Excavations in the Matthews Site, New Madrid County, Mo, 77 
IL LOCATION AND PRESENT TOPOGRAPHY OF 
THE SITE 
The site chosen for these investigations was located during 
a preliminary survey of portions of several counties in south- 
eastern Missouri/ conducted the last week in March and the 
first week in April 1941, by Winslow M. Walker with the assist- 
ance of K^ K. Baker of Sikeston. 
. The town of Matthews is situated about 13 miles north 
M 
Matthews 
north of the 
East 
St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad tracks, and within sight 
of the Matthews High School (Plate I), The northern part of 
the land is now owned by Howard Steel and the southern part 
Matthews 
position 
the west side of Sikeston Ridge, overlooking a bottomland for- 
West Lake 
River Ditch. 
I 
the 
aboute 22 feet there are indications of a large prehistoric settle- 
ment extending for about one-third of a mile along the bluff 
and about the same distance back from the bluff". The remains 
of this large village site consist of numerous house circles; at 
least seven mounds varying from a few feet to 11 feet high; 
a low wall and ditch surrounding the principal mounds; and 
burial grounds. 
Mis 
Mad 
Location III. and this village site will be 
NMV3. This site includes mounds numbered 
NMolO-16 
f 
NMV3 
on Plate III. As can be seen from this map, NMv3 extends for 
some 650 feet north into the Howard Steel farm and some 850 
the C. D. Matthews estate. A portion 
Matthews 
the field farmed by C. A. Critchlow. In the Critchlow pasture 
is the remnant of a large sassafras stump more than four feet 
in diameter, which appears to be 150 to 200 years old (Plate IV). 
The soil around it has been left as a little hummock after the 
erosion of the rest of the slope by several gullies. The largest 
and newest of these gullies extends southeasterly up the pasture 
slope and about 200 feet into the cultivated wheat field. This 
deep gulley was formed, we have been told, in 1911-12, and 
along the margins there are evidences of burials with accom- 
