NO. 2 SALVAGE PROGRAM, I95O-I95I — COOPER 2$ 



in more or less intensive excavation of five sites, all lying in the lower 

 half of the reservoir area and so situated that they will be destroyed 

 soon after the beginning of impoundment. In most instances the 

 yield of artifacts was lamentably scanty, but one site of particular 

 interest, insufficiently investigated late in the field season because of 

 earlier high water in the Marias River, appears to be unusually rich 

 and is worthy of additional excavation. 



Site 24LT2 was first observed in 1946, when hearths were found 

 exposed for a distance of about 200 yards along the left bank of the 

 Marias River. In 1950, six trenches, 10 to 40 feet long and of various 

 widths, were excavated at intervals along the cut bank where ex- 

 posures suggested concentrations of cultural materials. Hearths, 

 usually simple open fireplaces, were found in five of these trenches 

 at depths of approximately i to 4 feet in banded alluvial deposits. 

 One stone-lined hearth, partially destroyed by stream cutting, lay 

 at a depth of i foot beneath the surface. With one exception, the 

 cultural material was found in a single stratum about 6 inches thick 

 overlain by 6 inches to i foot of sterile earth. In one trench, however, 

 a hearth was uncovered at a depth of about 4 feet, and small quanti- 

 ties of bone were found above this feature to a point i^ feet beneath 

 the surface. Part of a small end scraper with chipping only on the 

 working end comprises the entire artifact yield from the excavations. 

 The balance of the specimens consists of a few flakes of chalcedony 

 and jasper, fragments of water-worn stone, two small fragments of 

 ocher, and bones of bison, cottontail, deer, and sharp-tailed grouse. 



Site 24LT3, revealed by the presence of hearths and charcoal 

 layers in the river bank, lies about one-third mile upstream from 

 24LT2, at the foot of a steep-sided hill. Two trenches, 10 feet and 

 35 feet long, respectively, were excavated to uncover the exposed cul- 

 tural strata. The smaller excavation revealed three dark zones of 

 varying thicknesses containing charcoal at approximate depths of 2 

 feet, 4^ feet, and 7^ feet. Indubitable evidence of human occupation 

 was confined to the lowest level, which contained a stone-lined hearth, 

 small quantities of bison bones and stone, and rare chalcedony flakes. 

 It seems probable that the considerable depth of this deposit is largely 

 the result of slope wash from the contiguous hill, and that the higher 

 charcoal-bearing lenses may be secondary deposits. The significant 

 features in the larger trench consisted of shallow, basin-shaped pits 

 surrounded by relatively thin deposits of burned earth and charcoal 

 of limited extent. These features, lying beneath overburden of 3 

 or 3^ feet, contained bone and stone refuse, but no artifacts. 



A brief period was devoted to the testing of site 24TL3, where 



