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The Martin family went missing on December 7, 1958 after heading east from Portland in search of greenery for holiday wreaths. The following spring, the bodies of two of the three daughters were recovered from the Columbia River but, despite search efforts, the fate of the rest of the family remained a mystery. Fast forward several decades to 2025, and enter Archer Mayo: artist and professional diver with a penchant for solving mysteries.
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Summertime is peach, tomato, and archaeology season! While investigations happen throughout the year, field schools, public outreach, and big excavations peak during the warmer months. By fall, our boots are dusty, feet are sore, and labs are overflowing with the summer’s haul.
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Chelsea Rose digs into the recent past in this episode of Underground History.
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Underground History recently participated in an international effort to promote “RealArchaeology.” This coordinated media blitz was done in response to the rise of pseudoarchaeology and scientific conspiracy theories, as well as to amplify resources where real archaeological content was being produced and shared, and to both pre- and de-bunk false stories and theories that are circulating. Archaeologists certainly aren’t the only ones on the firing lines in what is becoming an increasingly post-truth era, but there are real concerns, and consequences, when false historical narratives gain traction.
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Arsenic in green dresses? Lead in make-up? Mercury in feather hats? Oh my. The Underground History podcast has recently been chatting with experts on the many ways toxins and dangerous—and sometimes just gross—things can make their way into museums or even our homes.
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This past summer Underground History did something a little different. In order to continue to explore ways in which we can connect our listeners to history and heritage, we decided to bring the show on the road!
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After wildfire season ends in the Western U.S., those who lost their homes begin sifting through what’s left to recover as much as they can. After the McKinney Fire this past summer, a team of trained dogs and archeologists helped recover cremated remains left in urns that were lost in the fire.
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The Pacific Northwest is rightfully proud of its thriving microbrewery scene. Most beer lovers probably consider the rise of craft brewing a phenomenon of the past few decades. But the first brewpubs in the Northwest date so far back that archaeologists were called in to excavate the remnants of one in Jacksonville, Oregon.
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The festival-in-the-desert known as Burning Man will not happen this year, canceled like many events in deference to COVID-19. But it will probably be…
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The border wall will be built, says the president. And the administration is letting little stand in the way, including concerns about cultural artifacts.…
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Archaeology on the ground is easy to understand: dig in the ground, find something, carefully--very carefully--remove it from the ground, analyze, repeat.…
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Giants once roamed the Earth in our region. Mammoths and mastodons, elephant-like creatures, were common until humans hunted them to extinction. Evidence…
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The driving of a final spike in Ashland in 1887 completed the railroad line running up the West Coast. But the project took a few shortcuts along the way,…