56 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I26 



than the briefest examination of this site (39LM57), and intensive 

 investigation was postponed until the field season of 1951. 



Primarily during the late weeks of the season, after the party had 

 been drastically reduced by the return of personnel to school, addi- 

 tional reconnaissance of parts of the reservoir area, mostly on the 

 west side of the river, was accomplished. A number of previously 

 recorded sites were reexamined and 30 new sites were found, 

 bringing the total number of known archeological locations in the 

 Fort Randall Reservoir to 123. 



The Miller party devoted its entire time in 195 1 to further investi- 

 gation of site 39LM57, found and briefly tested by Garth the previ- 

 ous year. Four levels of occupation were reported, the upper two 

 referable to establishments of White construction, the lower two of 

 prehistoric age. The upper level yielded briquettes, ashes, and burned 

 timbers outlining an area, presumably the site of a building, 70 feet 

 long and 20 feet wide. Except for what appeared to be a fireplace 

 footing of chalkstone, details of construction were virtually lacking. 

 It was not possible, for example, to find evidence relative to the parti- 

 tioning of the structure into rooms. It is believed, however, that the 

 floor was of earth. At a depth of about 0.2 foot beneath this level 

 were indications of another structure. Here again structural details 

 were absent except that short sections of horizontal molds indicated 

 a log building. 



The somewhat scanty materials recovered from the historic levels 

 included china and crockery fragments, glass beads, fragments of 

 trade pipes and bottles, buttons, cartridges cases, and miscellaneous 

 hardware. Much of this material is of little diagnostic value as far 

 as age and source are concerned — or insufficient studies have been 

 made to demonstrate such value — but a few items provide some light 

 on the time factor. Thus, percussion caps recovered are stated to be 

 of a type used possibly during the period 1822-1850 and some beads 

 are of a variety with a terminal date of 1825 at other sites. Both 

 hand-made and machine-cut nails, the latter dating from not earlier 

 than the late 1830's, are in the collection. 



On the basis of documentary materials it has been suggested by 

 Merrill Mattes, National Park Service Regional Historian, that 

 39LM57 may well be the site of a "French" Fur Company trading post, 

 called Fort Lookout, which was in existence in 1833. This site ap- 

 pears to have been abandoned at some unknown date after 1833, and 

 then to have been reoccupied in 1840 by an independent trader named 

 La Barge and finally abandoned in 1851. The available archeological 

 evidence seems consistent with this identification, especially if recon- 



