66 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 7 



1947, he left Washington for Richmond, Va., to confer with the offi- 

 cials at the Region 1 office of the National Park Service. From Rich- 

 mond he proceeded to Norfolk, Va., on February 13, to confer with the 

 district engineer. Corps of Engineers, about a survey of the Buggs 

 Island project on the Roanoke River. He left Norfolk on February 

 14 and went to South Hill, Va., where he established headquarters. 

 From that date until May 4 he surveyed all the Virginia and part of 

 the North Carolina portion of the reservoir basin. He then returned 

 to Washington and devoted the remainder of the fiscal year to pre- 

 paring a preliminary report on the results of the survey and making 

 recommendations and estimates for an excavation program in that 

 area. 



Missouri Basin. — The first steps in initiating investigations in the 

 Missouri Basin were the establishment of field headquarters at Lincoln, 

 Nebr., and the assembling of personnel to undertake the field sur- 

 veys. Dr. Waldo R. Wedel, associate curator of archeology, United 

 States National Museum, who had been detailed to the River Basin 

 Surveys for that purpose, left Washington for Lincoln, Nebr., on 

 July 8, 1946, and upon his arrival there began instructing the person- 

 nel recruited for the project and assembling equipment needed in the 

 field. Through the courtesy of the University of Nebraska, office space 

 was provided at the University's Laboratory of Anthropology. Later, 

 additional space was made available for a laboratory. This arrange- 

 ment continued throughout the year, and on June 30, 1947, both the 

 field office and the project laboratory were housed in the basement of 

 the Love Memorial Library on the university campus. 



Actual reconnaissance started on August 3, 1946, and continued for 

 a period of 7 weeks, at the end of which weather conditions made it 

 necessary for the men to return to field headquarters. During this 

 time, 3 parties of 2 men each, limited because of inadequate transporta- 

 tion, covered more than 13,000 miles and made preliminary investiga- 

 tions at 28 top priority Bureau of Reclamation projects and at 5 Corps 

 of Engineers reservoirs. Since complete coverage of each reservoir 

 basin was in no case possible, additional surveys were recommended for 

 most of the units visited. One field party returned to the Harlan 

 County Reservoir, Nebr., for a period of 5 weeks, October 16 to Novem- 

 ber 23, 1946, and with the aid of local labor tested a number of sites 

 and removed material which was being damaged by erosion or being 

 excavated by unauthorized collectors. 



Dr. Waldo R. Wedel returned to Washington and to his regular 

 duties at the National Museum on October 18, 1946. At this time 

 Paul L. Cooper was designated as acting director for the Lincoln of- 

 fice and continued to serve in that capacity until May 21, 1947, when 

 Dr. Wedel, who had again been detailed to the Surveys, returned to 

 Lincoln and resumed his supervision of the Missouri Basin program. 



