NO. 6 MISSOURI VALLEY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM WEDEL I3 



A period of approximately 8 weeks was devoted to the 1946 recon- 

 naissance ; its results must be characterized as extensive but attenuated 

 rather than intensive. It is apparent nevertheless that a task of major 

 proportions is before us. No less than 170 sites, many of them 

 hitherto unreported, were located and recorded; some of them have 

 already been partially destroyed by construction work. At most reser- 

 voir units, additional surveys have been recommended by the field 

 investigators, since complete coverage of the future pool area was in 

 no case possible. It is expected that the number of additional sites 

 will far exceed those recorded to date. Deerfield, Dickinson, Kortes, 

 and Lake Solitude can probably be written off so far as archeology 

 and paleontology are concerned ; Kirwin and Wray will require very 

 little further attention. It should be added, however, that negative 

 diagnoses are in all cases subject to change when actual earth-moving 

 operations begin. 



The survey findings to date, in briefest outline, indicate that the 

 Wyoming-Montana area includes comparatively few pottery-bearing 

 sites. Here, as in the western Dakotas, boulder circles or "tipi-rings" 

 occur in great numbers. There are also numerous outcrops of arti- 

 fact- and refuse-bearing strata several feet beneath the present land 

 surface, exposed by stream-cutting ; and several of these give promise 

 of containing remains assignable to early, perhaps paleo-Indian, oc- 

 cupations. Hearths exposed by wind erosion, caves, and rock shelters, 

 as well as reported bison falls, await further investigation. 



In northern Kansas and southwestern Nebraska, pithouse villages 

 attributable to semisedentary horticultural peoples predominate. Test 

 excavations at Harlan County reservoir, already in construction status, 

 have disclosed a prehistoric ossuary, with possibly associated village 

 sites nearby. In this unit, too, village sites belonging to at least four 

 distinct archeological horizons will be inundated ; and further excava- 

 tion will certainly have to be done. In Medicine Creek and Harlan 

 County units important fossil deposits lying in the future pool areas 

 will also require attention. 



On the tributaries of the Missouri in North and South Dakota, 

 pottery-bearing sites occur scatteringly, as well as "tipi-rings." In 

 the Jamestown-Devils Lake-Sheyenne area east of the mainstem are 

 mound groups, village remains, and campsites suggesting a more 

 sedentary occupation than that west of the Missouri. These and other 

 units of the far-flung Missouri-Souris project will entail continuing 

 vigilance throughout the continuation of the developmental work. 



Not included in the above count are approximately 300 village 

 sites reported, but not yet visited by the survey, along the mainstem 



