Photos: Talkeetna archaeological dig

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Heidi Holcomb, 17, left, of Talkeetna and Abi Smothers, 15, of Caswell remove a small item from an archaeological site across the street from the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, in Talkeetna. The two were participating in a Youth Conservation Corps program that placed area high school students at the site to gain experience in excavation and documentation through the Historic Archaeological Culture Camp. The program is sponsored by Denali National Park and Preserve, the Upper Susitna Soil and Water Conservation District, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum of the North.

For the past two weeks, a half dozen Talkeetna-area high school students with the Youth Conservation Corps led by archaeologists from the University of Alaska Museum of the North have methodically excavated what's believed to be part of the old Nagley homestead next to the Walter Harper Ranger Station just off Talkeetna's main drag. The Nagleys, merchants who owned the local trading post that still bears their name, lived in the area from the 1920s into the 1930s.

The small crew and supervisors removed about 1,500 specimens -- bottles, buttons, rusted tools and stove parts -- from an old building, a burn pit and a trench around a big rusted chain that may or may not have held a bear described in local lore as living somewhere in the vicinity.

Read more: Talkeetna archaeological dig reveals tales of tame bears and outhouse treasure