76 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1948 
On March 28 Mr. Kivett returned to the Medicine Creek Reservoir 
to begin an extensive excavation program. During the period March 
29 to June 380, three village sites on or near the dam axis were excavated, 
and digging was started at the remains of a fourth village a short 
distance above the dam in the reservoir basin. This work included 
the uncovering of 25 house floors, the recovery of 2 burials, and ex- 
tensive excavations in midden areas associated with the house floors. 
Power machinery, furnished by the Bureau of Reclamation, was used 
primarily for removing the sterile overburden covering most of the 
area, for the removal of refuse dirt, and for digging exploratory test 
trenches. ‘The bulk of the materials recovered appear to be attribut- 
able to the Upper Republican aspect. At the close of the fiscal year 
the work was continuing, with attention being directed toward a series 
of small sites on the right bank of the reservoir basin approximately 
1 mile above the dam axis. 
George Metcalf was appointed field assistant on September 25 and 
proceeded immediately to the Medicine Creek Reservoir where he 
joined Marvin F. Kivett in the excavation being conducted there. 
He returned to Lincoln on November 9 and from then until March 
28, when he again went to Medicine Creek, he devoted his time to 
classifying, studying, and writing a technical paper on the specimens 
collected during the field work. This report included not only the 
material obtained by the River Basin Surveys party, but also that 
secured by a group from the Nebraska State Historical Society which 
had excavated several house sites in the area during the summer. 
Mr. Metcalf’s manuscript will be incorporated into the major report 
on the Medicine Creek investigations. On June 30 he was in charge 
of a portion of the work at Medicine Creek. 
J. M. Shippee, field assistant, was with the Bliss party from July 
1 to November 8. After his return to Lincoln he devoted the time 
in the laboratory to work on the specimens from Birdshead Cave, the 
sorting and classifying of artifacts from other localities, and the prep- 
aration of maps. He left Lincoln on June 1 with the Hughes party 
and was participating in the surveys at Angostura Reservoir at the 
end of the year. 
Dr. Theodore E. White, paleontologist, was occupied in paleontolog- 
ical reconnaissance from July 1 to September 19. In the course of 
this work he visited 7 reservoir areas in Nebraska, 23 in Wyoming, and 
25 in Montana. This phase of his investigations was interrupted 
from August 21 to September 11 while he dug the skull and several 
vertebrae of a dinosaur from the Jurassic Morrison beds in the Middle 
Fork Reservoir area in northeastern Wyoming. Dr. White returned 
to the Lincoln office on September 20 and spent the time until Octo- 
ber 8 preparing preliminary reports on the reservoir projects exam- 
ined during the summer. He then left for the Rocky Ford and Philip 
