NO. 2 SALVAGE PROGRAM, I95O-I95I — COOPER 79 



ing the early retreat of the Mankato" (C. Bertrand Schultz, in 195 1 

 field report by E. Mott Davis, in files of River Basin Surveys, p. 38) . 



Trenton Reservoir site.^ — This reservoir site, on the Republican 

 River behind a dam situated about 2 miles west of Trenton, in 

 Hitchcock County, had not been surveyed prior to 1950. In 1947, a 

 survey team from the River Basin Surveys briefly reconnoitered 

 part of the lower reaches of the proposed Culbertson Reservoir, the 

 dam for which was planned for a point 2 miles from the town of 

 Culbertson. Subsequently the Bureau of Reclamation altered its plans 

 for development in this vicinity and selected a site several miles up- 

 stream for the dam, which was renamed for the adjacent town of 

 Trenton. The new site was not touched by the earlier reconnaissance. 

 Because construction had begun and the reservoir is in an area that 

 might reasonably be expected to contain significant archeological re- 

 mains, the Nebraska State Historical Society, entirely with its own 

 resources, surveyed the terrain to be affected in the spring of 1950. 

 When it developed that sites warranting salvage did indeed exist, the 

 Society entered into an agreement with the National Park Service 

 to undertake the necessary investigations. Two sites were rather 

 extensively excavated and another was briefly tested by a party of 

 six or seven during a period of approximately two months. 



The activities of the party were concentrated at 25HK7, in the 

 dam work area, and at 25HK13, below the dam but destined for 

 destruction by railway relocation necessitated by creation of the reser- 

 voir. When the party reached the field, considerable damage had 

 already been done to 25HK7 (the Carmody site) by construction 

 activities. Much of an upper deposit yielding pottery suggesting occu- 

 pation by a group of Pawnee or culturally related people had been 

 removed by earth-moving machinery. Evidence indicated the occupa- 

 tion was by a small group and probably for a relatively brief period, 

 although six basin-shaped hearths exhibited sufficiently intensive 

 burning to indicate much more than overnight camping. Separated 

 from the above by a sterile loess zone was a dark layer containing 

 charcoal, burnt earth, broken stones, bones, mussel shell fragments, 

 and limited quantities of pottery and chipped stone. Two relatively 

 shallow trash-filled pits, several unprepared hearths, a rectangular 

 basin outlined by small sandstone slabs set on end and containing 

 evidence of fire, and a cluster of stones that had been intensively 

 fired were also in this level, although the last feature, which was prob- 

 ably at the base of a pit, may have been associated with the upper 



3 Formerly Culbertson Reservoir. 



