Scientists to Catalog Bones and Artifacts

County supervisors on Tuesday approved a three-year contract with Cal State Fullerton anthropologists to sort and catalog hundreds of artifacts and bones that have languished in an overcrowded warehouse.

“This is exciting,” said Karon Kaelin, a university spokeswoman. “We can get started right away, though we need to get a key [to the warehouse]. Then we will put the facility into working order.”

The $350,000 contract calls for scientists to begin systematic documentation of the artifacts and establish a database for fossils found over the years during housing, highway and other construction.

Those artifacts, including million-year-old whale bones and other treasures, have been kept at a warehouse behind barbed wire in Santa Ana. In recent years, the warehouse has suffered water leaks and vandalism to plaster casts.

Supervisor Thomas W. Wilson, whose South County district is undergoing the most development, supported the proposal, which was unanimously approved by supervisors.

“It’s in my district that we’re finding many artifacts. As we develop down there, we should be sharing [those artifacts] with the entire county.”

The county has managed an archeological and historical resources program for about 25 years. But efforts to manage the warehouse itself have been unsuccessful.

The project includes fund-raising to either expand the warehouse, seek another site or use the contract as a springboard to building a museum.