edwards took over as District Ranger, the first biologist to hold that post in recent memory. Lawrence Spottedbird became the new General Manager of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. Don Kluting passed on his carabiners to trooper Lance Ewers as head of Sitka’s fabled Mountain Rescue team.

David Mahaffey, the new Bishop of Sitka and Alaska at his installation ceremony in Sitka. (KCAW photo/Emily Forman)

And in October, Jeff Comer took the job as CEO of Sitka Community Hospital, and quickly recognized that he had inherited an organization in critical condition. Comer appealed to the assembly for $1-million in life support at its last meeting. The future of Sitka’s local hospital, however, may be a bigger story in 2015.

On a more spiritual note, the Orthodox Diocese of Alaska got a new bishop. Fr. David Mahaffey was invested in a ceremony last February at St. Michael’s Cathedral.

“A bishop is to be a papa. And that’s what he brings to us. Someone who loves us.”

Lt. Lance Leone, right, hugs Darryl Penn, a La Push resident who helped rescue him from a helicopter crash. Leone visited La Push at the fourth anniversary of the July 7, 2010 crash. (Photo: Ed Ronco/KPLU)

Some transitions in Sitka this past year fall squarely into either triumph or loss. Coast Guard helicopter pilot Lance Leone survived a 2010 crash that killed his commander and two crewmates; this summer he revisited the scene outside La Push, Washington, to thank his rescuers, and then quietly prepared to leave the service after being permanently denied promotion.

Listen to an investigative report about the crash of Air Station Sitka helicopter 6017 and how it — and other high-profile accidents — have affected accountability in the Coast Guard.

David Wilcox (l.), Brett Wilcox, Olivia Wilcox, and Kris Wilcox are greeted on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ, as they wrap up their 6-month, 3,000 mile run. (RunningTheCountry.com photo)

Meanwhile, the father-son team of Brett and David Wilcox were attempting to run across the country to raise awareness about genetically-modified food labeling. They made it, averaging around 20 miles a day for six months supported by mom Kris and sister Olivia. The entire Wilcox family team arrived in Ocean City, New Jersey, on July 19.

Heidi Horner Raffaele fills out the application. She and Karla traded traditional Irish wedding rings — called Claddagh rings — depicting a crowned heart cupped in a pair of hands. (KCAW photo/Emily Kwong)

In October, a federal judge struck down Alaska’s same-sex marriage ban. Teachers Heidi Raffaele and Karla Horner went to the Sitka courthouse the next morning to tie the knot, but learned that their legal marriage in California in 2008 was now recognized. Raffaele says their long partnership got off to a slow start.

Yeah. She did not notice me in the least. But it’s been kismet ever since. 19 years.

There was more joy in Sitka when the Wolves took the state high school baseball championship, during a home-field deluge in June. Later in the fall, the Mt. Edgecumbe Lady Braves took the state 3A volleyball title, in a warm, dry gym.

Kettleson’s collection of Alaskana, and the C.L. Andrews collection, are right at home in Stratton. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

And speaking of warm and dry, Sitka’s Kettleson Library up and moved in August, into temporary quarters in the former Stratton Library. Stratton had been buttoned up since the closure of the Sheldon Jackson College in 2007. The Kettleson move returned more than just heat and electricity to the now state-owned building, according to librarian Brooke Schafer.

That’s kind of the soul of the library, of this place. It’s not that there are books here, but there are people who have come here to spend time thinking and reading and being together quietly in this space.

There were tough times, too. In May, Sitka endured the week-long trial of Joe Robidou. The former middle school principal was acquitted of sexual assault, but his defense painted an unflattering portrait of the social and professional culture of Blatchley that Sitkans may find difficult to forget, much less to forgive.

The Sitka Assembly prepares to be doused in the Ice Bucket Challenge (KCAW photo/Rachel Waldholz)

And can you ever forgive someone who pours a bucket of ice over your head? Many Sitkans explored that question, as ALS insanity swept through the community, including the assembly, who then challenged the school board.

Lon Garrison – One, two, three! (Lots of screaming.)

As weird as it was, the viral phenomenon raised over $90-million for research into Lou Gehrig’s Disease — the most successful fundraiser in the history of the ALS Foundation, and possibly in the history of all non-profits ever.

Uncommonly good journalism: The Daily Sitka Sentinel is independently owned and published by Sandy and Thad Poulson. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

And finally, the story behind Sitka’s stories: The Daily Sitka Sentinel turned 75 years old in 2014. The fact that you pick it up every day is a testament to its solid, intelligent writing; its profound editorials; and its often-breathtaking photos. We’re all aware that much of what passes for media now is an attempt just to get our attention, however briefly. That this little newspaper after 75 years surges ahead on principles of thorough, ethical journalism really is big news.

The main area of the slide encompasses an area of roughly 100 acres. (USFS photo)

High rainfall this month is being blamed for a major landslide near Sitka. The US Forest Service reports that a 100-acre slide came down in the Starrigavan Valley, about ten miles from town. Although there was no structural damage in the event, hundreds of thousands of dollars of watershed restoration projects in the valley have been wiped out. The slide, and water damage to an ATV trail in the valley and other hiking trails elsewhere in Sitka — all add up to a tough month for the agency.

Downloadable audio.

The scale of the Starrigavan slide has unfolded slowly. A Fish & Game biologist was in the area — apparently the morning after the slide — on Friday, September 19, and noticed that Starrigavan Creek had been diverted onto the old logging road that is now being used as an all-terrain vehicle trail.

Marty Becker is the watershed program coordinator for the Sitka Ranger District. He and other staff went to check on the problem Monday morning.

“It wasn’t until we actually climbed through the front of the slide that we saw the magnitude of it.”

Read the USFS Preliminary report on the Starrigavan Landslide here.

A bridge, three fish ponds, and two new culverts were buried by debris. (USFS photo)

There was not one slide, but three. Two smaller slides across the both the north and south forks of Starrigavan Creek…

“And then one main slide that came down off the north-facing slope. Came down and ran about a third of a mile down the main channel, and ended up at the log stringer bridge, which hung up the main slide.”

Becker estimates the area of main slide to be in the neighborhood of 100 acres, starting in the old growth timber high on the valley slope and running down through the second growth to the valley floor.

Becker says the Sitka district hasn’t seen a cluster of slides like this since the mid-1990s, in Nakwasina Sound and the Katlian area, which he says are more dynamic systems. The Starrigavan slide, Becker says, is “pretty extraordinary.”

On the Herring Cove Trail

“Boy those freaky events keep us on our toes…”

The log stringer bridge in the Starrigavan Valley is a lost cause. At the other end of town, USFS recreation manager Mike Mullin is on the Herring Cove Trail, next to a footbridge that his crew is working hard to save.

“These guys will get a gap opened up under it and get a lot of that material flushed through, and we might end up jacking the bridge by a couple of feet. I’m hoping once we uncover the rocks and debris that there’s not some big chunks out of it. So I’m hoping it can be saved.”

Hikers on the Herring Cove Trail footbridge. Flood waters pushed rocks under most of the span, turning it into a dam. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

This is the second time this year that the trail has sustained major water damage. All the repairs from last January’s flooding have been washed out, two minor slides have cut the trail, and this footbridge over the stream — while it hasn’t moved — is more or less sitting on dry land. Heavy rains over two consecutive weekends in September pushed rocks under the bridge and turned it into a dam.

It doesn’t look like it will survive another high rainfall event. Mullin says the Forest Service is basically between a rock and a hard place.

“The couple of events we’ve had this summer have been a little out of the ordinary for sure, but yeah, we’re not even in the rainy season, and we lose our seasonal crew in a couple of weeks. And obviously Forest Service budgets for maintaining trails are on the decline. So we’ve got a lot of things working against us.”

Mullin says the agency will likely have to consider realigning the trail away from the alluvial fan at the base of Bear Mountain Falls, into a less dynamic area.

Both the Herring Cove trail and the Starrigavan Valley were probably affected by what Marty Becker calls a “micro-burst.” Meteorological data for Sitka doesn’t indicate rainfall amounts too extraordinary for this time of year, but the rain came hard and fast. What was officially recorded as three-and-a-half inches of rain at the Sitka airport on the day the Herring Cove Trail was damaged, Becker says filled rain gauges in some parts of town to nearly seven inches.

In the Starrigavan Valley, the mitigation strategy is uncertain. Three of the Forest Service’s coho-rearing ponds were lost in the slide; a fourth was almost completely filled with sediment. Two fish culverts have been blown out, and a half-mile of stream, several forest test plots, and 300 meters of the ATV trail are just gone.
The Forest Service has invested several hundred thousand dollars in restoration work in this valley. Becker is not sure to what extent the agency will attempt to undo some of the damage.

“Yeah, that’s the big question. We’re going to be sitting down the next couple of days assessing what we know right now. Getting some aerial reconnaissance to see if there are more slides that we haven’t seen, and then getting out there in the next week or so after we let things stabilize — it’s pretty dangerous, things still shifting around — to get a full inventory of what’s been damaged, where the main problem areas are, and then to see what we can actually do.”

The last slide of this magnitude around Sitka happened at Redoubt Lake in May of 2013, and two people staying at the Forest Service cabin there managed to escape moments before the mountainside came down. Becker says both slides are comparable in size, but he says the resource damage here is greater, because the Redoubt slide was stopped by the lake, and in Starrigavan it just “ran right down the valley.”