100 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.86 



very unlike any heretofore described from the Plains or the Mis- 

 souri Valley. 



This suspicion was confirmed in May 1937, when I proceeded to 

 Kansas City and made a personal examination of the remains in 

 company with Mr. Shippee. It was found that the most promising 

 undestroyed portions of the site were occupied by the owner's resi- 

 dence, garage, poultry yard, and garden. Permission to excavate 

 was nevertheless unhesitatingly granted by the owners, Mr. and 

 Mrs. Leslie Remier, who had previously and have since protected 

 the site against vandalism, besides extending to us at all times the 

 utmost courtesy and cooperation despite the inconvenience to which 

 they were put. Investigations, in which I was assisted by four 

 students, subsequently covered the entire month of June. Through 

 the good services of Ralph Henneman, another interested collector, 

 and the kindness of Transcontinental Western Air and United States 

 Bureau of Air Commerce officials, we were enabled to supplement 

 our records with an aerial reconnaissance of the site and its sur- 

 roundings. 



The Renner site, so named after the owners, is situated on a 

 small terrace on the right bank of Line Creek about a mile north 

 of the Missouri River. It covers an area of about 5 acres, imme- 

 diately below the junction of Juntin Branch and Line Creek, just 

 before the latter emerges from the bluffs zone to cross the alluvial 

 river bottoms. Riverside Racetrack is nearby to the south. The 

 bluffs east and west of the site rise to heights of 150 feet or more 

 and are still partially covered with oak, ash, elm, walnut, hickory, 

 and other hardwood species. To the north is the attractive and 

 fertile Line Creek Valley, in which are other old villages as yet 

 unexplored. 



The new road, on U. S. Highway 169 Ix^tween U. S. 71 and Missouri 

 State Highway 45, cut a strip nearly 100 feet wide across the cen- 

 ter of the site. In the roadside cross sections there had been re- 

 vealed a dark soil zone extending from the ground surface to a 

 depth varying from 13 to 30 inches. Below and usually sharply 

 separated from this dark stratum was bright yellow clay subsoil. 

 Numerous potsherds, burnt limestone boulders, animal bones, and 

 flints occurred throughout the upper layer and appeared to be es- 

 pecially plentiful in and near pits that extended to depths as much 

 as 6 feet below the present ground surface. Unquestionably, great 

 quantities of cultural material were destroyed in building the high- 

 way, but through courtesy of the superintendent of construction, 

 H. M. Kleifeld, most of what had been rescued was presented to us 

 for the national collections. 



