DISCOVERY BAY – More remains have been discovered at Beckett Point, said the manager of the public utility district developing a septic system there, but the extent of an archaeological team’s findings so far is unknown.
“There’s more than one body down there, for sure, I’ll just say that,” said Jim Parker, Jefferson County Public Utility District manager on Friday.
Allyson Brooks, state Historic Preservation officer and managing director of the state’s Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, did not confirm the find.
In a Friday e-mail to the Peninsula Daily News, she said, “We have no information at this time” about additional discoveries at the Discovery Bay site.
Attempts Friday to contact Ron Allen, Jamestown S’Klallam tribal chairman, were unsuccessful.
Found in late May were 58 bone and bone fragments, which were turned into the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Assistant State Archaeologist Stephenie Kramer, with the state archaeology and historic preservation department, has stated that initial findings showed the remains to be those of a Native American, 100 years or older.
The agency informed Parker and the PUD that disturbing Native American graves without a permit from the state archaeology and historic preservation department is a Class C felony.
The discovery stopped work on the $2.8 million Beckett Point community septic and drainfield system.
The system is intended to replace septic systems for some 100 homes, 80 of which are failing and threatening to pollute shellfish-rich Discovery Bay.
Parker said he believes that a team of workers will complete archeological work at the site near the Beckett Point boat ramp on Tuesday.
PUD- and state-contracted archaeological consultant Gary Wessen, of Seattle, and tribal members including those with the Jamestown and Port Gamble S’Klallam, have been sifting through backfill piles.
The piles are directly across from Beckett Point Road where workers with the PUD contractor, Pape and Sons, were digging a trench when remains were uncovered.
Kathy Duncan, Jamestown S’Klallam’s cultural resource manager, recently told Jefferson County officials that the Beckett Point site is believed to be a former Native American village.
The site is not on existing maps that show the sites of more than 30 former tribal villages from Neah Bay to Port Angeles, Sequim-Dungeness Valley and Port Gamble, and north to the shores of Vancouver Island, Canada.
