HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 2009-06-24, Page 11Lake
Goderich Signal -Star, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - Page A 11
uron yi€i•dshints of hunters past
Researchers probing
Lake Huron have found
evidence of ancient
hunters who they believe
migrated with caribou
Debora Van Brink
sun media
Sigds of ancient hunting grounds --
including what looks like an inukshuk
- - have been found under 30 metres
of water in the middle of Lake Huron,
along a ridge stretching from Goderich
to Alpena, Mich.
The discovery is definitive evidence
hunters once migrated with caribou here
several thousand years ago. It's the first•
evidence of human activity preserved
beneath the Great Lakes, say research-
ers at the University of Michigan.
Side -scan sonar and underwater
remote -operated vehicles with video
cameras have detected rows of rocks,
piled on rocks, that they believe hunters
used to channel caribou into ambushes
as long as 10,000 years ago.
The lanes are too regular and too long
- - about the length of 3-1/2 Canadian
football fields -- to be random, said re-
searcher Guy Meadows, a University
of Michigan professor and director of
Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories in
Michigan. There are also features they
believe were once hunting camps, in-
cluding hunting blinds.
"I am totally convinced that what we
found is real and not a geological fea-
ture," Meadows said.
The patterns of rock lines also bear•
a striking resemblance to caribou drive
lanes researchers observed today's Inuit
using on Victoria Island in the North-
west Territories.
Scientists have long hypothesized
that what is now Lake Huron was once
two large basins, separated by this
16 -kilometre -wide Alpena-Amberley
land bridge. (Amberley is located just
north of Goderich.)
Meadows and his University of Mich-
igan colleague, anthropologist John
O'Shea, mapped what the ridge would
have been like when it was dry and then
narrowed down their search to three ar-
eas that might Show signs of former hu-
man or animal occupation.
The first of those areas was along" the
ridge, just a few kilometres from Cana-
dian waters.
Then they sentt'sonar equipment and -
remote -operated vehicles to take a
look.
When the thousands of area scans were
stitched together, they found images
showing two distinct lines of rocks. The
stone markers would not have needed
to be more. than two or three rocks high
to channel migrating caribou into hunt-
at St. Peter's
Catitulic Church:
1 , Friday t() Sunday
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519-524-5174
for information
*O.B.A.
te► Mosquito
Baseball
Tournament:
Friday to Stindav
Call Anncrtf.'
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for inforin)tiop
ers' ambushes, Meadows said.
'When people see the entire suite of
images, I think they'll be convinced,"
he said.
At one point, one remote -operated
vehicle's tether was even caught on
something and swung its lens around to
discover a stack of stones that resem-
bled an inukshuk -- a way -marker Inuit
use today -- almost a metre high.
That specific discovery did not make
its way into the paper published in this
month's issue of the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
Other researchers have made
expeditions nearer
to the Lake Huron
shores and have
found signs of un-
derwater petrified
forests.
But millennia
of sediment near
shore have erased
many signs that
could suggest hu-
man habitation.
On the ridge,
however, centuries
of storm and cur-
rent have swept
away any sedi-
ment.
"This is pristine,"
Meadows said.
*Farmers'
IMarket
on the South
Street side of
Courthouse Park
fn,in 8 ant
♦r
voi,► *Children's
''%14; Festival
in Courrhw;
Park
"Science Rocks!:
10:30 An to 3 Tint
• *Music
• at the Legion
featuring
''fir Mike Kell
sal 5 lint t() <! nm
‘' *E is Youth
N usic
Festival at
1.ions 11arht►ur
Park front
6 pm to 10 pm
diving
"The ridge is bare rock, with the excep-
tion of zebra mussels."
Meadows said divers have just started
working in the area, and in two others
along the ridge.
"We're looking for the holy grail,
which would be a caribou skull with
a spear in it," he said, adding that's a
"needle in a haystack" discovery they're
not really expecting to find.
Instead, they may find more hunting
pits, camps or even some wood that may
not have decomposed in the almost -ox-
ygenless environment 30 metres below
the surface.
FIREW�RKSDISPLAY
AT GODERICH HARBOUR
i ieasure craft in the outer
sin or the main channel
, .:. the fireworks display on
June 30 (rain date is July 1)
*Friendship
Breakfast
at "ibe Legion
7:30 am to 12 pm
S6 for foil
breakfast
*Flea Market
on the South
Street side of
Courthouse Park
*otk t r()m 9 am
tbio
* I ,ions Beef
Barbecue
at (:,ions Harbour
lurk fr�)itl
s,,, t() 6:.t0 1)n)
*Concert in
Harbour Park
at 7 pin featuring
the Lighthouse
Swing Band
(frcc-will
offering)
*lingo
at the 1.eg;iOii at
6:57pnt
*.Jane 29th
Toddler Time
at Y.M.C.A.
9:30 am to
11:00 ant.
For details- call
14-524-7441
*June 3oth
Fireworks
at dui .,: t,.
Nlain Beach
Maitland M:l.r i ti ., .
has generously
donated the use of
the barge for tilt:
fireworks display
(rain datc=fi)r
Jule- 1
`**.( *Welcome to
Canada Day
Hike
starting from the
CPR Station at
weir 6 ant sponsored
�' ht the Maitland
Trail Association
, . Reservations
required
latio
519-524-6976
14,L,", *Canada Day
Picnic
in (.'tnirtitottsc
a,,, Park featuring;
Late lite Radio
'aat and frcc hot
dogs and pop {, )r
ever vane from
11 and
*Civic
Ceremony
:tr Courthouse
Bandstand at
12:30 pm
*Canada Dai
Parade
at 2 pm around
Courthouse
Square
CELEBRATIONS 2009
GODERICH.ca For more information: 519-524-6600