Medicine Creek: Seventy Years of Archaeological Investigations

9. Nebraska State Historical Society and River Basin Surveys Research at Medicine Creek Lake, 1946–1948

Medicine Creek Reservoir was completed in 1949. It was built primarily to control destructive ®ooding, both on Medicine Creek and in the Republican River drainage, and also as part of the FrenchmanCambridge Irrigation Project, administered by the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation). Although there were important archaeological investigations along Medicine Creek as early as 1931 (Roper, Chapter 8, this volume), most archaeological research there has been done in response to construction and subsequent management of the reservoir. Salvage in the Medicine Creek valley was one of the ¤rst archaeological projects of the Smithsonian Institution’s River Basin Survey (RBS). Work done at Medicine Creek has contributed greatly to the de¤nition of at least three cultural units. The work by the University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM) identi¤ed what was then called the Frontier complex (see the papers by Frankforter, Davis, Bamforth, and Knudson, this volume). These are the only late Paleoindian sites found in the area. UNSM also identi¤ed important new paleontological resources . The Keith site and other Woodland sites were excavated in 1947 and 1948, providing much of the information used to de¤ne the Keith focus (Kivett 1953:133–135). The wealth of data provided by the many houses excavated by the Nebraska State Historical Society (NSHS) and RBS in the late 1940s has provided much of the basis for de¤ning the Upper Republican phase, although that name was used as early as 1933 (Strong 1933a:278). River Basin Survey at Medicine Creek In the mid-1940s more than 100 reservoirs were scheduled for construction in the United States. The National Park Service (NPS) en9 Nebraska State Historical Society and River Basin Surveys Research at Medicine Creek Lake, 1946–1948 Robert K. Blasing tered into agreements with Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers for NPS to survey recreational resources at the proposed reservoirs (Roberts 1952:351–352). NPS interpreted this to include survey and recovery of archaeological resources. At the same time, the Smithsonian Institution and the archaeological community in general were becoming very concerned at “the prospect of losing a very large part of its basic materials” to the ®ood control and reclamation program of the federal government (Wedel 1947:1). The Smithsonian and NPS had a series of conferences on the subject, and they agreed to cooperate in¤nding and recovering archaeological and paleontological resources at the proposed reservoirs. Wedel (1947:1) stated, “Only prompt action, carefully planned, fully coordinated throughout the region involved, and executed on a scale commensurate with the basic program of basin development, will enable us to salvage the information needed to reconstruct the prehistory of the region.” A memorandum of understanding was signed in August of 1945, and as its part, the Smithsonian formed the River Basin Survey in the fall of 1945. The Missouri Basin was chosen as the ¤rst area of study “because of its importance to American Archeology in general, and since very little was known about its broader manifestations” (Roberts 1952:352). Funds were allotted for the project by Reclamation, through the NPS. Reclamation funding amounted to $20,000 in 1946 and $40,000 in 1947 (Wedel 1947). The ¤rst ¤eldwork by the RBS was in July 1946, when Waldo Wedel traveled to the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and established the ¤rst ¤eld of¤ce at the university’s Laboratory of Anthropology, in the basement of Love Memorial Library (Wedel 1947:11). Soon after the Lincoln of¤ce was established, three parties of two men each made a rapid reconnaissance of 28 Reclamation and ¤ve Corps of Engineers reservoirs. As part of this effort in August 1946, Marvin Kivett and J. Mett Shippee spent eight days looking for archaeological sites in the proposed Medicine Creek Reservoir area. They found 14 Upper Republican sites and one Woodland site, which encouraged a return to Medicine Creek for further investigation in 1947 (Kivett 1947, 1948). Excavations In the spring of 1947 an NSHS crew led by A. T. Hill began excavations at a Woodland site, 25FT18 (the Keith site), and at Upper Republican sites 25FT16, 25FT28, and 25FT30. In September, October, and early November an RBS crew led by Marvin Kivett continued the project, working at 25FT17, which had both Woodland and Upper Republican components. They also worked jointly with NSHS at 25FT39 (Kivett Research at Medicine Creek Lake, 1946–1948 / 157 and Metcalf 1997:2). The two agencies worked in cooperation, but NSHS funded...