SECRETARY'S REPORT 87 



late circular houses in the area. One house of each component, 

 many cache pits, and several midden areas were excavated. Abundant 

 pottery and other artifacts suggest that the earlier component relates 

 to the Anderson and Over foci, while the later component was of the 

 period of the Shannon Focus and similar to component C at the 

 Talking Crow site. This party also sampled the Jandreau site 

 (39LM221), 3 miles east of Medicine Creek in the same general area. 

 Portions of two long-rectangular houses were excavated as were 

 cross sections of the fortification moat. Ceramics recovered there 

 suggest that the village may have been transitional between the An- 

 derson Focus and the Thomas Riggs Focus and will date toward the 

 latter part of the long-rectangular house period. In addition, minor 

 tests were made at the Gilman site (39LM226) and at site 39LM228 

 in the Medicine Creek Bottoms. The latter proved to have been a 

 rectangular-house village of Over Focus affiliation, while the former 

 was a circular-house village of the Shannon Focus. After 11 weeks 

 in the field this crew completed its assignment on August 26. 



A third party in the Big Bend Reservoir area, sharing a joint 

 camp with Caldwell's two crews, was directed b}'^ Vernon R. Helmen. 

 This crew of three was frequently assisted by members of Caldwell's 

 parties during the 2 weeks of its work (July 16-27). Helmen and 

 his associates provided their services on a volunteer basis, and Mrs. 

 Helmen made a useful study of the microecology of the flora of one 

 earth lodge. The Helmen crew excavated one house in site 39LM223, 

 a small village of the Shannon Focus. The circular house and several 

 cache pits yielded Talking Crow and lona pottery. 



The remaining field party in the Big Bend Reservoir area was at 

 work at the beginning of the year excavating the remains of Fort 

 George (39ST202), a historic fur-trading post built in 1842 and 

 operated briefly in opposition to the trading post of Fort Pierre 

 Cliouteau. The crew of eight was directed by G. Hubert Smith, 

 assisted by Lee G. Madison, and was based in Pierre with the Bass 

 party. Fort George -was located on the right bank of the Missouri 

 River some 15 miles downstream from Pierre. Remains of the log 

 stockade, two blockhouses, and the interior buildings of timber were 

 excavated and recorded. Artifacts were abundant and will, along 

 with the architecture, provide a substantial picture of life at this 

 early post, of which so little contemporary record remains. 



Two Missouri Basin Project field parties were at work at the begin- 

 ning of the year in the Yellowtail Reservoir area in the Big Horn 

 Canyon in Montana and Wyoming. Lionel A. Brown, with a crew 

 of five, operated in the lower end of the reservoir from the Yellow- 

 tail Dam south to the mouth of Dry Head Creek, a distance of some 

 25 miles upstream from the dam. They excavated three large, dif- 



