Archaeologist “Bobbie” Greenwood displays bone dagger. More than 1,000 Indian artifacts have been recovered at Diablo Canyon.
June 10, 1968
Major construction at Diablo Canyon was about a year away. Before it began a crew of archeologists worked to document the site.
Financed by PG&E, 15 to 18 people worked at various sites in the construction zone.
Roberta “Bobbie” Greenwood, research archaeologist for the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History talked to the media about the project.
Veteran reporter Elliot Curry’s lede:
“Significant evidence of Indian life along Diablo Canyon far into the pre-historic past is being uncovered in an archaeological project now nearing completion.”
If you have ever toured the area you know that it is a spectacular stretch of coastline and a logical place for a Chumash settlement.
Today there would be Native American representatives present but that was not the case in 1968.
A related story said that construction of the access road to the plant site was about to begin.
Estimates at the time had the plant opening by 1972 and the cost was pegged at $184 million. Both estimates proved to be wildly optimistic.
Unit One nuclear reactor went online in 1984, and Unit Two nuclear reactor in 1985.
Future blog posts will cover the construction phase.
Nuclear power is a part of the national conversation this election year as oil prices rise to record levels.
You can calculate your carbon footprint at this PG&E link.
Related posts:
David,
Your column about Diablo Canyon’s archeology reminded me of a moment in the fall of 1969 when I was a college student and a part-time waitress at the newly-opened San Luis Bay Inn.
I was serving lunch to a table of PG&E bigwigs and Robert Marre. As I was refilling Marre’s ice tea, a man entered the nearly-empty dining room and whispered in his ear that the construction crew had just unearthed a Chumash burial ground.
The stakes were high; the archeologists had cleared the project, the cement trucks were due in a couple of days, the public was already split on the project. I remember that Marre curtly tld the construction foreman to fill the dump trucks with dirt and get the thing covered up before morning. And to tell the crew to keep it quiet. Then he turned back to the PG&E people and calmly went about his lunch.
For a brief moment I considered who I might notify. But as you mention in your article, there was no overseer, no chain of responsibility. I moved to the next ice tea, the moment was lost and, presumably, so was the burial site.
Interesting memory.
Thanks for your comment Anne,
There are zones that are off limits today on the power plant grounds because of archaeological sensitivity. It may be one of the few sites in the world covered by security armed with M-16’s.
When Diablo Power plant was first started, soil exploration trenches were dug, they were 50 feet in depth and from 500 feet to 1,200 feet in length.The ground surface was about 100 feet above sea level. At the base of one trench we found the skeleton of a whale. This made the whale about 50 feet above today’s sea level. Very interesting.