ABCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN THE 

 TORONTO RESERVOIR AREA, KANSAS^ 



By James H. Howard 



INTRODUCTION 



The Toronto Dam and Eeservoir, a flood-control and conservation 

 project of tlie U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District, is 

 located on the Verdigris River in Greenwood and Woodson Counties, 

 southeastern Kansas (see fig. 59) . The dam is a rolled, earthfill struc- 

 ture, 4,712 feet in length and 90 feet in height, above the river channel. 

 It is 314 miles south of the town of Toronto in Woodson County, Kans., 

 55 miles north of the Oklahoma border, and 75 miles west of the 

 Missouri border. It forms a reservoir some 11% miles long, with a 

 maximum width of approximately 1% miles at full-pool level of 931 

 feet (m.s.L). This reservoir extends up the Verdigris River and its 

 tributaries in the eastern portion of Woodson County and the western 

 portion of Greenwood County to cover a total area of approximately 

 10,000 acres. Dam construction was begun in November 1954 and was 

 essentially completed in December 1959. Flooding of the reservoir 

 began in the spring of 1959 with maximum pool level to be reached 

 intermittently after completion. 



In this area the Verdigris River flows in a generally southeasterly 

 direction, forming a wide flood plain between bluffs of Pennsylvanian 

 sandstone and limestone. Numerous bends and meanders indicate that 

 the drainage system is old. A heavy growth of trees, principally 

 scrub oak, elm, cottonwood, and hackberry, clothes the valley and the 

 sides of the bluffs. Above the valley proper, the bluffs slope gradually 

 upward to rolling, grass-covered plains. This upland country is used 

 mainly for grazing, since numerous sandstone and limestone outcrops 

 hinder the use of the plow for breaking the land. 



In early historic times, two Thegiha-speaking Siouan tribes, the 

 Osage and the Kansa, are known to have lived in this area along the 

 Verdigris River (McDermott, 1940). However, no sites that could 

 definitely be attributed to either of these tribes were located during the 

 archeological investigation. 



1 Submitted September 1959. 



661-932—64 24 323 



