In the 1950s Congress approved the building of four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington. Archaeologists surveyed the area for sites that would be destroyed by the new reservoir and found eleven habitation sites, including the Marmes rock shelter where the Marmes Man would later be found.

Richard Daughterty and his student crew also excavated two large house pits and found artifacts like stone projectile points, knives, and scrapers, all dating between A.D. 187 and A.D. 687. Unfortunately, only a portion of the site could be excavated before being flooded by water.