NO. 2 MISSOURI VALLEY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM — WEDEL II 



central Hitchcock County, this area yielded only one site in the single 

 day spent here. Yellow jasper artifacts and rejectage, together with 

 the apparent absence of pottery, recall the similar localities found in 

 Furnas County, Nebr., and Norton County, Kans. It is quite probable 

 that additional sites occur within the future pool area. 



Of historic interest in the area is Massacre Canyon, where the last 

 engagement between the Pawnee and Ogallala Sioux took place on 

 August 5, 1873. The burial ground of the Pawnee slain at the time 

 will probably lie within the reservoir pool. 



Red Willow Reservoir. — This is to be located on Red Willow Creek, 

 in Frontier and Hayes Counties. Two alternate dam locations have 

 been proposed. Five archeological sites were found, all with pottery 

 remains. Tentatively, the ware is assigned to the Upper Republican 

 horizon. At one place, there was evidence of a habitation structure at 

 the edge of a cut bank. It seems probable that the area is a prolific 

 one archeologically, and that among its prehistoric inhabitants were 

 included several communities of settled, corn-growing peoples. 

 Further work is recommended. 



Rock Creek Reservoir. — This locality is in south-central Dundy 

 County, on Rock Creek, a small tributary of the North (Ari- 

 karee) Fork of the Republican, It is quite small, and but a single site 

 was found. From the fact that it is buried beneath some inches of 

 overburden, the possibility of a moderate antiquity is suggested. No 

 artifacts of diagnostic character were obtained, and test excavations 

 will be necessary before any suggestions as to age, relationships, or 

 possible importance can be made. 



Lower Platte Basin 



Water-control projects proposed for this subdivision include a num- 

 ber of localities on the Loup River and its tributaries. Most of the 

 area, and the great majority of projects so far announced, lie north 

 of the Platte, in a section of rolling loess hills. The headwaters of 

 the Loup system are in the Sandhills region, but the greater part of 

 the stream valleys flow through a fertile tract of loessial soils. 



In historic times the area was controlled by Caddoan- and Siouan- 

 speaking tribes who lived in fixed earth-lodge villages; grew corn, 

 beans, and squash ; made pottery ; and practiced a variety of other arts 

 and industries associated with a reasonably settled mode of life. Since, 

 apparently, their earliest contact with white men, the Pawnee resided 

 in a series of large, fortified towns along the lower Loup, centering 

 in the present Howard, Nance, and Platte Counties, and on the nearby 



