When the web started really taking shape, we imagined it as a place that would democratize the flow of information, making journalism and knowledge and information-gathering that much easier, that much more accessible and accurate.

But something about the brave new information age – hoax emails, news designed for specific subcultures of our society, incendiary blog journalism - has, in some ways, made information less informative.  For me, the idea of traveling and recording what I actually see is the anti-thesis of consuming a cornucopia of other people’s information.  Instead of reading about it, I can see it for myself, I can ask my own questions, and observe it for myself.
Is such a process fruitless?  When I first started searching for the origins of this stone tool three years ago, I realized it was important to do so through the tools of travel, not through books, libraries and computers.   

I realize that the answer to this stone tool’s origins could be delivered to me in a book.  But Carl Sagan said it best. “When you make the finding yourself - even if you’re the last person on Earth to see the light - you’ll never forget it.” And to see the light, we step out the door, and go our own way.

Early morning speaks with hail and snow, and I haul north up I-5 into Washington State.  I am to meet Troy, a Washington native, at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.  He had called me a couple days ago, and wanted to make sure I would meet him at the Cathlapotle Plankhouse, a reconstruction of a Columbia basin longhouse.

 

Pacific Northwest The Barnacles of Kalaloch This narrative explores the role of that ancient animal, the barnacle in the tidepool waters of Kalaloch beach on the Olympic Peninsula. The Artist and the Whale Hunter of Neah Bay forever shrouded in a thick fog and a light drizzle, as if from a plane you could never know it was there. Bluegrass in Cascadia: Portland, Oregon An adventure through Portland and its rapidly changing view of itself and the outside world. The Umpqua Dunes Genesis Part III of the Oregon Testament. My attempts to learn about Oregon's native prehistory begins with an explosion, and some success. We discuss the origins of Native Americans in Oregon, and why the coast is the perfect place to begin this project. Foraging Nehalem Valley Part IV of the Oregon Testament. Glowing Mushrooms, deer-meat, stone and a Portland underworld creating a world based on old ways. River Civilization: Columbia Valley, Oregon Part V of the Oregon Testament. Caged bears, salmon spears, and very old poo.