FOREWORD 



The four papers comprising the present volume report the results 

 of excavations in three reservoir areas. One, the Texarkana, is lo- 

 cated in northeastern Texas on the Sulphur River; the second, the 

 Coralville, in east-central Iowa on the Iowa River; and the third, 

 the McNary, on the Columbia River between the States of Washington 

 and Oregon. All four projects were carried on by the River Basin 

 Surveys of the Smithsonian Institution in cooperation with the Na- 

 tional Park Service and the Corps of Engineers. 



The investigations at the Texarkana Reservoir were started in 1949 

 when a preliminary survey was made in September and October by 

 Robert L. Stephenson, who at that time was chief of the River Basin 

 Surveys project in Texas. Dr. Stephenson was assisted during part 

 of the survey by Herbert C. Taylor, a graduate student from the 

 University of Texas, who worked as a collaborator, using funds pro- 

 vided by Dr. Alexander D. Krieger of the University of Texas 

 Anthropological Museum. Dr. Krieger at that time was engaged in 

 a program for mapping various mound sites in and near the Big 

 Bend of the Red River, and since the Texarkana Reservoir area, on 

 a tributary of the Red, was involved he graciously contributed the 

 services of Mr. Taylor and financed his efforts from money which had 

 been granted to him by the Viking Fund, now the Wenner-Gren 

 Foundation for Anthropological Research. M. P. Miroir of Tex- 

 arkana served as a voluntary collaborator and assisted Dr. Stephenson 

 sporadically during the entire time of the preliminary survey. He 

 also provided a jeep for work in areas which were too rough for the 

 vehicle normally used to traverse. During the months following 

 Dr. Stephenson's investigations in the area, Mr. Miroir made occa- 

 sional field trips, checking on various sites, and passed on to Dr. 

 Stephenson artifacts picked up from the surface and the information 

 thus obtained. 



As the result of the cooperative work in the Texarkana survey, 

 50 sites were located. All represented open occupational areas, 17 

 being the remains of large villages, 20 smaller camping locations, and 

 10 places where non-pottery-using peoples lived. The main features 

 at the other three were artificial mounds, commonly called "capped 

 ridge" because they were built by piling additional earth on top of 

 the highest natural points on small ridges. Wlien the preliminary 

 appraisal report on the results of the Texarkana survey was issued 



IX 



