32 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. Ill 



site are a half dozen rock cairns, each approximately i foot high by 

 3 feet in diameter. Their significance is as yet unknown ; similar 

 structures have been reported in other localities in association with 

 tipi-ring sites. 



Although none of the locaUties now known for the Glendo Reser- 

 voir area indicates any great length or permanence of particular 

 occupations, the evidence strongly suggests repeated use of the 

 area by various peoples throughout a long period of time. Apparently, 

 this use began in prepottery days and continued into quite recent 

 times. Glass beads collected on the surface at one or two sites indi- 

 cate habitation into the historic period, when such tribes as the Teton 

 Dakota, Cheyenne, and others visited the district. 



Oregon Basin Reservoir. — Oregon Basin is a subcircular natural 

 depression about 4^ miles in diameter, situated 8 miles southeast of 

 Cody, in Park County, Wyo. Sandstone cliffs and ridges border it on 

 the west and north, .with sloping hills on the south and east. The 

 surrounding terrain consists of rolling prairies cut by stream valleys, 

 and barren hills. The flat central part of the basin floor, formerly a 

 lake, will be used for storage of water brought through a 20-mile 

 conduit from Shoshoni Reservoir. The basin floor is at an elevation of 

 5,100 feet; normal pool elevation will be 5,175 feet, with a surface 

 area of about 4,000 acres. 



Twenty-eight archeological sites are now on record for Oregon 

 Basin, in and near the proposed reservoir area. They include open 

 camp sites, rock shelters, workshops, and petroglyphs. Some are 

 situated on the beach line of the ancient lake, others on knolls and 

 slopes nearby, still others among rocky outcrops and along creek 

 channels outside the basin. There is considerable variation in artifact 

 types, and the aboriginal occupation of the Oregon Basin region 

 undoubtedly goes far back into the past. 



The camp sites, 12 in number, consist of scattered clusters of hearth 

 stones, on or near the ground surface, about which is commonly a 

 litter of flint chips, spalls, cores, animal bone, and sometimes projectile 

 points, chipped knives, scrapers, mullers, etc. The quantity of such 

 debris varies greatly from site to site. Pottery appears to be uniformly 

 absent. That these sites are not all from a single period is suggested 

 by variation in form of projectile points. Occasionally these camp 

 sites occur as dark soil zones in cut banks, with burnt rocks, charcoal, 

 and other refuse intermingled. One is situated near a spring on the 

 west side of the basin, and is overlaid by 4 to 6 feet of alluvium ; 

 others appear to be weathering out from under sand dunes. 



In the sandstone cliffs and overhangs which partially surround the 



