Indian Sands is an archaeological site in the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor, about 9 miles (14.5 km) northwest of Brookings and 4.5 miles (7.3 km) southwest of Carpenterville, Oregon. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Artifacts found there are older than any known sites on the Washington coast and roughly the same age as a small number of sites in coastal Alaska, British Columbia, and California.

Evidence of human migration along the coast is scarce, largely because of geomorphic processes acting on a dynamic landscape. Wind, rain, earthquakes, and tides buffet the Oregon coast, often obscuring, altering, or destroying archaeological sites. Locating coastal sites that would have attracted ancient inhabitants is correspondingly difficult: most of what made up the Oregon coast thousands of years ago now lies underwater. As the glaciers of the last ice age melted, sea levels rose, and what was once shoreline now sits, depending on topography, anywhere from hundreds of feet to more than a mile offshore.

In 2002, a team of Oregon State University researchers, led by anthropologist Roberta Hall and geoarchaeologist Loren Davis, reported evidence of human presence at Indian Sands dating back more than 10,000 years, over 2,000 years older than any previously known site on Oregon’s coast. Carbon dating of artifacts resembling those found on the Alaskan and British Columbian coasts suggested an origin approximately 12,000 years ago. These early inhabitants are thought to have been part of a wave of migration down the Pacific coast from the Bering Land Bridge, and stone tools recovered at the site indicate repeated, if likely seasonal, use of the area over thousands of years. Read more here and here. Explore more of Indian Sands and Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor here: Read more here and here. Explore more of Indian Sands and Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor here: