10 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



culture. Still earlier was a fifth pottery-making group, the Wood- 

 land peoples, for whom there is as yet no conclusive proof of corn 

 growing. There is also a growing body of evidence to show that much 

 older, prepottery horizons are probably present, and that such ancient 

 big-game hunters as the Folsom, Yuma, and perhaps other peoples 

 as yet unrecognized or unnamed, passed through the district at various 

 times in the remote past. In short, the east-west valley of the Repub- 

 lican, were its prehistory systematically and thoroughly worked out, 

 would in all probability yield an exceptionally useful and important 

 archeological cross section for the central plains region. 



Noteworthy, too, is the fact that at several points in the valley 

 prehistoric remains are found in buried soil zones, covered by what 

 appear to be wind-laid deposits. Sometimes two or more such buried 

 zones, lying one above the other, contain markedly dissimilar artifacts 

 attributable to distinct occupations, and are separated by culturally 

 sterile strata of varying thickness. Here is a suggestion that the 

 successive inhabitants perhaps entered the region during climatically 

 favorable times, only to be forced out of it toward the east during 

 periods of deficient rainfall, which are marked by the sterile over- 

 lying dust deposits. Since it is to be expected that the archeological 

 horizons will some day be datable in terms of our calendar, we may 

 hope further to get some concrete indication of the time when these 

 presumed prehistoric droughts transpired. An exceptional oppor- 

 tunity here awaits combined attack by archeologists, geologists, soils 

 experts, paleontologists, and students of other disciplines. 



Beaver City Reservoir. — The area here involved is on Beaver Creek, 

 in southeastern Furnas County. Beaver Creek enters the Republican 

 from the southwest at a point within the upstream limits of the Harlan 

 County Reservoir, now under construction. Four sites were recorded 

 here. All were littered with quantities of worked and unworked 

 yellow jasper, and were closely similar to others found in Norton 

 Reservoir immediately to the south in Kansas. There were no pottery 

 remains, and it is impossible to suggest the age or cultural affiliations 

 of the sites. They suggest workshops, and may be of no great antiquity. 



Buffalo Creek Reservoir. — This is on Bufifalo Creek, a northerly 

 tributary of the Republican in Dundy County. The single site located 

 was in a cultivated field, the surface of which was littered with village 

 refuse. Some tendency toward concentration of the remains in smaller 

 areas was noted. Pottery fragments suggest either Upper Republican 

 or Woodland types, and there was a wide variety of stone artifacts. 

 The site seems important enough to warrant further investigation. 



Culbertson Reservoir. — Located on the Republican River in east- 



