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7 the Bear Creek site (CA-SJO-0112) (Olsen and Wilson (1964) . S dddddd The Windmiller people apparently depended for subsistence on acorns, as indicated at the known sites by quantities of a distinctive type of artifact--globs of baked clay--which archaeologists have interpreted as local substitutes for cooking stones. Suitable stones or globs of clay were heated in fires and placed in baskets containing acorn meal, to cook the meal �'. ,. without exposing the baskets to flame. Repeated exposure to fire caused the stones and baked clay objects eventually to fracture: the discarded, thermally-altered fragments form a significant ry part of the debris found in many Central Valley archaeological sites. The known Windmiller sites contain other types of artifacts, including large projectile points made of obsidian and carefully polished ground stone implements called "charmstones, " which apparently had ceremonial significance. Much as been learned about the Windmiller people (Heizer 1949, 1974 ; Moratto 1984; Napton 1981; Ragir 1972) but many aspects of this distinctive culture remain enigmatic (Meighan 1987: 28-36) . Other archaeological sites in the proposed project region include the French Camp Slough site (CA-SJO-0091) (Johnson 1970; Schulz and Johnson 1980) , the Mormon Slough site excavated . by 4 Fenenga (1970) , and the "Brown" site (CA-SJO-0165) , situated on the east side of the San Joaquin River, where salvage excavations were conducted in 1971-72 by field parties from California State University, Sacramento, directed by J. J. Johnson and reported by Rolen (1976) . (The balance of the site is reported to have been destroyed in July 1971, when the mound on which it was situated was allegedly used as a source of fill for construction of I-5) . Archaeological investigations in the Stockton-Tracy area °^. include the work of Jones (1923) and Schenck and Dawson (1929) . The latter prepared a comprehensive report, one that to this day constitutes the best available summary of unsponsored excavations conducted in the numerous mound sites around the Delta region. The exact locations of some of the sites discussed by Schenck and a Dawson are obscure--some may never be accurately placed, the areas in which they are located having been highly altered by modern agriculture. One of the most recent archaeological . excavations near Stockton, conducted for research purposes, was a test of site CA-SJO-0151, undertaken by the writer (Napton 1987) . I � Local Archaeological Background � i The major local archaeological sequence Pertaining to the / Coast Range has been identified by excavation of archaeological i t .