JUST LIKE INDIANA JONES

For Simon Tucker, the attraction to digging began at age 3, as he watched Sesame Street character Bob's Uncle searching for a golden cabbage in Snuffleupagus' cave. Then Simon discovered Indiana Jones, and so began his mantra: "I want to be an archaeologist."

As chance would have it, Simon's parents, Dale and Jolene Tucker of Lewiston, Idaho, met an archaeologist at a dinner party. Privately thinking their son would find the reality of excavating to be, well, the pits, they asked her where Simon might be able to look in on a real dig. She told them about Passport in Time (PIT), a USDA Forest Service program established in 1988 that invites the public (at no cost except for providing your own food, camping gear and, at some locations, water) to join in excavations at its sites. Jolene took Simon on his first dig in 1993, when he was 8. Not only did the experience fail to bury his interest, it all but locked him into a career path. Now 12, he's about to engage in his sixth archaeological adventure.

On June 16, Simon and his mother, along with 28 other people ages 7 and older, will begin 13 days of excavating one of the largest intact Chinese ground-sluicing operations in the Pacific Northwest. Gold was discovered in Idaho's Boise Basin in 1862. Some 8,000 miners, mostly of European origin, rushed in. By 1870, Chinese miners were staking claims or purchasing or leasing them. In 1881 Hop Lee, of the Hong Lee Tong, signed a lease for a placer claim at the junction of Mores and Granite creeks. It is this site, opened in 1995 (with Simon's participation), to which the Tuckers are returning next month to take up shovels, trowels, whisk brooms and sifting screens.

The trove uncovered to date tells PIT project leader Susie Osgood that they are excavating in the site's living quarters and midden section. They have found a network of bedrock sluices as well as "goodies" (Simon's word) that include celadon and Swatow pottery, a wok and Chinese coins. "It's a thrill knowing there's something down there that hasn't been touched for hundreds of years, even if it isn't too much," says Simon. "It makes me want to go home and do research." And he does.

Passport in Time, 800-281-9176. Excavations at the Hong Lee Placer Claim are closed out for 1997.