Site 45-DO-211 is on the south bank of the Columbia River about 340 m upstream from River Mile 589. Vegetation is characteristic of the Upper Sonoran life zone. The University of Washington excavated 88 cu m (3.9 %) of site volume in 1979 for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District, as part of a mitigation program associated with adding 10-ft to the operating pool level behind Chief Joseph Dam. A two-stage sampling design, incorporating random and non-random 1 x 1 x .01-m units of record, disclosed multiple episodes of prehistoric occupation spanning a period from ca. 5500-2700 B.P. and involving the construction of housepits as part of year-round activity. Four housepits were identified, with at least two of these evidently associated with a summer fish camp designed to take advantage of the seasonal runs of salmon. The others represent fall and winter occupations where economic emphasis was on the hunting of large ungulates. The documentation of a probable fishing camp with housepits in the Hudnut Phase (ca. 4000-2000 B.P.) at this site is unique in the Rufus Woods Lake project area, and suggests prehistoric economic systems over the last 3,000-4,000 years were generally similar to those described for the ethnohistoric period. The Columbia River was the focus of activity, with housepit settlements established at different points along the river. (Author).

Site 45-DO-285 is located at the north end of Buckley Bar, a landform in Rufus Woods Lake (Columbia River) at River Mile 587.5 near the Okanogan Highland-Columbia Plateau boundary. The site lies in an Upper Sonoran life zone. In 1979, the University of Washington excavated 137.2 cu m of site volume under contract to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District, as part of a mitigation program associated with adding 10 ft to the operating level behind Chief Joseph Dam. Systematic, aligned random sampling of 1 x 1 x 0.1-m collection units in 1 x 2 or 2 x 2-m cells disclosed four prehistoric components contained in point bar and later overbank deposits. The first two components are best characterized as Late Hudnut Phase. Projectile point styles and a single radiocarbon date indicate that these older compnents date between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago. The earliest cultural material is contained in point bar sands and gravels and overbandk deposits; the later material in overbank deposits. Projectile point styles from the assemblages are similar to those of the Quilomene Bar Phase. The two more recent components are assigned to the Coyote Creek Phase. They contain projectile points similar to those found in the Cayuse Phase on the Middle Columbia and are dated by these styles and two radiocarbon dates to a period from 2000 B.P. to the protohistoric. (Author).