168 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 176 



skip and range, including the sites of the warehouse area, the steam- 

 boat landing, and the temporary camp used during the early summer 

 of 1867 (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, sheet No. 147, 1943 a). 



The site selected in 1867 for the permanent installation of the post 

 was a level terrace, a segment of the first bench of the valley of the 

 Missouri River, rising above level bottom lands on the north side of 

 the main chamiel of the stream, which at that point flowed eastward 

 (map 6; pi. 31). The elevation of the parade ground was approxi- 

 mately 1,720 feet above sea level (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 

 sheets Nos. 143, 147, 1943 a) . Opposite the site of the fort, the eleva- 

 tion of the main channel was 1,690 feet. Of this interval of 30 feet, 

 approximately 20 occurred at the edge of the terrace, which there rose 

 from the bottom land at an angle of approximately 45°. That bank 

 had been somewhat eroded, and the surface of the slope showed gravel 

 exposures of the terrace subsoil. Various cultural materials were 

 found on this bank ; some apparently belonging to the period during 

 which the site was in military use. Trash and disposal areas were 

 sought for there, but none of importance was found. Such deposits 

 may have been obscured by bank erosion. Little evidence was seen of 

 the effects of erosion elsewhere at the site of the post. In general, ex- 

 cept for areas subsequently brought under cultivation, such as the 

 parade gromid, the site appeared to have been well covered with 

 vegetation in recent years. 



The terrace upon which Fort Stevenson stood was actually a kind 

 of island lying roughly parallel to the river, and rising very slightly 

 to the west of the parade ground area. It was, in 1951, almost wholly 

 under cultivation. It was bounded on the south by the bottom land 

 of the Missouri and on the north by an alkaline slough which drained 

 into Garrison Creek, and was useful only as hay land. On the east 

 the terrace was cut by Garrison Creek, on the west by Douglas Creek. 



On the gromid plan of Fort Stevenson of 1879, previously men- 

 tioned, a map of the military reservation appears as an insert, the 

 original of wliich was made in 1870 (Mattison, 1951, p. 4). This 

 map records that in 1870, near the beginning of the military use of 

 this region. Garrison and Douglas Creeks were separate, each flowing 

 directly into the Missouri. This was not the case in 1951, and an en- 

 largement of the bottom land between the first terrace and the main 

 channel — probably the result of building up of bars at the mouth of 

 Douglas Creek, the larger of the two streams, as well as of silting up 

 of the whole valley — had permitted Douglas Creek to capture Garrison 

 Creek (pi. 34, 5 ; map 6) . This change in the relationship of the two 

 streams apparently occurred at some period between 1870 and 1891, 

 at which later date the Missouri River Survey maps were prepared, 

 since the latter maps show the terrain at this point much as it was until 

 covered by the waters of the reservoir (U.S. Army, Chief of Engi- 



