It is gratifying to see that R. Lee Lyman (1997: 260) is in "general agreement" with the conclusion that "no securely dated evidence currently exists for a 'pre-littoral' cultural adaptation along the southern Northwest Coast" (Minor 1995: 271). That was the point of my article (Minor 1995). The reassessment of early radiocarbon dates from the southern Northwest Coast was prompted by the fact that die pre-littoral stage as defined by Lyman and Ross (1988) and Lyman (1991a) is not consistent with the archaeological evidence.

Early radiocarbon dates of 8,310 ± 110 B.P. from the Neptune site and 6,880 ± 80 B.P. and 7,960 ± 90 B.P. from Tahkenitch Landing on the central Oregon coast were obtained from below shell midden deposits and have been cited as evidence of a "pre-littoral" adaptation in this region. However, association of the Neptune site date with human occupation is suspect, and the Tahkenitch Landing dates are associated with evidence of exploitation of marine resources in an adjacent estuary. No securely dated evidence currently exists for a "pre-littoral'' adaptation along the southern Northwest Coast.

Artifacts recovered during channel dredging in the Coos Bay estuary include the first wooden fish clubs from an archaeological context on the Oregon coast. The clubs and other artifacts, shell debris, fire-cracked rock, and fish weir stakes recovered by the dredge point to the presence of a submerged archaeological site at the mouth of South Slough, a major arm of Coos Bay. The cultural deposits at 35CS135 may represent a submerged prehistoric component of an ethnographic village at the mouth of South Slough. Radiocarbon dates from the two wooden clubs suggest an age of about AD 1020- 1450 for the inferred period of site occupation represented by the dredged cultural deposits. Although great earthquakes and accompanying tsunamis have episodically devastated the Oregon coast over the past 5000 years, the cultural deposits at 35CS135 were more likely submerged gradually by a slow rise in sea level than by sudden, earthquake-induced, coastal subsidence.

While distant peoples undoubtedly procured obsidian from sources in central Oregon, it is likely that this activity was largely restricted to informal trade between individual hunters or small hunting groups during most of the prehistoric past. Certainly, there currently is no evidence that an exchange system on the scale envisioned by Scott et al. existed in this area during the time periods they suggested.

The Raymond's Dune site (35CU62) in Curry County, Oregon, is mainly known for a radiocarbon assay of 3,000 ± 90 B.P that for many years was the oldest archaeological radiocarbon date from the southern Northwest Coast. Although often mentioned in the archaeological literature, a comprehensive report on this site was never prepared. This article reconstructs the history of fieldwork at this site, bringing together information about the cultural deposits, pithouse feature, artifacts, and human skeletal remains found there. References to this site by L.S. Cressman and other archaeologists are reviewed and assessed in terms of current information. Although no longer one of the oldest known sites in the region, the Raymond's Dune site retains some importance for its small role in the history of southern Northwest Coast archaeology.