Port Angeles: More delay on graving yard until DOT contracts with archaeologist

PORT ANGELES — Archaeological excavation at the graving yard — flagged last month to begin by now — cannot start until state officials contract with an archaeologist to complete the $4.5 million process to remove skeletal remains and Klallam artifacts from the 22-acre site.

State Department of Transportation officials say signing a contract with an archaeologist is only a few days off.

“It is just a matter of finalizing and signing,” Lloyd D. Brown, DOT’s communications manager for the Olympic region, said Thursday.

Archaeological excavation was planned to begin Thursday as outlined in a March 16 agreement among state, federal and tribal officials.

The four-month archeological process would lead to a full construction restart of the graving yard before Labor Day.

But without a signed contract between DOT and Gig Harbor-based Lynn Larson of Larson Anthropological Archaeological Services Ltd., full-scale archeological work cannot begin, said Frances G. Charles, Lower Elwha Klallam secretary-treasurer who oversees archaeology at the graving yard for the tribe.

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June Ward, 10, examines a wooden paddle she is decorating as her father, Jack Ward of Port Angeles, works on his own paddle during a craft-making session on Friday at the Elwha Klallam Heritage Center in Port Angeles. The paddles are among the thousands of gifts being created for participants in the 2025 Tribal Canoe Journey, hosted this year by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. The event begins with the landing of dozens of native canoes at the mouth of the Elwha River on July 31 and continues with five days of celebration on the Lower Elwha reservation west of Port Angeles. As many as 10,000 indigenous peoples are expected to take part. The public is invited to help with giftmaking sessions, scheduled daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Heritage Center.
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