Pap.^No; IsT FQ-RT PIERRE II — SMITH 147 



ill this area is well illustrated by the case of the former Armstrong 

 Comity (now consolidated with Dewey), which had an area of more 

 than 600 square miles, but for which only 52 persons were counted 

 at the census of 1950. Even on the east side of the Missouri, as 

 well, where agriculture is of relatively greater importance. White 

 settlement has never been more than sparse, and here there are sev- 

 eral true "ghost towns." There are in the area but two communities 

 having as many as 3,000 persons ; these are Mobridge, a division point 

 on the only transcontinental railroad crossing the region (served also 

 by a transcontinental highway), and the capital of the state, Pierre, 

 which in 1950 had a population of less than 6,000, though additions 

 to this figure, in new residents, have accrued from construction activ- 

 ities at the great Oahe Dam. 



It is hardly to be wondered at, therefore, that despite their histor- 

 ical importance to a very large region, physical remains from the 

 previous period of the fur trade and hide trade (concluded less than 

 a century ago) have yet received scant attention from students. The 

 State of South Dakota (admitted to the Union, together with North 

 Dakota, as recently as 1889) has in recent years conducted an active 

 program of marking certain sites of historical interest, along high- 

 way easements. In a few instances in the present district (as at the 

 site of Fort Pierre Chouteau, mentioned previously) more permanent 

 markers of stone or metal have also been erected. Sites of historical 

 interest here — the number of which is not inconsiderable, as is revealed 

 by the recently published report (Mattison, 1954) — had, however, 

 not received archeological attention, so far as is known, and the 

 present undertaking is thus itself a pioneer effort. In North Dakota, 

 it should be recalled, numerous areas had been set aside because of 

 their historical interest, as State parks; among these may be men- 

 tioned the site of Fort Eice, where limited reconstructions were 

 made some years ago. Apart from excavation of parts of the site 

 of Slant Indian Village (32M026), an earth-lodge village near the 

 Heart River, found recently abandoned by Lewis and Clark in 1804, 

 few actual excavations had been accomplished prior to the present sal- 

 vage program. 



Archeological investigations of historic sites elsewhere in the Mis- 

 souri Basm reservoir areas have now, however, been made by the 

 Missouri Basin Project and agencies cooperating in the salvage pro- 

 gram. Among sites of this kind are some in south-central South 

 Dakota and northwestern North Dakota, below and above the Oahe 

 Reservoir area. Among those that have been studied, with at least 

 partial excavation, are the trading centers known as Kipp's Post 

 (32MN1), ca. 1826-29, and Fort Berthold I and II (32ML2), 1845 

 to ca. 1890, and the military establishment of Fort Stevenson 

 (32MLI), 1867-1883— all within the Garrison Reservoir area, North 



502329—60 11 



