80 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 176 



pied by Fort Lookout Trading Post and the preceding Fort Kiowa. 

 From the various records he was able to amass data describing, in 

 general, the appearance of the trading post and some definite dimen- 

 sional information about Fort Kiowa. The trading post was reported 

 to have consisted of a number of buildings surrounded by a stockade. 

 In the course of the survey, Site 39LM57 was tentatively identified 

 as the location of Fort Lookout I and Fort Kiowa and excavations 

 were recommended. 



The excavation and study of the site during the summers of 1950 and 

 1951, as far as the historic aspect is concerned, may be summed up 

 under the following categories: (1) The uncovering of tangible re- 

 mains of white man's occupancy, with evidence for two trading-post 

 installations; (2) the obtaining of fragmentary details of the struc- 

 tures present; (3) the recovery of the various artifacts of white man's 

 origm; and (4) the results and conclusions derived from this data. 



The archeological evidence showed that there had been a rectangular 

 structure, roughly 70 feet long by 20 feet wide, which had been par- 

 tially destroyed by fire after the building had fallen into ruin. Scat- 

 tered over the area were numerous rusty nails, either handmade or 

 machine cut, fragmentary and whole trade beads, buttons and other 

 artifacts such as one would expect to find in and around an abandoned 

 structure of this kind. Beneath this level, separated by a thin, sterile 

 layer of coarse sand and loess, was evidence of an earlier white man's 

 structure of approximately the same size and orientation as the later 

 building. It also had suffered from fire, and the area appeared to 

 have been leveled so that another structure could be erected upon the 

 same spot. From the appearance of the overall accmnulation of 

 debris, the earlier structure was not occupied any great length of time. 

 The data are insufficient to reconstruct either of the two. There was 

 no evidence that a stockade had surrounded the buildings of either 

 occupation. It appears that the structures were built of logs, possibly 

 Cottonwood or willow since these grow profusely in the bottoms, with 

 no brick or stone employed, with the exception of the chalkstone fire- 

 place footer. In each case the roof probably was flat, covered with 

 turf and a coarse gravel, and the gaps between the logs in the walls 

 were chinked with clay. The chimney was a mud-stick affair. In 

 other words, these structures were typically pioneer or frontier in 

 form. If windows were used, they, together with the doors, must 

 have been removed at the time of abandonment because practically no 

 window glass was found and little of the hardware used on doors was 

 present. Wliether the few iron staples found had been attached to 

 the doors or to the door jambs could not be determined. 



Artifacts belonging to the two trading-post horizons were not 

 numerous. Indians, who may have occupied the abandoned building 

 or buildings for a short time, might have picked up scattered artifacts, 



