PAP.^o.igf INVESTIGATIONS AT FORT STEVENSON — SMITH 179 



Little damage had been done to the stone footings of the adjacent 

 building-s, probably because of their compact and massive character, 

 but large amounts of adobe-brick rubble were moved at this time from 

 both the Hospital and South Barracks sites. This was particularly 

 noticeable in the exacavation of the latter. Here the front portion, 

 or "main body," had been denuded of practically all building debris 

 aside from the very footings themselves. 



No other manmade changes were observed at the site of Fort 

 Stevenson except for those arising from agricultural use (pi. 31). 

 Some attempts had been made to remove the stone footings of build- 

 ings, probably in the hope of increasing the cultivable area about the 

 site of the fort; this was particularly noticeable near the front (north) 

 footing of the East Wing of the Hospital. But these attempts seem 

 to have been abandoned. The months of soldier labor expended here 

 in the late 1860's were not to be obliterated by the occasional efforts of 

 later farmers. 



The original parade ground of the fort was under cultivation in 

 1951, and had apparently been plowed for many years, and the 

 site of the Guard House had been almost competely obliterated. 

 Whether this structure was originally provided with a stone footing 

 comparable to that of the larger building is not known. The inspec- 

 tion report of 1879 merely described the Guard House as "made of 

 the same materials as the other buildings of the post" (Mattison, 

 1951, p. 36). The inference from this statement is that this build- 

 ing was also an adobe-brick masonry structure, set upon a stone 

 footing. A photograph of the former post, probably taken about 

 1895 and showing the Guard House in ruinous condition, suggests, 

 however, that it was actually a frame building, rather than one of 

 adobe masonry, and such foundation as it once had may have been 

 much slighter than those of the larger buildings (photograph in 

 Missouri Basin Project and National Park Service Region Two files ; 

 original in State Historical Society of North Dakota ; also in Reid, 

 1947-48, opp. p. 206). 



It remains to mention other uses to which the site of Fort Stevenson 

 had been put, aside from that of cultivation. Because of the char- 

 acter of the building remains, which in most instances could not be 

 cleared or leveled for cultivation, parts of the whole site were fenced 

 and used for stock pasture. Such a fence line still crossed the south 

 side of the original parade ground, crossing the site of the South 

 Officers' Quarters, and the area between this fence and the edge of the 

 terrace (on the south) had probably been used for many years, as it 

 was in 1951, for stock pasture. Though this may have caused minor 

 changes in this area, no major change was seen that could be attributed 



