PAP.^o^lQf INVESTIGATIONS AT FORT STEVENSON — SMITH 175 



dimensions (de Trobriand, 1951, p. 42). The definite Southwestern 

 flavor of this post also suggests that it may have been designed by 

 field engineers, or that the post was built according to plans already 

 developed elsewhere about the same period, probably in the Southwest. 

 A comparison of plans of posts constructed in that region in the years 

 just preceding 1867 might shed light on this matter. In this connec- 

 tion, it may be noted that similar courtyard -building plans were not 

 used at Fort Laramie in early military structures, though buildings 

 there were in part of adobe-brick masonry, as has been seen. 



Little can be said on the matter of trails and wagon roads that af- 

 forded communication and transport for Fort Stevenson, though these 

 have an obvious bearing upon any study of the physical remains of 

 the post. One study of this nature has recently appeared (Wright, 

 1953). It should, perhaps, be pointed out that communication and 

 transport for Fort Stevenson, from 1867 until about 1873, was largely 

 by river steamboat, and the subject of steam navigation of the upper 

 Missouri for this period is receiving special attention from Ray H. 

 Mattison, historian, National Park Service. Records of freight ship- 

 ments, passenger traffic, and related matters should afford additional 

 light on the circumstances of life at Fort Stevenson, beyond that now 

 available. Business records, such as those of J. C. Burbank and Com- 

 pany, contractors for supplying materials for Fort Totten (via Fort 

 Stevenson), if available, might also afford further light on Fort 

 Stevenson itself. 



It has been mentioned that, upon excavation, few errors were found 

 in the post records for Fort Stevenson, which appear to be remarkably 

 complete and intact. So far as measurements of separate structures 

 and specific facts concerning individual buildings could be verified, 

 the data preserved therein appear to be accurate (fig. 15). One curi- 

 ous minor error was, however, noted on the ground plan of 1879, in 

 the measurements of the parade ground itself, as delimited by the 

 buildings of the post. On this plan, the distance shown — 333 feet — 

 between the front wall line of the Guard House and that of the row 

 of Officers' Quarters — the east-west dimension of the parade — is ap- 

 proximately correct (measurement from photostat of original; the 

 photostat is reduced one-half) . The dimension of the parade at right 

 angles (north-south) is, however, shown on the plan as approximately 

 196 feet between buildings, whereas the actual distance between re- 

 maining footings of these structures is 220 feet. (The ground plan 

 of 1879, as traced for publication in Mattison, 1951, opp. p. 28, differs 

 slightly from the photostat in these measurements.) 



The reason for this error in the plan of 1879 is not known. Inas- 

 much as the buildings appear to have been correctly measured, it seems 

 probable that the parade ground was not actually measured overall, 

 and that the buildings were placed on the plan, one at a time, the 



502329—60 13 



