Borax Lake Site - Misplaced Pages

Archaeological site in California, US This article is about the archaeological site in Lake County, California. For other uses, see Borax Lake (disambiguation).

United States historic place

Significant dates

Borax Lake Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark

Borax Lake
Nearest city	Clearlake, California
NRHP reference No.	91001424
Added to NRHP	October 3, 1991
Designated NHL	September 20, 2006

The Borax Lake Site, also known as the Borax Lake—Hodges Archaeological Site and designated by the Smithsonian trinomial CA-LAK-36, is a prehistoric archaeological site near Clearlake, California. The site, a deeply stratified former lakeshore, contains evidence of the earliest known period of human habitation in what is now California, dating back 12,000 years. A portion of the site, designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, is owned and preserved by the Archaeological Conservancy.

Description

The Borax Lake site is located near the community of Clearlake, in the North Coast Ranges of northern California near Mount Konocti. The site is deflated surface site and quarry, with cultural deposits reaching a depth of more than 10 feet (3.0 m). The stratigraphy of the site suggests repeated occupation of the area across a long time period, from about 12,000 to present day. Important finds include Clovis-style projectile points fashioned out of obsidian, which was probably obtained from Borax Lake.

The site was discovered in the 1930s by Chester Post, an amateur collector. He brought the site to the attention of Mark Harrington of the Southwest Museum, who performed the first formal archaeological investigation. Questions were raised then about the early dates he estimated for the site, which were previously unknown in the region. In the 1960s a technical analysis of his finds yielded confirmation of dates to 12,000 years ago. Subsequent investigations have uncovered more details of the site stratigraphy, which is described as that of a lakeshore that is gradually receding. It was one of the first human habitation sites in northern California to be found with this type of setting.

A portion of Borax Lake, including the site, was acquired by the Archaeological Conservancy in 1989; it was that organization's first California site. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

References

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
"Borax Lake Site". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved November 17, 2007.
"REVIEW OF THE BORAX LAKE SITE (CA-LAK-36)". CaliforniaPrehistory.com. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
^ "Borax Lake Preserve: 12,000 Years of Prehistory". Archaeological Conservancy. Retrieved January 16, 2018.

v t e Pre-Columbian North America
Periods Lithic Archaic Formative Classic Post-Classic
Archaeological cultures	Adena Alachua Ancient Beringian Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) Anishinaabe Avonlea Baytown Belle Glade Buttermilk Creek complex Caborn-Welborn Cades Pond Calf Creek Caloosahatchee Clovis Coles Creek Comondú Deptford Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Walton Fremont Glacial Kame Glades Hohokam Hopewell List of Hopewell sites La Jolla Las Palmas Maritime Archaic Mississippian List of Mississippian sites Mogollon Monongahela Old Cordilleran Oneota Paleo-Arctic Paleo-Indians Patayan Plano Plaquemine Poverty Point Red Ocher Safety Harbor Santa Rosa-Swift Creek St. Johns Steed-Kisker Suwannee Valley Tchefuncte Troyville Weeden Island
Archaeological sites	Angel Mounds Anzick site Bandelier National Monument Bastian Benson Blue Spring Shelter Bluefish Caves The Bluff Point Stoneworks Brewster Cahokia Candelaria Cave Casa Grande Chaco Canyon Coso Rock Art District Crystal River Cuarenta Casas Cueva de la Olla Cutler Eaker El Fin del Mundo El Vallecito Effigy Mounds Etowah Indian Mounds Eva Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Center Fort Juelson Four Mounds Gila Cliff Dwellings Glenwood Grimes Point Helen Blazes Holly Bluff Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Horr's Island Huápoca Key Marco Kimball Village Kincaid Mounds Kolomoki Mounds Lake Jackson Mounds Lehner Mammoth-Kill Site L'Anse aux Meadows Lynch Quarry Site Marksville Marmes Rockshelter Meadowcroft Rockshelter Mesa Verde Moaning Cavern Moorehead Circle Morrison Mounds Moundville Mummy Cave Nodena site Ocmulgee Mounds Old Stone Fort Orwell site Paquime Painted Bluff Parkin Park Pinson Mounds Plum Bayou Mounds Portsmouth Earthworks Poverty Point Pueblo Bonito Rassawek Recapture Canyon River Styx Roberts Island Rock Eagle Rock Hawk Rosenstock Village Russell Cave Salmon Ruins Serpent Mound Sierra de San Francisco Shell ring sites Spiro Mounds Stallings Island SunWatch Taos Pueblo Town Creek Indian Mound Turkey River Mounds Upward Sun River Velda Mound West Oak Forest Earthlodge Wickiup Hill Windover Winterville Wupatki
Human remains	Anzick-1 Arlington Springs Man Buhl Woman Kennewick Man La Brea Woman Leanderthal Lady Melbourne Man Minnesota Woman Peñon woman Spirit Cave mummy Vero man
Miscellaneous	Aridoamerica Ballgame Black drink Ceremonial pipe Chanunpa Chunkey Clovis point Container Revolution Eastern Agricultural Complex Eden point Effigy mound Falcon dancer Folsom point Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Kiva Medicine wheel Metallurgy Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing Mound Builders N.A.G.P.R.A. Norse colonization of North America Oasisamerica Piasa Projectile point Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stickball Three Sisters agriculture Thunderbird Transoceanic contact Underwater panther Water glyphs
Related Genetic history Pre-Columbian era

v t e National Register of Historic Places in California
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Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property

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Description

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References