The project APE encompasses portions of two Donation Land Claims (DLCs) associated with founding families of Hillsboro. Reverend John S. and Desire S. Griffin established a 645.33-acre DLC (No. 56) in 1859 (Bureau of Land Management [BLM] 1859; General Land Office [GLO] 1862). Undeterred by an unsuccessful application to the American Board Commission for Foreign Missions, Reverend Griffin began an independent missionary program loosely associated with the Congregational Church in 1839 (Bourke and DeBats 1995).
Isiah and Winey Kelsey secured DLC No. 41 in 1865 for 605.09 acres (BLM 1865; GLO 1862, 1882). Kelsey, born in Barren County, Kentucky, ventured from Missouri to the Pacific Northwest with the Williams family, who established a settlement adjacent to the Kelsey homestead (Bourke and DeBats 1995; GLO 1862, 1882).
ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING AND LAND-USE HISTORY The project APE is located in the city of Hillsboro, in Washington County, within Sections 30 and 31 of Township 1 North, Range 2 West, Willamette Meridian (Figure 1). The project APE is a residential neighborhood and includes portions of two parks, the U. J. Hamby Park and the Harold Eastman Memorial Rose Garden, as well as the Jackson Elementary School. The project APE lies within the Willamette Valley physiographic province, an area characterized by broad alluvial flats separated by groups of low hills (Franklin and Dyrness 1973). It is bordered by the Oregon Coast Range to the west and the Cascade Range to the east (Alt and Hyndman 1995). The project APE is situated in the northern portion of the Willamette River basin within the Tualatin River Valley, which extends eastwards from its source on the slopes of the Coast Range to the Willamette River at West Linn, Oregon (Hulse et al. 1998). Within the broader Tualatin River Valley, the project APE is situated in the Dairy-McKay watershed (Hawksworth 1999). McKay Creek tributary drainages cross the project APE in three locations. The southern drainage meanders through U. J. Hamby Park before crossing under NE Jackson School Road. The northern tributary near NE Hood Street is surrounded by low terraces altered through landscaping. McKay Creek south of NW Evergreen Road flows through a reinforced concrete culvert. Vegetation within the project area has changed over time as the result of agricultural and residential developments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Aikens 1993; Hulse et al. 1998). Prior to Euroamerican settlement of the area, prairie and oak woodlands dominated the Tualatin Valley landscape. This open prairie landscape typifying the Tualatin and Willamette Valleys was partly the result of centuries of annual grassland burning by Native peoples of the area to facilitate the growth of important food plants and to attract wild game (Bowen 1978; Boyd 1986; Franklin and Dyrness 1973). Gallery forests containing brushy thickets, marshes, and ash openings grew along the floodplains of major rivers and their NE Jackson School Road Improvement Project September 10, 2014 Hillsboro, Washington County, Oregon AINW Report No. 3322 -3- tributaries. General Land Office (GLO) maps depict that much of the current project area was converted into agricultural fields by the end of the nineteenth century (GLO 1862, 1882).
Currently, the much of the area is landscaped. Maple trees and mowed grasses line NE Jackson School Road throughout the project APE. Natural vegetation is limited to oak and alder trees along NE Jackson School Road and the tributary creeks. Soils of the northern Willamette Valley are thick sedimentary deposits that date to the Pleistocene. During this epoch, repeated flooding events associated with failures of ice dams on glacial Lake Missoula flooded the Willamette Valley, leaving extensive silty deposits throughout the region (Allen et al. 2009; Franklin and Dyrness 1973). Soils on the valley floor developed from silty alluvial and lustrine deposits under grassland vegetation. These soils in conjunction with low slopes often results in areas of poor drainage (Hawksworth 1999). Four soils, all silt loams, are mapped for the majority of the project APE: Aloha silt loam, Amity silt loam, Dayton silt loam, and Woodburn silt loam (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service [USDA-NRCS] 2006a, 2007, 2009a, 2009b). With the exception of the moderately well-drained Woodburn silt loam, these soils are poorly drained. Two silty clay loams are mapped along the McKay Creek tributaries; these are the Cove and Verboort soil series (USDA-NRCS 2001, 2006b). Both soils form on low terraces and are very poorly drained. CULTURAL SETTING Native Peoples – Prehistoric Period Although archaeological evidence of earliest inhabitants of the Willamette Valley is sparse, the presence of Clovis fluted projectile points identified in the region suggests that prehistoric populations settled the Willamette Valley around 12,000 years ago (Ozbun and Fagan 1996). During the Early Archaic period, which dates from 11,000 to 6,000 years ago, prehistoric peoples participated in a broad-spectrum, hunter-gatherer subsistence strategy (Aikens et al. 2011). Sites dating to this period are small, reflecting temporary camps, and are typified by leaf-shaped projectile points referred to as Cascade points (Aikens 1993; Aikens et al. 2011; Minor et al. 1982). By the Middle Archaic period, beginning approximately 6,000 years ago, subsistence patterns began to align with those of the Kalapuya people during the contact period, with an increased emphasis on vegetal foods, including camas and acorns, and ground stone technology to process these foods (Aikens 1993; Aikens et al. 2011; Minor et al. 1982). Active landscape management through controlled fires intensified during this period and increased available foods by favoring the growth of camas, huckleberries, and fire-resistant acorn-bearing oaks rather than woody perennials. Sedentism increased during the Late Archaic period (approximately 2,000 to 200 years ago) with the development of seasonally occupied villages and temporary base camps. Accumulated debris reflecting domestic activities such as hideworking, lithic tool production, and food processing reflects the continuous residential use of settlements (Aikens et al. 2011).
