Science Pub

Description

On November 22nd, the Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council welcomes Patrick O’Grady, PhD., Staff Archaeologist at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, to Cottage Grove for our November 2016 Science Pub presentation entitled The 2016 Excavations at Rimrock Draw Rockshelter, Harney County, Oregon. The 2016 field season at Rimrock Draw Rockshelter was highlighted by remarkable new insights into the geologic foundations of the site and the activities of its ancient occupants, including the discovery of a 15,000 year old knife carved out of clear orange agate that could be evidence of one of the oldest human settlements in North America. The presentation will include a summary of the preliminary findings from the 2016 field season, and exciting new directions for the next five years of research at this extraordinary site. 

Patrick O’Grady is has served as a Staff Archaeologist for the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History since 2006. He teaches classes for the museum, too. Since 1994, O’Grady has served on fourteen University of Oregon field schools, first as a student, then as assistant, supervisor, and instructor. Clovis sites in southeastern Oregon, including Sheep Mountain and Sage Hen Gap, are where his field school operations are currently focused. His primary research interests include hunter-gatherer subsistence practices, late Pleistocene – early Holocene cultural transitions in the Great Basin of western North America, zooarchaeology, mobility patterns, and remote sensing applications, particularly ground penetrating radar. His Master’s research “Human Occupation Patterns in the Uplands: An Analysis of Sourced Obsidian Projectile Points from Playa Villages in the Fort Rock Uplands, Lake County, Oregon” was an exploration of highland village settlement and mobility patterns in the uplands between the Fort Rock and Summer Lake basins in south-central Oregon. His Ph.D. research “Before Winter Comes: Archaeological Investigations of Settlement and Subsistence in Harney Valley, Harney County, Oregon” is an examination of mid to late Holocene multi-elevation land use patterns encompassing wetland to upland settings. O’Grady has worked as an archaeologist for the Oregon Department of Transportation from 2002–2005, and has also worked for the Burns District Bureau of Land Management. 

The Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council hosts a free monthly public meeting series called the Coast Fork Science Pub on the fourth Tuesday of each month, with the exception of December 2016, from 5-7pm at the Axe & Fiddle, 657 E. Main Street in Cottage Grove. The event begins with informal socializing, trivia, prizes and updates about the watershed and watershed council during the first hour. Then our formal science pub presentation begins at 6pm. Participants are encouraged to support the Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council by ordering food & drinks from 5-7:30pm, as 10% of the sales from evening sales will benefit the Watershed Council. The event is free to the public and all ages are welcome. For further information, visit Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council on Facebook and www.coastfork.org.