East Wenatchee, Washington — Clovis Cache Under an Apple Orchard

In 1987, workers installing irrigation on an East Wenatchee orchard struck stone tools.

Very old stone tools.

Archaeologists eventually documented a remarkable cache of Clovis artifacts, including large fluted points associated with some of the earliest widely recognized peoples in North America.

The objects were roughly 13,000 years old and had apparently been placed together deliberately.

Why remains uncertain.

The discovery put an ordinary apple orchard above one of the Northwest's most significant Paleoindian archaeological sites.

The orchard itself belonged to a much newer transformation.

Irrigation turned dry terraces above the Columbia into intensive fruit country. Bridges later tied the east side more closely to Wenatchee, and suburban development replaced many orchards.

East Wenatchee became part agricultural city, part suburb and part archaeological surprise.

Its oldest known cache was found because somebody was trying to water apple trees.