Key Number:	HS 17505
Site Name:	Eaglenest Portage Archaeological Site
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Site Type:	1910 - Archaeological Site

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			101	14	4

Address:	Birch Mountains Northeast Alberta
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Architectural

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Environment:	The site is located in the Birch Mountains in northeast Alberta. It is situated where the drainage from Eaglenest and Clear Lakes emerge and flow toward Sandy Lake. The site is a buried campsite. The campsite is some 2000 years old. The remains of one or more historic cabins occur on the site.
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Historical

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History:	Historical Significance: The Eaglenest Portage Site is significant because of the extremely rich record of prehistoric material culture for northern Alberta it is capable of providing. Very few sites have as many artifacts, particularly formed tools. From a scientific and public perspective, the Eaglenest Portage Site is critical to formulating a regional prehistory for northeastern Alberta. Since temporally diagnostic artifacts are common, it will contribute to the formulation of a chronological frame work which is now lacking for the area. Perhaps more importantly, this site has a bearing on our understanding of oil sands prehistory. Sites in the Athabasca River Valley are under great development pressure. At the same time, the archaeological record for this area provides very little temporal information. As temporal information from artifact distributions at Eaglenest Portage is extracted, it may be applied elsewhere, including the oil sands. Finally, several lines of evidence indicate that the occupants of the Eaglenest Portage Site were at other times of the year inhabitants of the oil sands area. A complete picture of seasonal economic activities in northeastern Alberta would require this information. * * * Site Description: The site located in the Brich Mountains in northeast Alberta. It is situated where the drainage from Eaglenest and Clear Lakes emerge and flow toward Sandy Lake. The site is a buried campsite is some 2000 years old. The remains of one or more historic cabins on the site. * * * Eaglenest Portage Site The Eaglenest Portage Site (HkPa-4) was first discovered in 1975 during a survey conducted by Donahue (1976). It is located in the central Birch Mountain depression, between Eaglenest and Clear Lakes. The site is situated on a terrace seven mentres above a small stream flowing from Eaglenest Lake. Artifacts are known to be scattered over most of this terrain feature, such that the site covers 20-25,000 square metres. Testing in 1975 revealed that the Eaglenest Portage Site was one of the most, if not the most, productive of prehistoric sites discovered in the Birch Mountain upland. All classes of lithic artifacts were common, including projectile points. In 1976, Ives (1977) began a more detailed investigation of the site. Extensive block and transect excavations were completed, and an assemblade of 6,700 artifacts was recovered. Debitage dominated the collection, although formed tools such as side and end scrapers, larger unifaces, chi-thos, large bifaces, projectile points, cores, split pebbles and hammerstones, were common. Some faunal remains, likely runt, were also recovered. Historic artifacts associated with turn-of-the-century trappers' cabins were present. Only a single radiocarbon age determination was possible for the site, and this indicated late prehistoric occupation (A.D. 900-1000). Nevertheless, projectile points were common such that a number of external comparisons were possible. The best comparisons seem to lie to the north with the Lake Athabasca, central District of Mackenzie, and Fisherman Lake areas. A number of projectile points were reminiscent of Middle and Late Taltheilei tradition specimens. The Eaglenest Portage Site provided evidence of external contacts, likely through trade, over relatively great distances. A flake of obsidian, probably from northern British Columbia, was recovered, along with a flake of weld tuff known to come from Keele River in the Northwest Territories (Ives 1977). For Ives' study, the site provided an unparalleled opportunity to investigate the spatial distributions of lithic artifacts left behind from prehistoric activities. Further work at the site took place in 1980 when Ives (1981) completed excavation on an unusual concentration of larger lithic artifacts, likely a cache, first discovered in 1976. It is quite likely that the Eaglenest Portage Site functioned as a summer residence at which small groups gathered from surrounding regions, including the Athabasca River valley. This is evidenced by relatively common use of Beaver River substance for tools; this material is only found in the Athabasca valley. Occupation might begin in the spring, with fish runs in the nearby stream, and continue later in the summer with extensive big game hunting. Since the Eaglenest Portage Site is situated at a relatively strategic location in the central Birch Mountain depression, it is also not unreasonable to speculate that it may have functioned as a point of interest for migrating woodland bison or caribou. A portion of the high density of lithic speciments might, therefore, be related to extensive meat processing activities as well. The Eaglenest Portage Site is critically important in four ways. First, it provides abundant evidence of prehistoric material culture in northern Alberta's boreal forest. Sites with such large assemblages of artifacts are rare. Second, for scientific and interpretive purposes, the prehistoric activities represented at the Eaglenest Portage Site were no doubt carried out by prehistoric people who, at other times of the year, occupied the Athabasca River valley. Because of the pressures of oil sands development and the difficult nature of the oil sands archaeological record, the Eaglenest Portage Site becomes extremely important in explaining regional prehistory for the oil sands area. The third and fourth points are specific cases of the second. Numerous artifacts are widely distributed over the site. Because these tend to cluster about activity locations, and because diagnostic artifacts or dated features are occasionally associated with these clusters, some temporal information can be extracted from an artifact assemblage which comes from an unstratified site. Since many boreal forest sites are unstratified, this information may be successfully re-applied elsewhere, including the oil sands. Finally, the settlement information provided by Eaglenest Portage is essential in fleshing out the complete seasonal round of activities in northeastern Alberta, not all of which took place in the oil sands area. Different forms of development are now beginning to encroach upon the Birch Mountains. These include seismic and other cut lines, winter roads, seasonal construction camps and the Forestry base camps. Designation is recommended to prevent inadvertent destruction caused by these developments.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Provincial Historic Resource	1985/02/25

Register:

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places:	4665-0134