Sandy area native lore

There is not much record of native permanent settlements in the Sandy area. They seem to have mostly camped here while taking advantage of massive fish runs in the Salmon and Sandy Rivers are some of the larger creeks. Permanent settlements were mostly on the Columbia, Willamette, Clackamas and Molalla Rivers.

A number of early Sandy area residents have told of the natives camping temporarily on their property including Francis Revenue at his property 1.5 miles north of Sandy; Billy Welch at his property that became known as Welches; and the McIntyres at Brightwood.

Long-time Sandy area resident Howard Vaeretti has told me that his grandparent’s property located just east of Revenue Bridge on the north side of the river, contained an area where Indians camped. He remembers his grandparents saying that they found some artifacts there but at that time back in the 1880s it wasn’t realized that they might be valuable.

Emery Strong, a respected author, archaeologist, and engineer who grew up in the Sandy area, wrote an introduction to the Sandy Historical Society book “Sandy Pioneers, Early Settlers and Barlow Road Days.” Strong mentions two late Sandy area people, Edward “Bub” Nelson and Dr. William Howard, who had found artifacts on their respective properties. Also, Mel Haneberg, late Sandy historian, left his collection of arrowheads to the Sandy Historical Society. Many others have found arrowheads.

Ralph Swan, who grew up in Sandy and has been a long-time member of Sandy Historical Society, has a beautiful collection of arrowheads but most of them were collected in other areas of the state.

Most artifacts are found in river valleys where items such as mortars, pestles, and digging tools have been discovered. Arrowheads have been found over a broader area of the Mt. Hood foothills.

From Strong’s above introductory article, he goes on to say, “The residents of the river villages headed for the berry, nut, and root patches in the harvest season season, and it was these people that left their traces about Sandy. They returned over the same trails to their accustomed places year after year. Large mortars, too heavy to carry, have been found on the old campsites along Cedar, Eagle, and Deep Creeks. There would be centuries when no one came, for when there were forests, such as the one here in the last century, no useful commodities would be produced. But somewhere there were always burns and openings to be exploited, the heavy timber grew and disappeared and grew again many times in the past.”

~Sourced from 80 Years in the Same Neighborhood: A history of the Sandy, Oregon area by Phil Jonsrud, printed by Clackamas Education Service District, copyright 2002 by Sandy Historical Society, Inc., pp. 139-140