Emeryville Shellmound
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The Emeryville Shellmound, in Emeryville, California, is a once-massive archaeological shell midden deposit (dark, highly organic soil containing a high concentration of human food waste remains, including shellfish). It was one of a complex of five or six mounds along the mouth of the perennial Temescal Creek, on the east shore of San Francisco Bay between Oakland and Berkeley.
From a time long before the arrival of the Europeans in 1769, groups of Native Americans lived at this spot by the Bay. Originally reported as over 60 feet high and some 350 feet in diameter, the mound constituted a small hill, and was physically linked to several adjacent mounds by extensive lower-lying midden deposits. Its peak likely provided sweeping views of the Bay and the Golden Gate.
The Native Americans constructed the Shellmound and it is comprised largely of shellfish and animal remains, the remnants of millions of meals consumed at the site by the prehistoric residents. The shells they threw aside from their catches of shellfish eventually covered some hundreds of thousands of square feet, marked by several cones. Evidence indicates that the site was a large village, occupied from at least 2800 years ago to 400 years ago. It was also used by Native Americans as a resting-place for their dead. The site was recognized as an archaeological deposit from the time of the first historically recorded settlement of the East Bay, and was subjected to some of the earliest archaeological excavations in the United States. When the University of California excavated this site in the 1920s, they found that the mound consisted mostly of clam, mussel, and oyster (predominantly Olympia Oyster) shells, with a plentiful mixture of cockleshells.
The site of the shellmound contained a large industrial plant site from 1924 through 1999, which was demolished by the City of Emeryville Redevelopment Agency in 1999. During the course of demolition, workers at the site rediscovered remnants of the Emeryville Shellmound, a prehistoric Ohlone Indian habitation site, long thought destroyed by the building of the industrial plant in 1924.
Photos of the leveling of the Emeryville Shellmound in 1924 certainly suggest this destruction. However, the small size of construction equipment in the 1920s and the different construction techniques used at that time meant that there was far less destruction of the native ground surface than modern construction methods typically inflict. In fact, the disturbance of underlying soils was far less extensive and complete than might have been expected. In 1999, during the removal of the industrial plant, archaeologists were called to the site and it was determined portions of the Emeryville Shellmound still were intact there. The site is currently occupied by the Bay Street Shopping Center along with a small park in memorial to the shellmound.
Prior to the industrial plant, a large amusement park operated on the site from the 1870s though 1924. The park contained a racetrack, two dance halls, bars, a carousel, bowling alley, and a world class shooting range where national competitions were regularly held. One of the dance pavilions was actually located atop the shellmound, providing a fantastic view of the bay for partygoers. At the time, Shellmound Park was quite an attraction, and was a popular destination for many people from all over the San Francisco Bay Area. With the passage of prohibition in the 1920s, visitation fell off dramatically and the park fell into decline and was sold.
Image:EmeryvilleShellmound.png
The Shellmound and dance pavillion, 1902
The site of the Shellmound is now a California Historical Landmark (#335).
