History Minutes: Fort Rock Sandals

         Fort Rock Sandals // OrHi 90861

In 1938, archaeologist Luther S. Cressman and a team of University of Oregon students uncovered seventy-five sagebrush sandals at Fort Rock Cave in Lake County, Oregon.  The Fort Rock sandals had been covered in volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Mazama 7,000 years ago, an event that not only formed the Crater Lake caldera but that also may have contributed to a climate change that made the Fort Rock area more arid.

Through radio-carbon dating and extensive research, Cressman determined that the sandals were more than 9,000 years old. In further excavations of the Fort Rock area during the 1960s, Cressman and University of Oregon graduate student Stephen Bedwell found evidence of tools and campfire remains from as far back as 11,000 to 13,000 years ago.  These important archeological discoveries are the earliest evidence of human habitation in Oregon’s Great Basin.

In June 1963, at the Fort Rock excavation site, Cressman read the celebratory dedication that designated Fort Rock Cave as a National Historic Landmark.  In 1998, Gordon W. Wanek, a businessman from the LaPine/Bend area who owned the land around Fort Rock, donated his claim to The Archaeological Conservancy.