HISTORICAL SITES ARCHEOLOGY IN THE FORT 

 RANDALL RESERVOIR, SOUTH DAKOTA^ 



By John E. Mills 



INTKODUCTION 



This report is a summary of the field activities concerning historic 

 sites archeology in the Fort Randall Reservoir, S. Dak,, undertaken in 

 years 1947-52. It is not offered as a final work but is essentially a 

 summary progress report of reconnaissance and excavation of several 

 historic sites in this area. 



The work has been conducted as a part of the Inter- Agency Archeo- 

 logical and Paleontological Salvage Program under the direction of 

 Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., Bureau of American Ethnology, Smith- 

 sonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The field activities at the Fort 

 Randall Reservoir were operated as part of this program through 

 the River Basin Surveys office in Lincoln, Nebr., and were conducted 

 by Smithsonian Institution archeologists out of that office. The 

 organization and background of this program for the recovery of 

 archeological and paleontological remains from areas to be innundated 

 by reservoirs constructed by the Federal Government have been 

 published elsevv^here and will not be detailed here.^ The fieldwork 

 reported here was based principally on past and continuous researches 

 by the Region Two Office of the National Park Service. The analysis 

 of the history of the area by Merrill J. Mattes, regional historian of 

 that office,^ comprised the basic groundwork upon which archeological 

 reconnaissance and excavations by Smithsonian Institution parties 

 were based. 



The Fort Randall Reservoir, on the Missouri River in South 

 Dakota, was planned and constructed by the Corps of Engineers, 

 United States Army. The site of the dam is in Charles Mix and 

 Gregory Counties, 6 miles north of the Nebraska line and 7 miles 

 south of Lake Andes (map 1). The dam is an earth- filled structure 

 approximately 170 feet high and 10,000 feet long. At the maximum 



1 Submitted May 1953. 



» Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 107, No. 6, 1947 ; American Antiquity, 

 vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 209-225, 1947 ; Smithsonian Institution Annual Report, pp. 351-383, 

 1951. 



» Mattes, Merrill J. : Project report on historic sites In the Fort Randall Reservoir 

 area, Missouri River, June 1948. Mimeographed report of National Parle Service. See 

 also Mattes, 1949. 



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