6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



the Oahe Eeservoir area. The excavating parties completed their 

 work and returned to the headquarters at Lincoln, Nebr., in August, 

 while the mobile party finished its season on August 21, after having 

 visited 22 institutions and 11 field camps in six Missouri Basin and 

 three adjacent States. 



In December one small party made a brief trip to the Lewis and 

 Clark Lake above the Gavins Point Dam to examine a site which was 

 being destroyed by wave action. The same party also visited a mound 

 group near Mitchell, S. Dak., where unauthorized digging had been 

 reported. The cooperation of the owner was obtained to prevent fur- 

 ther destruction of the site which is an exceptional one for that area. 

 From Mitchell the party proceeded to the Big Bend Dam site and 

 made an inspection of the construction activities then under way. A 

 second party returned to the Lewis and Clark Lake in February and 

 spent eight days salvaging materials from the site which had been 

 examined in December. In addition to a member of the Eiver Basin 

 Surveys staff there was a representative from the Laboratory of An- 

 thropology of the University of Nebraska. These men were assisted 

 by the area engineer, the reservoir naturalist, and the reservoir man- 

 ager. The cooperative effort produced materials which identified the 

 site as being attributable to the Woodland cultures. Activities along 

 the Chattahoochee Eiver in Alabama-Georgia were resumed in Jan- 

 uary when a survey-testing party began operations in the Walter F. 

 George Eeservoir area which continued until mid-June when work 

 was stopped and the head of the party returned to Lincoln, IS'ebr. 

 Early in June one party began excavations in the Big Bend Eeservoir 

 area near the dam axis and another started digging at a mound site 

 near the North Dakota-South Dakota boundary in the Oahe Eeservoir 

 area. A third party began studies the latter part of the month at the 

 site of historic Fort Sully north of Pierre in the Oahe Eeservoir Basin. 

 All three were continuing their investigations at the end of the fiscal 

 year. 



As of June 30, 1960, the Eiver Basin Surveys had carried on 

 reconnaissance work or excavations in 255 reservoir basins located in 

 29 States. In addition, four canal areas and two lock projects had 

 also been investigated. The sites located during the years between 

 1946, when the program started, and the close of the fiscal year total 

 4,948, and of that number 1,154 were recommended for excavation or 

 limited testing. Because of the large number of sites and the lack 

 of sufficient time and funds for the work, complete excavation has 

 not been possible in any but a few exceptionally small ones. For 

 that reason, when the term "excavation" is used, it implies digging 

 only as much of a site as is deemed necessary to obtain a good sample 

 of the materials and information to be found there. 



