pip.^o." igf' INVESTIGATIONS AT FORT STEVENSON — SMITH 231 



ruins for usable building materials, had sharply reduced the infor- 

 mation that could be obtained through archeological investigation. 

 The excavations made at the site have, however, permitted some final 

 additional observations on the site as well as providing, for the first 

 time, actual object materials properly documented, for permanent 

 preservation. 



Experience gained at this site may, perhaps, serve as a caution to 

 archeologists elsewhere concerned with any site, historic or pre- 

 historic, that has been subjected to extensive and obvious changes 

 subsequent to the period of its use, or at which such changes may be 

 suspected. In this instance, little had been preserved for study, aside 

 from the inevitable smaller "artifactual" materials, beyond the most 

 massive and resistant kinds of construction, such as the well- 

 protected stone masonry. Little more than the general plan of the 

 whole post and of the general nature of individual buildings could 

 have been learned by excavation alone. In rare instances, vestiges 

 of above-ground structures, the buildings proper, ajfforded details of 

 design and construction. Incautious speculation in such instances, 

 based solely upon archeological evidence, might lead to unwarranted 

 conclusions. In this case, the documentary sources constitute pri- 

 mary evidence, the archeological data being of subordinate signifi- 

 cance. For other sites, at which documentary evidence may be 

 inadequate, the situation may, of course, be reversed. In still other 

 instances, archeological evidence may afford information nowhere else 

 available, and constitute the sole surviving evidence for historical 

 study. 



The investigation of the site of Fort Stevenson was accomplished 

 because of the existence of a practical problem. The impending 

 obliteration of the site (with many others, prehistoric as well as his- 

 toric), with the filling of Garrison Reservoir, dictated that investi- 

 gation be made of the actual historical values that were to be lost. 

 Manifestly, knowledge of physical remains of man's history is inade- 

 quate until actual excavation, however limited, has been performed, 

 and it is rarely possible to predict archeological findings. If in this 

 instance new information obtained is limited, the experience can 

 hardly be applied directly to other sites still uninvestigated. Irre- 

 placeable information may be lost at many sites unless actual excava- 

 tion is performed, and the hope of adding significant bits to the 

 mosaic of history amply justifies investigation of sites even of recent 

 provenience. Even more recent periods of western history seem to 

 warrant comparable field study, not yet made. An example is the 

 little-known physical history of townsites widely scattered over the 

 West. In the Garrison Reservoir area there were several such sites, 

 some not established until after 1000, for which there was little or 



