About 2000 years ago, people along the
Deschutes River near Mack Canyon were hunting big horn sheep, deer, and mountain goats. They lived in circular houses about 20 feet in diameter, built over shallow pits. From the animal bone remains and house pits, archaeologists conclude that this was a winter village from which people traveled to other places to obtain many of their foods. Chert, which occurs near the village, was a material often used to make stone tools.
About 20 miles above the Deschutes' confluence with the Columbia River is the Mack Canyon Site, where 29 housepit depressions have been mapped along an alluvial terrace overlooking the stream. Excavations in three of these depressions suggest the nature and age of occupation there.
