This sign is located along the Captain Cook Trail.
Marker Name: Shell Middens.....Trash or Treasure?
Marker Text: If you were here 1,500 years ago, you would have been standing in the dining area of an Alsea Indian summer camp. They came to harvest mussels and barnacles from the rocks, chitons and crabs from the tidepools, and clams from the beach.
The Alsea feasted on mussels and tossed the shells into a pile. A new layer was added each year to the massive trash mound, or midden, beneath your feet. For over a thousand summers, middens in this area grew, resulting in some as deep as a two-story house.
Reading the stories in middens...
Middens tell archaeologists a lot about the people who lived here -- the tools they used, who they traded with, how they hunted and fished, and most of all, what they ate. What do you think future archaeologist will learn about us from our trash dumps?
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