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The Kennewick Man: The Ancient One
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In 1996, ancient human remains discovered along the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington sparked one of the most controversial archaeological cases in U.S. history. Scientists argued the 9,000-year-old skeleton could rewrite theories about the first Americans, while Native American tribes insisted the Ancient One was their ancestor and should be returned for burial. What followed was decades of legal battles, scientific study, and debate over whether science or tribal oral tradition should decide the fate of the remains. In 2017, DNA evidence confirmed the Ancient One’s connection to modern Native American tribes, and he was finally returned and respectfully reburied according to tribal tradition.
⚠️ Content Warning: This episode includes references to abuse, trauma, and death. Listener discretion is advised.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Beneath the Evergreens, where murder, mysteries, and mayhem lurk in the shadows of the Pacific Northwest. I'm Jess. And I'm Anna. From haunted forests and unsolved disappearances, to true crime cases buried deep in the moss and the mist, we're digging into the dark secrets hiding under the evergreens.
00:00:21
Speaker
Each episode will explore real cases, eerie encounters, and the legends that keep the Pacific Northwest up at night. So grab your flashlight. lock your doors and join us
00:00:52
Speaker
Welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm really excited about today's episode. Me as well. Me
Contemplations on Time Travel
00:01:00
Speaker
as well. oh i can I'm just going to start off with with a question.
00:01:04
Speaker
How do you feel about time travel? Okay. So i actually have quite a few opinions on time travel. I'm being completely honest with you.
00:01:14
Speaker
So I think time travel will be really cool. I worry about the ramifications. Okay. And like messing up your your past, you know, and like really changing your fruit future. Okay.
00:01:28
Speaker
But also when there's like a lot of time travel in movies and like multiple universes, I hate it. It gets way too complex. I can't enjoy the movie because all I'm focusing is like, how does this intertwine with this? Like what's the connection? And then it gets me out of it.
00:01:45
Speaker
So I'm in favor for very specific circumstances, but I will not watch a movie that gets too into multiple universes or time travel. Okay, so what's like a movie that you couldn't get into? So, did you ever see the show The Arrow and like The Flash?
00:02:02
Speaker
No. Like The CW? No. Okay, well, i my brother watched it and I was watching part of it with him. And it started getting into a multiverse and like and it just it its got too complex. Like even The Avengers a little bit when it gets into like the multiverse, I'm not a fan.
00:02:17
Speaker
Yeah. that That kind of reminds me of Doctor Who. I feel like i can track and I like the movies, but I get lost real quick. Yes. And then I just, but I can't even enjoy the plot because I'm just like so confused. hu And then i i think it little bit too deep into the weeds of it. that i i think Too deep, too deep. Do you feel like time travel exists now?
00:02:42
Speaker
Hmm.
00:02:44
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, with where technology is at, I feel like someone has to be working on time travel, you know? For sure.
00:02:55
Speaker
sure But then like part of it's like, what would we ever know? And again, rabbit holes, like if it does exist, has have I had, I've had multiple different lives where like one little thing was different or maybe I'm just not close enough to anyone that time travels in my life. So my life is the same and I'm just like sensationalizing it, but it's like the butterfly effect.
00:03:18
Speaker
It truly feels like that. Yeah. And then it's like, well, if I haven't interacted with anyone that is time traveling, does that mean just, does that mean I'm Like a non-player character?
00:03:30
Speaker
you okay? Is that how pathetic my life is, actually? Do you remember, like, it was even, like, mid-2021, like, after COVID? Yeah. And it was like, oh, like, everyone has COVID. And you're like, like the odd one out if you had never had COVID. haven't had COVID. That was me. Literally. i didn't get COVID since, like, 2022. And I was like, oh, I have no friends. Yeah.
00:03:57
Speaker
Yeah, fun times fun times.
Unveiling the Kennewick Man Discovery
00:04:00
Speaker
Well, I don't really know why I asked you that because time travel really doesn't have anything to do with the story I'm about to talk about. Oh, just a fun question. Just a fun question and I wanted to ask you. But now I know time travel. There's this theory, it's in quantum mechanics that time itself is on these like layers, kind of like a cake, all like together. And that...
00:04:23
Speaker
At certain point, you have these like nexuses where certain timelines come together and then you can like enter a different timeline based on the decision that you did. Or like oh yeah they think that there's some theories that deja vu is actually one of yourselves in a different timeline dying at that particular moment. And then you and that's why you have deja vu because it was like such a significant event.
00:04:48
Speaker
But is it really you? though That is a great question. Because I feel like it depends on what you mean by you, like what your essence is. Yeah. If it is like, like if in these different timelines, you share like the same DNA, right? Then yeah, it's like kind of you. But like, I also think that you are more than just your DNA. You're like your thoughts and your lived experience. So then you're diverging and it's like Anna one, Anna two, Anna three, who seem very similar and maybe have similar mannerisms, but they're completely different people.
00:05:20
Speaker
So like, where's the connection point? It's like twins. Yeah. But like the brain is still different, you know? Cause like yeah maybe one I'm like meant meant more mentally ill, less mentally ill. Who knows?
00:05:32
Speaker
I hope that went down the mentally ill path. I was thinking one's better at sports. The other one's better at like school.
00:05:42
Speaker
but Yes. but That too works. Yeah. Oh, well man. Okay, well, actually, that actually kind of connects with what i'm about to talk to you about today. Have you ever heard of the Kennewick Man?
00:05:53
Speaker
Okay, the name sounds familiar, but I don't think I know the story. I think everyone had, this name is familiar to everyone, but I too didn't know the whole story. I knew there was like, I thought it was a spy.
00:06:04
Speaker
That's why first inkling. i was like, oh, it's definitely a spy. But I think I got that mixed up with the Australian dude who like was found on the beach and all this like, yeah. That's not that type of story. I thought that's what this was. so who is that who's the Australian guy, though?
00:06:20
Speaker
The Sunaway? The Sunaway? It starts with an Summerton, man. Somerville, man? Yes, Somerton. Somerton, yeah. No, this is...
00:06:31
Speaker
Potentially an indigenous person. No, it is. It was factually indigenous person that was just found randomly. So I'm gonna tell you the story about how he was found and how scientists and potentially white people in general, again, spit in the face of Native Americans just because we wanted to research something. And and then we're like, okay, we're done researching now. You can have you can have it back. so m Yeah, real fun times. But let's start the story. So on July 1996, there were two college students that really, really wanted to go
00:07:05
Speaker
to hydroplane event, a hydroplane races in the Tri-Cities area. It's right on the Columbary River in Kennewick. And they really wanted to go. Hydroplane races in the Tri-Cities.
00:07:18
Speaker
I don't know. Like a Seattle Seafair thing. I thought so too, but apparently it's Tri-Cities biggest summer event. Oh, interesting. I didn't look up to see if this is still going because this was obviously 1996.
00:07:29
Speaker
Who knows? Maybe it's drawn it's still drawn all the all the crowds. But in true college fashion, they had no money. So they needed to sneak into this event. Okay. Okay. So to do this, they decided to cross the Columbia River to get to gain access essentially into this area.
00:07:48
Speaker
where you had to pay to stand. So they crossed the river to get to some, some I guess, island so that they could see the hydroplanes better. Or they waded up to the area to make it seem like they actually paid.
00:08:01
Speaker
I feel like the Columbia is pretty big and deep just to be like wading through it. and like That's what I was thinking. Because I only have, the oh well, I haven't seen the Columbia River on that side of the mountain. I've seen it on this side of the mountain.
00:08:14
Speaker
That's fair. Well, I guess, you know, when you're going over towards towards like Vantage and there's the bridge, are you crossing the Columbia? I think so. That seems really fucking deep. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, it said that they they were crossing a river to get into.
00:08:30
Speaker
I'll be overthinking this and they could very well be in like a boat. No, they were walking. They were walking? Because that's how it was found. He kicked it. Yeah, so just they're trying, essentially they're trying
Legal and Scientific Battles
00:08:44
Speaker
to wade across this big ass river. I bet, okay, look, it's two college kids. They probably had a shit ton of Miller Lite.
00:08:52
Speaker
i just talked about how I ran ran across this stray dog and went on some escapade to return it. Exactly. They're not the brightest. And they're going to a hydroplane race. They're probably like, we got to get in for free.
00:09:03
Speaker
Probably inebriated. They're like, we can cross the Columbia River. Totally fine. Because that's some logic that I would have had at that age, quite frankly. Oh, yeah. 100%. 100%. But then also, I heard that people are hydroplaning on the Columbia River.
00:09:19
Speaker
you' ge So again, I'm a little confused how they got in this situation, but they're in a situation where they're in the river. and know that for a fact because that is the only fact I do know.
00:09:33
Speaker
el So they're walking across this river. They're going through the shallows. And one of them kicks something. And it's like a round object. It's pretty light. And he kicks it. And he's like, ha ha, I think I found a human head.
00:09:47
Speaker
Takes his hands, puts it in the water, pulls up this like clay ball. Starts to rub it off, sees that there's teeth. And he's like, oh, I did find the human head.
00:09:58
Speaker
my God. Yeah. But then he's like, they him and his friend look at each other and they say, but we still want to go the hydroplane races. Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? So they take the head and they put it in the bushes.
00:10:11
Speaker
So after they see the races, they'll come back and get it and let everyone know. So that's what they do. They put it in the bushes. They go to the hydroplane races. Then when they've had their fill, they walk back. Somehow they found a bucket.
00:10:26
Speaker
Put the head in the bucket and take it to the police station and be like, hey, we found this head in the water. Oh, my God. So then the police are like, what the hell? You found a head in the water? And they're like, yeah. Yeah, bro. And they're like, okay get in my boat. Take us to where you you found this head. So they're in this police boat. They they find the place.
00:10:46
Speaker
The police immediately locked down. They put crime scene tape up. They think they're investigating a murder, right? Not every day that you find a head in a river. Yeah. They believed it to be a homicide. They taped off the the shoreline and they were finding additional bone fragments in the river. So they're like, okay, clearly something happened here. They get the dive team out. The dive team are able to pull up a couple more bones and,
00:11:09
Speaker
And then the county coroner actually realizes that something doesn't quite add up with the bones that are coming in. The skull is actually really calcified. Essentially, the bones have mineralized and essentially became a fossil.
00:11:23
Speaker
Oh, interesting. And it's also looking like these bones have been buried for for many years. And based on the facial structure and skull shape, the officials officially thought this was like a Caucasian male that came over and died in the early European oh wow era, like of the pioneers that were coming over. And so because of that, the county coroner contacted a local anthropologist, Dr. James Chatters. And when Chatters returned to the site, he made another remarkable discovery. Three feet under the compacted earth and sand of the shallows of the Columbia, there was a nearly complete het human skeleton.
00:12:05
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yes, so wasn't just a head. I wonder, like... how they what the digging up process was like because when i was thinking like anthropologists i think of like you know or like archaeologists like have like their like little brushes yeah yeah yeah like how you that in the water are you like and that's very interesting too because so the head was found in water which means they had to divert the water somehow yeah you think i guess if you like Like, i don't know, like the barriers and stuff? I'm sure they put a barrier. But my question is, how did the head pop up?
00:12:45
Speaker
I don't know. Was it shuffling along the water? Along the base of it or something? on Yeah, because three feet is pretty far down. Yeah, yeah. don't know. I feel like sometimes there's actually a body just found up at Bradley Lake Park in the water. Oh my god.
00:13:01
Speaker
and She had been in the water for like four weeks. And that's like a heavily traveled park. People go there all the time. And so I feel like it speaks to something like, for so i feel like everything wants to be found. And if someone happens to go in that area, it's like, oh you're going to find me now. That's some bullshit.
00:13:22
Speaker
Yeah, so somehow they were able to quarantine off this water beneath three feet of compact air and sand. They found this nearly complete human skeleton. Based on the sku she skull shape alone, chatters also believe that the remains were of European descent. So that's two people thinking that this is actually some white guy.
00:13:41
Speaker
and they're They're going with a pioneer theory. Okay. But then he noticed something that was pretty impossible for someone that was a pioneer, specifically a European pioneer. Embedded in the pelvis of this skeleton was an ancient stone spear point.
00:14:00
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Crazy. Could you imagine just walking around your with your life, like, with a piece of spear in your pelvis?
00:14:11
Speaker
Like, what? Was he walking around like that? yeah like Is that what killed them? No, that's not what killed them. Because the bone had grown around it. oh Oh. At some point, he was speared so hard that it hit his pelvis.
00:14:27
Speaker
Somehow survived that and the infection that would have been caused because of that. And then his body just grew around it. That's honestly... The human body is so impressive.
00:14:39
Speaker
Crazy. Crazy. Yeah, so the spear point was was chiseled and it was really weathered and is also unmistakably prehistoric. Wow. So again, it's not something you'd expect to find lodged in a pioneers, like 19th century settler. Yeah.
00:14:56
Speaker
So they sent a bone fragment to the University of California at Riverside for carbon dating and the results kind of stunned everyone. They believe he wrote he lived roughly... Between 7,500 7,200 Whoa. That's shit. Whoa.
00:15:16
Speaker
That's like Jesus sandals time.
00:15:19
Speaker
every summer here in Birkenstocks. Oh, forgot that you have Birkenstocks. No, but that that is that's that's crazy old. And for just to like... like I'm just imagining like the landscape around it. Right. Or like, I mean, what's even there, right? Like the Columbia has cha changed so much in that time. It's still part changing. Like was in the mountains? Is it like runoff? Like where, where was he from?
00:15:46
Speaker
that's what I'm saying. And the, like, I mean, if you think about it, Native Americans, like what we think of Native Americans today was like, they started settling what we think 2000 to 3000 years ago.
00:16:00
Speaker
So this is 4,000 years before that. That's crazy. Isn't that insane? Wow. Yeah. So this man who lived, this this man was essentially more than 9,000 years old.
00:16:13
Speaker
Oh my gosh. That's so cool. An complete skeleton. Yeah. That's insane. So scientists obviously were immediately fascinated. It's not every day that you find a skeleton, a full skeleton of someone that's like 2,000 years old, but this is 9,000 years old.
00:16:29
Speaker
Crazy. In fact, there's fewer than a dozen skulls older than 8,000 years old that have ever been discovered in North America. Oh, wow. So the skeleton was not not only the oldest, but it was one of the most complete that have ever been found in the Americas.
00:16:46
Speaker
That's crazy. Just chilling in Kennewick. In the Columbia River. That's crazy. Oh my gosh. Could you imagine being that like college student too where you're like, yeah, I put foot
00:16:59
Speaker
in a sock. Like. Imagine if he hadn't done that. Like would this skeleton have been found or would just, would it have like washed like into the ocean eventually? Like, like I was there almost 30 years ago now. Yeah. or was more, would more stuff just come on top of it? Like sediment and all this kind of stuff.
00:17:14
Speaker
Crazy. You never know what's under your feet. Yeah. Never. I want go in bodies of water, actually. I'm too afraid of what's under my feet. I only started thinking about that probably three years ago. And I'm like, hmm.
00:17:28
Speaker
It's because one time I was at the the ocean and i was on a sand dollar bed and I stepped and I just felt like a whole bunch of crunching beneath my feet. And I was like, I didn't like that. I don't like that feeling. Yeah.
00:17:41
Speaker
That's not right. It's supposed to be somewhat firm. No crunching. Yes. So other ancient marine remains do exist, but only fragments at that point, especially that old. There were some cremated bones found from the Marms Rock Shelter in Washington that dated back to 10,000 to 11,000 years ago, which also crazy. And those were discovered after flooding near lower monumental dam. So they're thinking that maybe...
00:18:10
Speaker
There was some type of flooding in the area that happened to get the setup sediment off of this particular, off the Kennewick man essentially, that allowed for his discovery.
00:18:21
Speaker
But once the skeleton's age was known, the Umatilla, Colville, Yakima, Nez Perce, and Wanapun tribes stepped forward, claiming that these remains were actually one of their ancient ones, one of the ancient ones, one of the ancestors. Wow.
00:18:36
Speaker
And they demanded for his return and burial under the Native American Graves and Protections Act, or NAGPRA. NAGPRA came about in the 1990s to stop people from desecrating Native American graves and the collection of indigenous remains for study sale or display. Which I think, I just want to pause there.
00:18:58
Speaker
don't see people going to white pioneer grave sites and digging them up. That's so disrespectful. And it's kind of disrespectful that we have to have a whole ass act put together to stop people from doing that for Native Americans. I feel like that's... absolutely dirt All American Indian remains were to be returned to the tribes for respectful burial. So that includes anything that was being studied currently, anything that was on display. If you didn't get explicit permission from a Native American tribe, it was to be sent back to that tribe that they belong to you and buried. So any remains from 1990. So the Corps of Engineers who happened to own this particular section of the Columbia River where this body was found decided to
00:19:48
Speaker
actually give the body back to, or the skeleton back to the tribes so that they could bury it respectfully. But before the skeleton could be fully buried,
00:20:00
Speaker
Scientists decided to say actually no, you can't actually do that. this This isn't actually a Native American skeleton. It is actually a, that you don't have proof that this is. It's too old for it to be a Native American skeleton. so sorry. No.
00:20:19
Speaker
so they filed So the scientists filed a lawsuit against the Corps Engineers saying that, no, you actually can't just give the bones to them and bury it. We want to essentially do some more research. So the National Park Service and the Secretary of Interior intervened and the Corps turned the remains over to the Secretary and then...
00:20:42
Speaker
After the Corps turned the remains over to the secretary, they went to where the body was found or where the skeleton was found. And to stop people from, you know, maybe finding more skeletons there or maybe finding some relics of, I don't know, pottery or something like that. No, they dumped two million pounds of gravel over the site.
00:21:04
Speaker
So, I'm sorry, even if there had been things there that, people, like, scientists could have found to, give more about history or backstory to what this man was buried with, we just covered it at all and ruined for everyone?
00:21:18
Speaker
Two million pounds worth of covered it all. Oh, my God. That's insane. And people were like, why would you do that? They're like, oh, you know, it was to stabilize the eroding shorelines. We were trying to protect the migrating salmons there.
00:21:32
Speaker
I'm sorry, gravel and salmon doesn't make sense in my brain. And two million pounds, I feel like that's a lot. That's like some childlike behavior, like a oh, well, if I can't have it, no one can, you know?
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah, so essentially this put a stop. There's no further excavation, no more artifacts, and there's no more questions from that location. just immediately stopped. And then the Native American tribes who are trying to get this body back are actually having to go through years of litigation just to be able to bury their ancient one. The reason why they're saying that this person cannot be of Native American descent is because the man had a long, narrow skull, prominent nose and chin and features they believed resembled a South Asian or Polynesian population. And that goes against what Native American populations of today look like.
00:22:26
Speaker
Which, I'm sorry, we have no actual idea what this person could have looked like. Like, it's a best guess. Same with dinosaurs. It's our best guess. It's not for sure, for sure.
00:22:40
Speaker
And also, 10,000 years ago, 9,000 years ago, is a long ass time. Yeah. My fucking nose gets bigger with every week. Like, what? Evolution happens, my friend. it's not.
00:22:56
Speaker
the Anyway, so they argued that because that, because this person didn't have the facial structures of Native Americans today, that this contradict contradicted the theories of a single migration across the Bering land bridge. and alternate claims emerged. Essentially, a Polynesian man also stepped in to intervene in this case, saying that it's actually one of his ancestors, which made the little Gation go on
Resolution and Reburial
00:23:21
Speaker
even longer. So there's just all these people from everywhere claiming that this is their ancestor. In fact, a European neo-Pagan group held a ceremony claiming that the Kennewick man was actually one of their Viking ancestors, which, I mean,
00:23:41
Speaker
Can we just chill out? Can we just chill out? Let's, he was, whatever. So these baits kept spiraling. And finally, in 2004, the Ninth court Circuit Court ruled that the Kennewick man did not meet the legal definition of a Native American under the NAGPRA guidelines and that scientific study could proceed. So essentially for almost 10 years.
00:24:04
Speaker
Native Americans have been fighting to be able to bury their ancient ones, particularly the Colombian Basin Native Americans. And now they're saying, actually, no, you can't bury it. We're going to further a allow, we're going allow further study because we don't believe your oral traditions and they're just going to have deal with it.
00:24:22
Speaker
So then, They're the scientists are studying and doing what they do best. And they, they did find some cool insights. Like the Kennewick man's diet was rich in Marine food, suggesting that he lived on the coast.
00:24:34
Speaker
But again, the tribes, the tribes disagree. pointing out that lampreys and eel-like fish could account for those findings. And apparently that was very large in their diets back in the day, especially for those in the Columbia Basin. But by June 18th, 2015, DNA analysis revealed that try what tribes had said all along. So essentially, the Kennewick man was genetically related to modern Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest.
00:25:01
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Yes. And so with this discovery in 2017, after two decades, more than two decades of dispute, saying that this is one of our ancestors, we want the ancient one returned so we can bury it. They finally got the skeleton back.
00:25:20
Speaker
And the Native American tribes were able to bury it. And they did so in a private ceremony at an undisclosed location. From my understanding, it was multiple different tribes came together since it wasn't like one specific tribe yeah and buried in in tribal traditions. There was no cameras, no spectators, no spectators just closure. so How did they know that the Kennewick man was the ancient one? like Did they have like like oral history or like...
00:25:47
Speaker
Like anything that like, like talked about him? Well, not him specifically, but a lot of their oral traditions say that they didn't come over via like a land bridge. They were actually here since time immemorial. Like they've been here forever. There's not been a time where they didn't, their ancestors didn't live here.
00:26:09
Speaker
There was some event that happened that, they like 12,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago, or maybe even 7,000 years ago, there was some event that happened that extremely impacted the population, like took it down to very low levels. And those that came over on the land bridge probably did, you know, what is the word I'm looking for?
00:26:31
Speaker
Like intermingled. Intermingle with all of these other clans and then essentially, you know, genes. Yeah. Between populations. But they, they always held true to the fact that no, we've always been here and our ancestors have always been here and we've always lived off the land. But, you know, as we evolve as creatures and humans and as more people come into the picture, of course, we're going to change genetically here and there. And so that's, that's what they were saying that, Hey, our verbal oral traditions go back time immemorial. But scientists, AKA white people who think they know everything said, no, it's impossible. You could only have been here for 3000 years. You couldn't have been here for longer than that.
00:27:12
Speaker
But because DNA has been, I mean, it's incredible now with yeah using that you can test with DNA. They were able to grab like a a tooth DNA sample. And it actually did line up with what they were saying that actually it is our ancestor.
Reflections and Closing Thoughts
00:27:26
Speaker
Interesting. I thought it was really cool. I also am very happy that they got the body back. I also feel like 20 years first of for of litigation, just because we want to study it.
00:27:40
Speaker
Like I get science is important and I get we want to connect the dots, but at what cost? Or like when does morality come into science? Mm-hmm. And I feel like ethics and morality needs to come in a little bit more because of some of the stuff we do like eugenics.
00:27:56
Speaker
Yeah. Shouldn't happen. Agreed. Anyway, so the Kennewick man reminds us that history doesn't belong to museums alone. It belongs to the people, to memories, and to land itself. And sometimes when, you know, the river runs low or your college kid trying to see some hydroplanes, you'll just literally stumble into the past, into history.
00:28:18
Speaker
And so that is the Kennewick Man. It's actually a Native American skeleton found in Kennewick, Columbia River. 9,000 years old. That's so cool.
00:28:29
Speaker
i had no idea that would happen. Like that they found him or that there was this whole litigation around this. I didn't either. i like, I've heard the name before, but when I was going through some of the pictures, it's also so interesting to see how our perception will change how we build stuff. Cause if you look at the facial reconstruction that they did based on like the the first past version, which was like through a white lens, in my opinion, it looks like someone's grandpa that's walking around here. But then when you look at the version that they did based on DNA analysis, you can see this this person has, i don't know, it like...
00:29:14
Speaker
not traditionally white features, but also not traditionally Native American features. It's like this beautiful blend. And I'm like, man, I wonder where his ancestors came from. Could you imagine like 15,000 years ago, like where, I would just love to know what the migration patterns were like. Did you come over on a boat? Like, did you live on a boat? Did you did you just travel up and down the Columbia based on the time of year it was? Yeah. Not too cold. You just go further inland or like, i don't know.
00:29:42
Speaker
Very interesting. That's really cool. That's so cool. It is cool. Also, thinking Washington 9,000 years ago.
00:29:52
Speaker
I mean, at one point it was just full of ice, right? I don't know when that was. When was when was it all ice? I don't know. And this is, i yeah whenever i drive over to eastern Washington, you know, like you're like going over the the bridge into Vantage and you're like in like kind of the gorge area. And you see those rock structures and like the different layers. And like thinking about the river that high is crazy to me.
00:30:19
Speaker
And how deep that would be? Yeah. And how it just like carved its way through the like the hillside and the plateaus. Like that's so cool. And it's cool. It also makes me think of like a major like meteor just going and be like like crashing everything.
00:30:33
Speaker
Yeah. And it was. Yep. So that's the Kennewick man. Very interesting. That's super cool. Thank you for sharing that. I I find that so fascinating. Like I think that like history and like I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was a little kid. So it's so fun.
00:30:52
Speaker
I wanted to be a scientist so bad. In fact, I used to have a tool belt with like forceps and like this really weird magnifying glass and I would carry around a bug case and I would collect crickets and do like a quote unquote experiments, which was all I was doing was like looking in there with a my magnifying glass and like looking at how cool their legs were and then I would let them go. But we're just bunch scientist girls. Yeah.
00:31:20
Speaker
women in STEM. Jinx, you owe me a Coke. All right, that's it for today's dive into the dark corners of the Pacific Northwest.
00:31:32
Speaker
If you love the stories or shivered a little, be sure to subscribe and follow so you don't miss what's lurking beneath the evergreens next time. Thanks for joining us on Beneath the Evergreens. We appreciate you diving into the mysteries with us.
00:31:44
Speaker
Until next time, keep your eyes open and your doors open.