pip^^o'isf" HISTORIC SITES ARCHEOLOGY — MATTES 11 



cerned (U.S. Dept. Int., 1952 b) . With funds largely provided by the 

 Missouri Kiver Basin Project, the National Park Service supervised 

 a project for obtaining measured drawings of 12 structures in the 

 Missouri Elver Reservoir areas, which drawings and accompanying 

 notes and photographs have been prepared and are filed in the Library 

 of Congress in accordance with standards set forth by the Historic 

 American Buildings Survey.* 



The principal salvage effort in the historical field, however, has been 

 the archeological search and excavation of sites of importance in 

 early Missouri River histoiy, with the object of ascertaining or 

 verifying structural data and obtaining objects, for eventual museum 

 use and study, which might throw new light on everyday conditions 

 during the frontier period. The Smithsonian Institution, which had 

 already assumed responsibility for the survey and excavation of 

 Indian sites, agreed to undertake the historic sites fieldwork required. 

 After several unsuccessful efforts to obtain appropriations for this 

 particular type of archeology, funds were finally made available in 

 the fiscal year 1950. Actual fieldwork in historic sites on the Upper 

 Missouri was conducted for three summers, 1950 to 1952 inclusive, 

 and again in 1954, all in the Fort Randall and Garrison Reservoirs, 

 where dams were under construction and where impoundment, at the 

 date of writing this report, has actually covered many of the critical 

 sites described. (Although field reconnaissance by Service histoiians 

 included rather thorough coverage of the Oahe and Gavins Point 

 Reservoirs, dam construction in those instances has been scheduled 

 somewhat later and consequently salvage measures have been less 

 imperative. It is hoped that work can yet be accomplished there, or 

 archeological losses — both historic and prehistoric — will be extensive.) 



The Fort Randall report listed 120 historic sites and features, in- 

 cluding 15 Ijewis and Clark camp sites, 3 military posts, 4 trading 

 posts, and 13 abandoned communities of other types (Mattes, 1949). 

 The Garrison report described 77 historic features, including 15 iden- 

 tifiable Lewis and Clark sites, 1 military post, 4 trading posts, and 9 

 abandoned communities of other types (Mattison, 1951). 



Wliat factors determined which sites would be most eligible for 

 archeological investigation, in view of the limitation placed on funds 

 available for that purpose ? Three such factors appeared in weighing 

 any given site or in weighing one against another — the degree of 

 historical significance, the extent of available knowledge, and the 

 accuracy of orientation data. Thus, theoretically, the most eligible 

 site would be associated with some important event in American 



* The measured structures are : In Gavins Point Reservoir, Episcopal and Congregational 

 Missions, Santee Indian Reservation, and the Huttcrlte Mill near Tabor ; In Fort Randall 

 Reservoir, the Fort Randall Chapel ; In the Oahe Reservoir, the Oahe Chapel, St. Johns 

 Episcopal Church and Chapel at Cheyenne River Agency, blacksmith shop at Fort Bennett ; 

 In Garrison Reservoir, the Fort Berthold Congregational Mission, Indian dance hall at 

 Elbowoods, the powder magazine and officers' quarters at Fort Buf ord. 



