46 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



State and local institutions. An increase in funds for the fiscal year 

 made possible more extensive investigations than in the preceding 

 year. During 1955-56 the program of the River Basin Surveys was 

 financed by a transfer of $92,360 from the National Park Service 

 and a grant of $12,000 from the Idaho Power Co. The funds from 

 the National Park Service were for use in the Missouri Basin. A 

 carryover of $3,663 from the previous year made the total available 

 for operations in the Missouri Basin $96,023. The grant from the 

 Idaho Power Co. was to provide for the excavation of sites along 

 the Snake River in Oregon-Idaho which will be flooded by the con- 

 struction of that company's Brownlee and Hells Canyon dams. The 

 latter funds were the first for work outside the Missouri Basin made 

 available to the River Basin Surveys in several years. 



Investigations in the field during the year consisted of surveys and 

 excavations. Most of the efforts were concentrated in the digging 

 of sites. Because of a slight delay in receiving the new Federal funds, 

 it was the middle of July before parties were sent out from the field 

 headquarters at Lincoln, Nebr. On July 15 a survey party began in- 

 vestigations in the Tiber Reservoir. On July 18 a second party start- 

 ed digging at a fortified village site near the mouth of the Cheyenne 

 River in the Oahe Reservoir area, and on July 20 a third party started 

 operations in the vicinity of the Oahe Dam near Pierre, S. Dak. In 

 May a historic-sites party began excavations at the location of an early 

 trading post in the area of the outlet channel below the Oahe Dam. 

 Early in June a second party returned to the Cheyenne site and re- 

 sumed excavations at that locality. Later a third party proceeded to 

 a village site near Whitlocks Crossing in the Oahe Reservoir basin 

 and started investigations where no previous work had been done. 

 On June 2 a survey party began operations in the Big Bend Reservoir 

 area near Fort Thompson, S. Dak., and on June 12 an excavating party 

 began digging a site in the Lovewell Reservoir area in northern 

 Kansas. Late in June a party proceeded to Robinette, Oreg., where it 

 established camp and initiated excavations in one of the Snake River 

 sites. All these parties were continuing their investigations at the 

 close of the fiscal year. During the year no paleontological studies 

 were made in any of the areas by the River Basin Surveys. However, 

 some fossil collecting was done by State institutions. 



As of June 30, 1956, reservoir areas where archeological surveys 

 and excavations had been made since the Salvage Program got under 

 way in 1946 totaled 244 in 27 States ; also four canal areas and one lock 

 project had been investigated. The survey parties have located and 

 reported 4,365 archeological sites, and of that number 862 have been 

 recommended for limited testing or excavation. The term "excava- 

 tion" in this connection implies digging approximately 10 percent of 



