A Tidewater Construction crew begins demolishing Gleason Pool in John Day on Monday, May 23, 2022.

JOHN DAY — Archaeologists excavating the grounds at the former Gleason Pool site are hosting a public dig on Saturday.

The excavation is part of the effort to prepare the space for an expansion of the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site. The public will not be invited to do any digging themselves, but will be allowed to observe and ask questions of the archaeologists on site performing the excavations.

Chelsea Rose, Southern Oregon University historical archaeologist and director of the SOU Laboratory of Anthropology, said her team will be starting the excavation on Monday, July 11. She said the public is welcome to observe excavation efforts before the public dig, but the best chance for the public to ask questions of the archaeologists on site will be on Saturday the 16th.

The public dig will start at 9 a.m. and go till 3 p.m. There will also be exhibits by Southern Oregon University, Oregon State Parks, Malheur National Forest and John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

“They will all be having exhibits and hands-on things and that kind of stuff so people can come and learn about local history and the archaeology as well,” Rose said.

The dig will be followed by a public lecture from artist and poet Sam Roxas-Chua Yao from 4 to 6 p.m. in the theater room at the Canyon City Community Center. The lecture by Roxas-Chua Yao is free to attend.

Rose said she expects she and the other archaeologists are going to find “great stuff” during the excavation.

“For archaeologists, we can get insanely excited about a broken bottle because if it tells us a little bit more about that community, then that’s all really exciting, important stuff,” she said.

Expectations are to find evidence of what other buildings, businesses and residences were in that neighborhood, what the community was like and how long people lived there.

“We’re doing that not only to get more information about Oregon’s Chinese residents but also to see how the park can incorporate those stories into their new interpretive center and as they update the infrastructure of the park itself, so that is kind of the goal,” Rose said.

Rose said the purpose of the public dig is for people to feel like they get to participate in something that is important to the community of John Day.

“We’re doing the hard work, we’ll dig in the compacted gravel for them. They get to see the exciting stuff that comes out,” she said.

“I think the main thing is just to know how lucky people are to be living near such an important archaeological and historic site.”

Rose also added that she hopes people will get excited and participate in the public day and the free talk and build on the outreach that has been ongoing for the past several years encouraging folks to get to know the larger history of the region.