Archaeologist: Ancient flood had profound impact
Chico Enterprise Record -9/8/03
By Roger H. Aylworth, staff writer

A Chico archeologist is convinced he has found evidence of an ancient flood that would have made Noah nervous, and the archeologist believes this monstrous inundation of the landscape should forever change our image of what a Sacramento River flood could do.

Greg White, director of the Archeology Project at Chico State University, wasn't looking for evidence of an epic deluge when he found it. He was monitoring a trenching operation in Colusa.

A company was burying a fiber optics cable, and about 12 feet below the surface in downtown Colusa, the trenching uncovered signs of an American Indian village.

"It was quite young archeologically," said White, explaining the artifacts seemed to come from sometime between 900 and 1200 AD.

Immediately on top of the village remains were what White sees as indisputable evidence of an enormous flood.

He found a 3-to 4-foot-thick layer of coarse sand and clay immediately on top of the village artifacts, and then additional artifacts of almost exactly the same age were located on top of this layer.

White said there was nothing in the site to suggest the village was being abandoned prior to the laying down of the silt layer.

"I would guess the village was occupied right up to the flood," said White.

Based on carbon dating of artifacts, both below and above the silt layer, the flood hit about 980 AD.

Flooding along the Sacramento River, particularly in the days before dams controlled parts of the flow, are hardly strange. But what got White's attention was the thickness of the silt layer deposited by the flood.

A heavy flood might leave a few inches of sand and clay on the riverbank, but this flood left feet of material in its wake.

"You have to have a highly energetic flow to carry that much coarse material out so far," he explained.

He described the power of this flood as "extraordinary."

White said he has found evidence of this same flood deposit in several other areas around the valley, and believes it may have inundated functionally the entire valley.

The archeologist also said there is some evidence to suggest there were additional floods of this magnitude in about 400 AD, and a cluster between 3,500 and 4,000 years ago.

While there is no historic record of any of these floods, a retired California state climatologist whohas made the study of exceptional rain events a life's work said what White is describing is entirely possible.

"You betcha!" said Jim Goodridge, retired state climatologist, when asked if the monster flood could happen.

The most enormous floods in California come when a warm rain falls on top of a heavy snowpack.

He pointed to the New Year's Day flood in 1997 as an example.

"That was caused by rain on snow," he said.

He also said he has records from January of 1969, where in two Southern California locations roughly 36 inches of rain fell in a single day. In this area, not equal but still enormous, rains fell in 1986.

"If we had storms like we had in 1986 and in 1969, and if they were centered more in this area, I think it would be very reasonable to assume that kind of event (that White describes, could happen)," said Goodridge.

If storm patterns suggest the idea of an enormous flood for the Central Valley is possible, one of the earliest historically recorded floods gives additional proof.

John Monteverdi, a professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University who has also made a study of California flooding, said "Not only do I believe that such floods could occur, but there was one in the winter of 1861-62."

Goodridge agrees that 1862 was a special year in California flooding.

"In 1862, before there were enough records to spit at, there was a flood (so) you could go from Folsom to Winters in a row boat. That's the biggest flood ever reported in California. There was horrendous flooding from Sacramento north," said Goodridge.

While White sees evidence of massive flooding in the archeological record, and others see both potential for such a flood in the local climate and historic precedent for such an event, there are those who do not agree.

"It is really the age of the (silt) deposits that are at issue, and there really is a ton of skeptics," explained White.

While most scientists who have studied the topic agree there have been floods, some see these monster inundations dating back as much as 40,000 years.

The archeologist said there are clues to suggest that life in the valley after the flooding might have been sad and violent.

He said the huge silt deposit would have been hard on the Tule elk, a mainstay of the local Indian economy. It has been called the "buffalo of California," because the area tribes depended on it so utterly for survival.

Elks would have lost their grazing areas. Three to four feet of mud around the bases of oak trees would have cut sharply in the acorn production, and acorns were a diet basic for area tribes. Also a major disruption to the river and heavy siltation would have been hard on the river fish, again cutting into the food supply.

He said the combination of pressure on simple survival might explain evidence of "hostilities" that are found in the post flood artifacts.

White said there is lots of evidence of people dying violently. He said bones show signs of spear and arrow impact wounds, and there is a surge of deaths among males age 15 to 25 years old. There are also signs, in terms of ornamentation, that hint at a period of religious revival on the relative heels of the major disaster.

White and scientists and researchers from a range of backgrounds are planning a river trip this month to see if deep cuts in the river bank at other locations reveal the same sings of massive flooding that he thinks his digs have found.

If the theory can be conclusively proven, White said, it can have an impact on modern thinking as well as archeological history.

"It does give us plenty of evidence that the valley has gone crazy more than once in the past and there seems to be some periodicity to it," he said.

White also explained the potential for enormous floods, should have an important impact on " how we think about the river."

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