SECRETARY’S REPORT 61 
ing the fiscal year 1958-59 the work of the River Basin Surveys was 
supported by a transfer of $162,000 from the National Park Service to 
the Smithsonian Institution. Of that sum, $137,000 was for use in 
the Missouri Basin and $25,000 was for investigations along the 
Chattahoochee River in Alabama and Georgia. The Missouri Basin 
Project had a carryover of $22,173 on July 1, 1958, and that, with 
the new appropriation, provided a total of $159,173 for the program 
in that area. The grand total of funds available for the River Basin 
Surveys for 1958-59 was $184,173. 
Field investigations throughout the year consisted mainly of exca- 
vations, although some limited surveys were carried on. On July 1, 
1958, 10 parties were in the field, all of them working in the Missouri 
Basin in South Dakota. Five of the parties were doing intensive 
digging in the Big Bend Reservoir area near Fort Thompson, four 
were excavating, and one was doing survey testing in the Oahe Reser- 
voir area north of Pierre. Most of the field parties had returned to 
their headquarters at Lincoln, Nebr., by the end of August. Two 
small parties made brief investigations in the Merritt and Big Bend 
Reservoir areas during December and January. In February three 
parties began excavations and test excavations along the Chattahoo- 
chee River in Alabama-Georgia. The latter continued operations 
until late in June, when work was stopped and the men returned to 
their headquarters. Early in June a party from the Missouri Basin 
project headquarters began excavations in several sites in the construc- 
tion area for the Big Bend Dam in South Dakota. 
As of June 30, 1959, reservoir areas where archeological surveys 
had been made or excavations carried on since the beginning of field- 
work by the River Basin Surveys in the summer of 1946 totaled 
254, located in 29 States. Two lock projects and four canal areas 
had also been examined. The survey parties have located 4,909 
archeological sites, and of that number 1,017 have been recommended 
for excavation or limited testing. The term “excavation” in this re- 
spect does not imply the complete uncovering of a site, but rather 
digging only enough of it to obtain a good sample of the materials 
and information to be found there. While many of the locations 
are unquestionably of sufficient importance to warrant complete exca- 
vation, the needs of the salvage program make it impossible to con- 
duct so extensive an investigation at any one location. 
Preliminary appraisal reports have been issued for all the reservoir 
areas surveyed, with the exception of the three along the Chattahoo- 
chee River. The manuscripts of two of those reports have been com- 
pleted and the third is well underway, so that all of them will be 
processed early in the coming fiscal year. The preliminary appraisal 
report for the Big Bend Reservoir area in South Dakota was mime- 
