Dig is uncovering history feared lost

To the untrained eye, what lies in the burned-out shell of Dyar House does not look like much. White ash, charred debris and twisted metal, orange with rust, cover the floor of the building, which was gutted during the 2003 Cedar fire that burned nearly all of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park's 25,000 acres.

But to the state archaeologists excavating the site, the rubble is priceless. Amid the wreckage lie thousands of artifacts, including Kumeyaay pottery, lanterns and scales once used in a historic gold mine.