Archaeologist Katie Johnson looks on as a crew works to demolish Gleason Pool on Monday, May 23.

JOHN DAY — Gleason Pool will soon transition from a demolition site to an archaeological site.

Archaeologists from Southern Oregon University have been monitoring the demolition to safeguard any artifacts and other objects that may be of historical value that might be uncovered during the demolition process.

Work to demolish Gleason Pool began on Monday, May 23, after some delays associated with the coordination of demolition crews and archaeologists so both could be on site at the same time. Demolition of the pool buildings was completed on Friday, May 27.

Chelsea Rose, a Southern Oregon University historical archaeologist and director of the SOU Laboratory of Anthropology, said there are a number of reasons an archaeologist would be monitoring the demolition of a facility such as Gleason Pool.

“We don’t know what’s under that pool, and we don’t know how they prepared the land before they built it,” she said. “There has been some debate about the mound that the pool is on. Our research indicates that it was a natural rise and they dug into it, so one of our main motivations being out here this week is to see what that ground surface underneath looks like.”

Rose said nobody is expecting to find treasure under Gleason Pool, but there are other things that would interest archaeologists.

“If there is a board or something that we can link to a building, that is treasure to us,” she said. “We want to try to tie the footprint of these historical structures to this landscape so we can learn about how the flow of this community was and what life was like.”

Rose said that information will be shared with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, which purchased the pool property and neighboring Gleason Park for an expansion of the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site. A stone and wood structure on the site, dating from the Civil Ware era, served as the hub of a thriving Chinese community for many years.

One of the things Rose expects to find is structural remains of buildings.

“I’m talking about an alignment of stones or a piece of wood or some nails, and we’ve already seen some nails. All of that helps us figure out where exactly these buildings were so we can rebuild this community virtually. And it also tells us how these buildings were constructed.”

Rose said all of these finds mean nothing if you don’t know how to interpret them.

Katie Johnson is the other archaeologist on site. She stressed that treasure hunting or going to the Gleason Pool demolition site to conduct your own archaeological research is illegal, both on the state and federal level.

“We’re here to document the artifacts,” Johnson said. “All of the artifacts will return here and be held here in the county and the (Kam Wah Chung) museum.”

Both Rose and Johnson will be back in John Day in July to conduct a formal archaeological survey of the Gleason Pool demolition site. Part of that work will involve an archaeological dig that will be open for the public to participate in. Details regarding the date and time of the public dig will be relayed by the Eagle in the near future.