GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL AND GIS MODELING OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE LOCATIONS AT KIRWIN

NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, PHILLIPS COUNTY, KANSAS

Brad Logan

William C. Johnson

Joshua S. Campbell

University of Kansas Museum of Anthropology

Project Report Series

No. 105

GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL AND GIS MODELING

OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE LOCATIONS AT KIRWIN NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE,

PHILLIPS COUNTY, KANSAS

by

Brad Logan, William C. Johnson, and Joshua S. Campbell

submitted to:

Bureau of Reclamation Nebraska-Kansas Area Office

Grand Island, Nebraska

Cooperative Agreement No. 7-FC-60-08790 Modification No. 003

submitted by:

Office of Archaeological Research

Museum of Anthropology University of Kansas

Lawrence, Kansas

______________________________________ Brad Logan, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

University of Kansas Museum of Anthropology

Project Report Series No. 105

August 2006

i

Abstract The report describes the results of a systematic, surface archaeological reconnaissance and geoarchaeological survey of Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge by the Museum of Anthropology, University of Kansas. The project area is in Phillips County, Kansas, on the North Fork Solomon River, a tributary of the Smoky Hill River through the Solomon River. The project was undertaken through a cooperative agreement with the Nebraska-Kansas Area Office, Bureau of Reclamation. The initial goals of the investigation were: to inventory the cultural resources of all lands not inundated by the reservoir, to report on their extent, nature, function, and temporal/ cultural affiliation, and to make recommendations for further investigation of those that might yield evidence sufficient to warrant their consideration for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. Archaeological survey was done for a few weeks each summer from 1999 to 2002. A geoarchaeological component was added in 2001. It included Geographic Information Science (GISc) modeling of geomorphic and archaeological data in order to predict the geomorphic context of potential cultural resources and to track the effects of water level changes on various landforms that might contain them. Thirty-two sites were encountered during the surveys, two of which had been previously recorded. Eleven of these contain prehistoric components. None of the historic sites recorded during the survey, all of which date to the late nineteenth century or first half of the twentieth century and reflect the regional rural economy of that time, is recommended for further investigation. Some of these consist of isolated features, such as water tanks, troughs, or cisterns; a few are razed farmsteads. All of the historic sites lack architectural integrity and are not known to have been associated with a person of historical significance. Most of the prehistoric sites are light lithic scatters or isolated flakes of the near-locally available Niobrara jasper, a raw material valued by regional cultures for the production of chipped stone tools. In a few cases these “artifacts” are of an ambiguous nature. Only two prehistoric sites are recommended for National Register of Historic Places evaluation. 14PH17, yielded a relatively moderate amount of cultural material that is suggested to date to Late Prehistoric time. The West Island site (14PH10), was previously recorded and during its initial investigation by the Kansas State Historical Society in 1963 it yielded a variety of artifacts and human remains of the Plains Woodland (Keith variant) period. Although no evidence of the site was found during the KUMA investigations, the buried soil that contained them in 1963 was rediscovered and radiocarbon dated. It is likely that some evidence of the site remains in this horizon, which is currently below the floodplain of the reservoir and, at normal flood pool, is below water. Additional survey is recommended for 14PH43, a prehistoric site a short distance below the dam that has been impacted by road construction. No diagnostic artifacts were found there, but such may be revealed through more intensive shovel testing. A synthesis of archaeological, geomorphic, and GIS data provides the basis for a cultural resource management plan for the KNWR. This approach is valuable for predicting the location and context of prehistoric sites. Buried soils range in depth from 1m to more than 4m and date from 3060+70 to 550+70 rcybp. These ages correlate with the Late Archaic, Woodland and Late Prehistoric periods. The depths of the soils preclude site discovery through traditional survey methods, including shovel testing to depths of 30-50cm. The GIS component of the synthesis demonstrates the vulnerability of cultural resources in the project area, including any associated with buried soils, to fluctuating water levels of the reservoir

ii

Table of Contents Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………. i List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………. iv List of Tables ……………………………………………………………………. vii Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………. viii

Chapter 1. Introduction (Brad Logan) ……………………………………………. 1 Previous Investigations …………………………………………….. 2

Chapter 2. Environment (William C. Johnson, Joshua S. Campbell, and Brad Logan) ... 5 Geographic Setting and Terrain ……………………………………. 5 Surficial Geology ……………………………………………………. 7 Soils ……………………………………………………………………. 13 Climate ……………………………………………………………. 17 Flora and Land Use ……………………………………………………. 21 Fauna ……………………………………………………………………. 24

Chapter 3. Cultural Prehistory (Brad Logan)……………………………………………. 27 Introduction ……………………………………………………………. 27 Paleoindian ……………………………………………………………. 27 Archaic ……………………………………………………………. 29 Woodland ……………………………………………………………. 30 Late Prehistoric ……………………………………………………. 32 Protohistoric ……………………………………………………………. 37 Chapter 4. Site Descriptions (Brad Logan) ……………………………………………. 43 Introduction ……………………………………………………………. 43 Site Descriptions ……………………………………………………. 44 Chapter 5. Geoarchaeological Investigations (William C. Johnson) ……………………. 53 The Approach ……………………………………………………. 53 Methods ……………………………………………………………. 53 Numerical Age Data ……………………………………………………. 54 Site Locations …………………………………………………………..... 55 Site Descriptions ……………………………………………………. 56 Stratigraphic Correlations ……………………………………………. 83 Isotope-Derived Climatic Reconstruction ……………………………. 86 Geoarchaeological Model ……………………………………………. 90 Chapter 6. GIS Database Construction and Visualization (Joshua S. Campbell) ………. 97 Introduction ……………………………………………………………. 97 GIS Integration into Cultural Resource Management……………………. 97 Methods and Results ……………………………………………………. 99 Conclusions ……………………………………………………………. 122

iii

Chapter 7. Conclusions and Recommendations ……………………………………. 123 References ……………………………………………………………………………. 125 Appendix 1 Summary of GIS Data …….……………………………………… 149 Appendix 2 3D Visualizations ……………………………………………………. 151

List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Location of Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge in Phillips County, Kansas 5 Figure 2.2 Digital elevation model (DEM) and major streams of Phillips County, Kansas 6 Figure 2.3 Modified DEM of Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge …………………… 7 Figure 2.4 Geologic time scale …………………………………………………… 8 Figure 2.5 Generalized late-Quaternary stratigraphy of Phillips County, Kansas …... 9 Figure 2.6 Surficial geology of Phillips County, Kansas …………………………... 10 Figure 2.7 Surficial geology of KNWR …………………………………………… 11 Figure 2.8 General soils map of Phillips County, Kansas, with Kirwin Reservoir …... 13 Figure 2.9 Soil series polygons for KNWR and adjacent areas …………………… 15 Figure 2.10 1931-2000 monthly means: temperature and precipitation …………… 18 Figure 2.11 Mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation …………… 18 Figure 2.12 Potential vegetation of Kansas …………………………………………… 21 Figure 2.13 Land cover for Phillips County, with Kirwin Reservoir depicted …... 23 Figure 2.14 Land cover for KNWR and adjacent areas …………………………… 24 Figure 5.1 Locations of KRG sites in the KNWR …………………………… 56 Figure 5.2 Site locations in the western sector of KNWR …………………… 57 Figure 5.3 View north of KRG-01 with radiocarbon ages and MS data …………… 58 Figure 5.4 KRG-02, as viewed to the southwest …………………………………… 59 Figure 5.5 MS data derived from KRG-02c, and radiocarbon ages from samples

collected in the KRG-02 profile …………………………………… 60 Figure 5.6 View southwest of the profile established in the exposure at KRG-03 .. 61 Figure 5.7 View east of KRG-04 …………………………………………………… 62 Figure 5.8 Locations of KRG-05 and -05c on West Island and the excavated

profile at KRG-05 on the west end of West Island ……………………. 63 Figure 5.9 View west-southwest of West Island on 5/15/1963 and view northeast

of archaeologists surface collecting on the northeast edge of West Island 63 Figure 5.10 MS data obtained from KRG-05c and radiocarbon ages from the profile 64 Figure 5.11 Correlation of the KRG-05 profile on the west end with Profile X142,

south wall of West Island on 10/23/1965 ……………………………. 64 Figure 5.12 View north of the roadcut exposure and profile KRG-06 ……………. 65 Figure 5.13 MS from KRG-06c, radiocarbon ages, and late-Quaternary stratigraphic

units at KRG-06 ……………………………………………………. 66 Figure 5.14 Site locations in the eastern sector of KNWR ……………………. 67 Figure 5.15 View northwest of KRG-07 and KRG-07c ……………………………. 67 Figure 5.16 MS data derived from KRG-07c and the radiocarbon age from the 3Ab

exposed in the profile at KRG-07 ……………………………………. 68 Figure 5.17 View northwest of exposures at KRG-08 (Pop site) ……………………. 69

iv

Figure 5.18 Convolute bedding created by wet-sediment deposition during flood events following stability indicated by formation of the 3Ab horizon 69

Figure 5.19 MS data from KRG-08c and radiocarbon age of the 3Ab ……………. 70 Figure 5.20 KRG-09 profile with radiocarbon ages determined from the 2Ab and 4Ab 71 Figure 5.21 MS data with recognized buried soil expression at core site KRG-13c,

and the site as viewed to the north-northeast ……………………………. 72 Figure 5.22 Terrace scarp and KRG-14 on Bow Creek and the profile with C14 ages 73 Figure 5.23 MS data with recognized buried soils and flood drapes at KRG-17c

in Catfish Cove campgrounds ……………………………………………. 74 Figure 5.24 MS data and recognized buried soils within the core extracted at KRG-18c 75 Figure 5.25 MS data and recognized buried soils from KRG-21c ……………………. 76 Figure 5.26 MS data and recognized buried soils from KRG-22c, and the view

northeast of KRG-22c and KRG-05 (14PH10) ……………………. 77 Figure 5.27 MS data with recognized buried soils and view west of KRG-28c and

the high terrace ……………………………………………………. 78 Figure 5.28 MS data with recognized buried soils and flood drapes at KRG-29c,

and the view southeast of the coring site ……………………………. 79 Figure 5.29 MS data with recognized buried soils and flood drapes at KRG-31c

and the view southeast ……………………………………………. 80 Figure 5.30 View southeast of the railroad cut at KRG-32 and view west of the core

site (KRG-32c) and railroad cut ……………………………………. 81 Figure 5.31 MS data derived from KRG-32c, and the KRG-32 profile with

late-Quaternary units ……………………………………………………. 81 Figure 5.32 View north of a barn and the adjacent abandoned trench silos on each

side of the barn ……………………………………………………. 82 Figure 5.33 North wall of Siebert gravel quarry with location of profile KRG-34 ….. 83 Figure 5.34 Soil and radiocarbon-age correlations among KRG-08, -07, and -14……. 85 Figure 5.35 Probable magnetostratigraphic correlation of buried soils between

KRG-02c and KRG-08c ……………………………………………. 86 Figure 5.36 Presumed pedostratigraphic correlations, based on magnetic susceptibility

data, among core sites KRG-21c, -22c, -28c, -29c and -31c ……………. 87 Figure 5.37 Possible pedostratigraphic correlations from magnetic susceptibility data

between two sites in lower Bow Creek valley, KRG-7c and -13c ……. 88 Figure 5.38 Patterns in δ13C and respective calendar ages BP ……………………. 89 Figure 5.39 Holocene patterns of δ13C variation with corresponding radiocarbon

and calendar ages ……………………………………………………. 90 Figure 5.40 Study localities with age data for buried alluvial soils ……………. 94 Figure 5.41 Radiocarbon ages plotted in rank order with index lines approximating

times of extensive soil formation ……………………………………. 96 Figure 6.1 Maximum and minimum lake elevation values for Kirwin Reservoir 102 Figure 6.2 USGS DEM (30m2 pixels) and the KNWR boundary ……………. 103 Figure 6.3 Flowchart of the DEM creation process ……………………………. 104 Figure 6.4 USGS DEM with the 1730ft elevation contour ……………………. 105 Figure 6.5 USGS topographic quadrangle (1:24,000 scale) showing location of

the original elevation contours ……………………………………. 105

v

Figure 6.6 ‘Post-Dam DEM’ and the 1730ft elevation contour ……………………. 106 Figure 6.7 Actual extent and modeled estimate of extent for lake elevation 1697ft 107 Figure 6.8 Digitized version of low lake elevation (1697ft) overlain the 1991 aerial

imagery ……………………………………………………………. 108 Figure 6.9 Digitized version of mid lake elevation (1707ft) overlain the 1991 aerial

Imagery ……………………………………………………………. 109 Figure 6.10 Digitized version of high lake elevation (1729ft) overlain the 1991 aerial

Imagery ……………………………………………………………. 109 Figure 6.11 Revised elevation contour lines overlain the original contours from the

1:24k quadrangle map ……………………………………………. 110 Figure 6.12 Revised contour lines and the raster interpolation used to generate the

basin elevations ……………………………………………………. 111 Figure 6.13 Revised Post-Dam DEM and the interpolation boundary (1730 ft contour) 111 Figure 6.14 Actual and revised estimates of surface water extent for lake elevation

1697ft ……………………………………………………………………. 112 Figure 6.15 Actual and revised estimates of surface water extent for lake elevation

1707ft ……………………………………………………………………. 113 Figure 6.16 Actual and revised estimates of surface water extent for lake elevation

1729ft ……………………………………………………………………. 113 Figure 6.17 Set of elevation contours used to create the Pre-Dam DEM ……………. 114 Figure 6.18 Revised ‘Pre-Dam DEM’, note the lack of a dam structure in the

elevation data ……………………………………………………………. 115 Figure 6.19 3D oblique perspective of 1949 imagery overlain Pre-Dam DEM with

revised elevation contours ……………………………………………. 115 Figure 6.20 3D oblique perspective of the 1991 imagery overlain the Post-Dam DEM

and the revised elevation contours used to construct the Post-Dam DEM 116 Figure 6.21 Site locations and cultural affiliations along with historic or near-historic

high and low water levels ……………………………………………. 117 Figure 6.22 Site locations and cultural affiliations overlain the 1949 aerial imagery 118 Figure 6.23 3D oblique view of the West Island site and two water levels (high: 1729ft

and mid: 1707ft) …………………………………………………….. 118 Figure 6.24 Site locations and cultural affiliation along with high-resolution surface

geology …………………………………………………………….. 119 Figure 6.25 Individual frame taken from the ‘Kirwin Fly-by’ visualization.

View northeast with reservoir pool elevation of 1730ft ………………… 120 Figure 6.26 Individual frame taken from the ‘Kirwin Fly-by’ visualization.

View southwest with reservoir pool elevation of 1710ft …………….. 121 Figure 6.27 Individual frame taken from the ‘Kirwin Water Level’ visualization.

View west with reservoir pool elevation of 1697ft …………………….. 121 Figure 6.28 Individual frame taken from the ‘Kirwin Water Level’ visualization.

View west with reservoir pool elevation of 1735f …………………….. 122

Figure A.2.1 Annual high and low water levels for Kirwin Reservoir …………….. 151

vi

List of Tables

Table 2.1 Soil Series Within Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge ……………………. 16 Table 5.1 Radiocarbon Ages from Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge and Adjacent Areas 55 Table 5.2 Correlation among Alluvial Soil Ages within the Central Great Plains 95 Table 6.1 KNWR spatial datasets and sources ……………………………………... 101 Table 6.2 Imagery sources and associated reservoir elevations ……………………... 108 Table A.2.1 Water level data used to create the kWater animation and the times within

the animation that each water level appears ……………………………... 152

vii

Acknowledgements I am grateful to the following survey teams for their participation in the fieldwork at the KNWR in these seasons: 1999- Georges Pearson (Field Director), Carmen Costner, Virginia Hatfield, Janice McLean, Chad Maley, and Kirk Smith; 2000- John Tomasic (Field Director), Kale Bruner, Kirk Smith, Elizabeth Wilson, and Brian Wygal; 2001- John Tomasic (Field Director), Kale Bruner, Beth Dorsey, Russ Francis, Matt Padilla, Lauren Taylor, and Brian Wygal; 2002- Dan Pugh and Kale Bruner (Co-Field Directors), Aimee Rosario, Kirk Smith, and Holly Smith. I am grateful for the support of Bob Blasing, Archeologist with the Nebraska-Kansas Area Office, Bureau of Reclamation, in 1999, for initiating the contract for the Kirwin survey in 1999 and to Bill Chada, who assumed Bob’s position the following year and has supported our work their since. At the KNWR, I thank Shannon Rothchild for making logistical arrangements, including our housing in a trailer on the federal property, and for guiding us at various times around the reservoir on a boat to visit West Island and to reconnoiter buried soils.

Brad Logan

1

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Brad Logan In 1999 the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Kansas (KUMA, now Anthropological Research and Cultural Collections, or KU-ARCC) began archaeological survey of Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge (KNWR), Phillips County, Kansas under a cooperative agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation, Great Plains Region. KNWR includes about 7,100 acres of land above the normal flood pool of the reservoir, which inundates a reach of the North Fork Solomon River and its tributary, Bow Creek. The purpose of the project was to locate, identify, and inventory the cultural resources of the project area and to submit a cultural resources management plan that would include recommendations for the further investigation or National Register of Historic Places evaluation of designated sites. The survey was initiated with ten days of survey in the summer of 1999 (note: 41 days in that period were also devoted to survey at nearby Webster Reservoir; see Logan and Pearson 2001) and continued in each of the following three years. Thus, there were ten days of survey in 2000 (May 17-27), another twenty days in 2001 (May18-June 21), and eight days in 2002 (May 28-June 4). As a result of this fieldwork, approximately 6,000 acres, or about 85%, of the federal lands above the normal flood pool in the project area have been surveyed. Not included, however, is the contiguous federal property in the western half of Section 34, Section 33, and all terrain encompassed by a meander of the North Fork Solomon River in Section 28 (all sections are in Township 4 South; Range 17W). Before this tract could be covered during another season of fieldwork, an issue concerning the ownership of the KNWR arose between U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Bureau of Reclamation. This issue is currently unresolved and, with it, completion of the archaeological reconnaissance survey with the financial support of the responsible agency. It was apparent during the 2000 season at KNWR that prehistoric archaeological sites, at least those found through traditional methods of reconnaissance (pedestrian survey, shovel testing; see Chapter four), are few. While low numbers of surface prehistoric sites are typical on other reservoir-inundated reaches of upper Republican River tributaries in Kansas, the numbers are strikingly paltry for Kirwin. Only 16 prehistoric sites have been recorded there, a ratio of one site for every 375 acres of land. This contrasts with data for nearby reservoirs where comparable methods of survey were applied: Webster Reservoir (3,164 acres), on the South Fork Solomon River ~60km southwest of KNWR- 24 prehistoric sites, or one per 131.8 acres of land (Logan and Pearson 2001); Lovewell Reservoir (3,590 acres), on White Rock Creek in Jewell County, ~90km east of Kirwin- 40 sites, or one site per 89.75 acres (Logan and Hedden 1992; Logan 1993, 1995; Kansas State University site files); and Norton Reservoir (5,668), on Prairie Dog Creek, ~60km west of KNWR-51 prehistoric sites, or one site per 111.1 acres of land (Logan et al. 2001b).

2

During the 2000 survey, I saw one possible explanation for this phenomenon, a buried soil horizon, later found to be one of several at a geomorphic site called Genesis (Chapter five herein). It has been documented at other localities in the Central Plains in general, and the Kansas River basin in particular, that alluvial aggradation has buried a substantial portion of the prehistoric record (Johnson and Logan 1990). In the belief that such processes may explain the paucity of sites at Kirwin, I suggested to Bill Chada, Archeologist with the Nebraska-Kansas Area Office, BOR, that the project should be expanded to include a geomorphological component. He concurred, and this aspect of the Kirwin project was carried out in tandem with the conventional archaeological surface survey during the 2001 and 2002 seasons. William C. Johnson (Ph.D.), Department of Geography, University of Kansas, directed geomorphological fieldwork with the author’s assistance. The goal of this aspect of the Kirwin project was to determine the number, age, and context of buried soil horizons, correlate these with periods of prehistoric occupation of the region, and present a predictive model of site locations. Moreover, in this report we merge geomorphic and archaeological data in a Geographic Information System format. That method allows graphic portrayal of relations between these data and an array of environmental and cultural factors and of their historical context with respect to water level fluctuations that affected site erosion and burial. In Chapter two, the authors present background environmental data for the project area. In Chapter three, I discuss the regional cultural prehistory and, in Chapter four, describe the methods of surface archaeological survey, previous investigations at the KNWR, and the sites investigated during the four seasons of fieldwork. In Chapter five, Johnson presents the results of his geomorphological investigations. These include the description and radiocarbon dating of buried soils and their contexts at a number of exposures and in cores extracted at various locations around the reservoir. He identifies five distinct periods of soil formation dating from Late Archaic through Late Prehistoric time. Mr. Joshua S. Campbell, doctoral student in Geography at KU, discusses Geographic Information Science GISc in general and its particular relevance to KNWR in Chapter six. He then utilizes Geographic Information System (GIS) data, including aerial photography from pre- and post-dam construction, historical information on water level changes, various geological landforms, and digital elevation models, to show the affect of the reservoir through time on areas that may contain archaeological sites of certain ages. In the final chapter, the authors present a summary of the predictive model for the distribution and ages of cultural resources at KNWR, discuss the affects of future water level fluctuations on the various landforms that might contain them, and give a management plan for their discovery and protection.

Previous Investigations

The Smithsonian Institution, Missouri Valley Project River Basin Surveys conducted the first survey in what was then the proposed Kirwin Reservoir area from August 15 to 20, 1946 (Kivett 1947a). Only two sites, 14PH1 and Fort Kirwan (the latter was not then given a site number) were recorded. The former site, which then consisted “only of flint chips and a few flint artifacts”, (Kivett 1947a:3) was located in the area of the proposed dam and was destroyed during its construction.

3

Fort Kirwan was established ca 1865 in order to provide protection for government surveyors in the area. (This officer’s name was also given to the reservoir and nearby town, though with an incorrect spelling; Kivett 1947a:4). It was reportedly located “on the west bank of Bow Creek near is junction with the Solomon River northwest of the proposed recreational area A, approximately on the line between the SE ¼, Sec. 32, T4S, R16W, and the NE ¼, Sec. 5, T5S, R16W” (Kivett 1947a:4). The only traces of what may have been the fort site were a few rim-fire cartridge cases and glass sherds noted in a plowed field at the mouth of Bow Creek. This area is inundated by the reservoir during normal flood pool. The River Basin Surveys returned to the Kirwin Reservoir area for another brief survey, this from September 10th to 15th, 1952. During that period, the crew of two, Ralph S. Solecki and J. M. Shippee, devoted only three days to fieldwork. Solecki (1952:1-2) noted that the field conditions during that time were “probably worse” than those of the 1946 investigation. The many abandoned farms and houses in the area precluded coverage of much of the acreage in the project area and the worked fields were “dry and dusty, and many of the fields were still in planting”. Only four additional sites, 14PH7-10, were recorded in the project area and another, 14PH11, was documented beyond the federal lands. The site number 14PH6 was retroactively assigned to Fort Kirwan. As was the case for the KUMA surveys described here, the River Basin Surveys crew encountered very few artifacts at prehistoric sites in the Kirwin Reservoir area. Of the total of 191 artifacts recovered by Solecki and Shippee, 164 came from 14PH11. Two of the sites they recorded, 14PH7 and 14PH10, were investigated by KUMA and these are described in more detail in subsequent chapters of this report. Two others are inundated at normal flood pool. These are 14PH8, “on a low know with gently sloping sides south of a bend in the North Solomon River” and 14PH9, “on the edge of a terrace on the right bank of the North Solomon River” (Solecki 1952:4-5). The first of these yielded four artifacts of Niobrara jasper- a large blade fragment, a knife fragment, a scraper, and a large, retouched flake; the other yielded seven grit-tempered, cordmarked body sherds and one rim sherd and the surface was seen to have pieces of mussel shells and jasper debitage. Archaeologists of the Kansas State Historical Society conducted limited survey of 14PH9 and more intensive excavation at 14PH10, the West Island site, in October 1963 (Witty 1966). This investigation was prompted by the discovery of human remains at the latter site by personnel of the KNWR a few days prior. The findings of this project with regard to the latter site are described in the discussion of the Keith variant of the Woodland period in chapter 3. Artifacts recovered by Witty from 14PH9 included sherds of stone-tempered, cordmarked ware indicative of a Middle Ceramic (Late Prehistoric) occupation (Witty 1966:129). The last archaeological investigation at KNWR prior to those by KUMA was also conducted by the Kansas State Historical Society. It entailed a two-day surface reconnaissance of six tracts of bottomland exposed in 1978 during a time when the reservoir was quite low (Reynolds 1978). Three sites, 14PH305-307, were recorded as a result of that project. An attempt was also made to relocate Fort Kirwan (14PH6), but its location was apparently in that area of the reservoir still inundated. No attempt was made to visit any of the other previously recorded sites in the project area. Reynolds (1978:7) suggested that West Island was then either completely eroded or that the remnant seen by Witty in 1963 might still exist. None of the three sites found by Reynolds and described below could be investigated by KUMA as they were then inundated by the reservoir.

4

14PH305 was found in the tract known as Mud Flats on the south side of the North Fork Solomon River and west of Bow Creek. Artifacts recovered include two projectile points, one of which is a Scallorn point like those found at West Island in 1963 and the other of which is a plain triangular type, a large well-made biface, a crude biface, two side scrapers, a modified flake, and 13 pieces of debitage. With the exception of the well-made biface, which was gray to white chert (Permian?), all the lithic tools were Niobrara jasper. The debitage included a flake of “translucent gray to red chert [that] appears to be similar to the chert types found in the southern part of the Flint Hills region in south central Kansas” (Reynolds 1978:8). The few pieces of bone found during the survey included an animal bone with intentional striations and “three or possibly four fragments of human bone”. Other pieces of animal bone and teeth were noted on the surface but not collected. The site was assigned to the Plains Woodland period. 14PH306 is “300 yards southwest of 14PH305” and separated from it by a feature that may be “an old abandoned ox bow” (Reynolds 1978:9-10). Artifacts recovered include the tip of a large biface or projectile point and eight pieces of debitage. Also collected were two modified pieces of quartz and one of “very dense granitic rock”, as well as “large sections apparently of bison bone”. No cultural or temporal affiliation could be assigned to the site. 14PH307 was found on the east side of Bow Creek and north of Crappie Point “along the receding shoreline of Kirwin lake” (Reynolds 1978:10). Reynolds was directed to this site by a local informant, who had recovered “numerous artifacts” there. He also contacted another local collector who had found artifacts in the same area and intended to donate them to the KSHS. At the time of the 1978 investigation of this site, it was apparent that “the site has suffered considerably from erosion and it is likely that most of the primary site materials have been disturbed and removed by this erosion (Reynolds 1978:11). Two possible hearth or fireplace areas were seen and lithic artifacts and animal bones were recovered. The lithics included a small projectile point mid-section, a scraper or crude biface, two modified jasper flakes, and 20 pieces of debitage. The bones were identified as “possibly bison” but also included “some smaller animal bones and a section of a turtle shell” (Reynolds 1978:11). Among the artifacts found by one of the local collectors was a number of pottery sherds, but these were not examined by Reynolds. Consequently, it is not clear whether the site is of Plains Woodland or Late Prehistoric affiliation.

5

Chapter 2

ENVIRONMENT

William C. Johnson, Brad Logan, and Joshua S. Campbell

Geographic Setting and Terrain

Phillips County (Fig. 2.1), situated in the north-central part of Kansas, is bounded on the west by Norton County, on the east by Smith County, on the south by Rooks County, and on the north by Harlan County, Nebraska. The county covers about 895mi2 (1217km2) and was organized in 1872, with Phillipsburg as the county seat. Western Kansas lies within the Great Plains physiographic province of the Interior Plains Division (Hunt 1967). Phillips County, in turn, is divided approximately in half northeast to southwest by the Smoky Hills Region (southeast) and by the High Plains Region (northwest), resulting in a diverse assemblage of landscapes, largely due to dissection of Cretaceous chalk and shale, Tertiary (Miocene) sand and gravel, Pleistocene eolian silt (loess), Pleistocene sand sheets, and alluvial fills.

Figure 2.1: Location of Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge in Phillips County, Kansas.

KNWR is located within the Smoky Hills Region, a hilly region characterized by a dissected landscape of Cretaceous rock of marine origin, with a mantle of Quaternary wind- and water-lain deposits. KNWR, established in 1954, consists of about 10,780 acres (4362hec) of grassland, wooded riparian areas, wetlands, cropland, and open water. Intended purpose of KNWR is conservation of wildlife resources, with an emphasis on migratory birds.

Terrain of the county is well expressed by a digital elevation model (DEM) generated from U.S. Geological Survey 30m-grid data (Fig. 2.2). Highest elevations in the county are found in the extreme northwest corner (2325ft/810m), and lowest elevations in the North Fork Solomon River

6

valley below Kirwin Dam in the southeastern part of the county (1643ft/570m). A prominent, loess-mantled stream divide forms the primary upland and crosses the northern half of the county. The four main drainages of the county are the North Fork Solomon River, flowing west to east through the southern half of the county; Prairie Dog Creek, passing through the northwest corner of the county; Deer Creek, which drains the south flank of the divide and flows from the northwest into the North Fork Solomon River below Kirwin Dam; and Bow Creek, joining the North Fork Solomon River from the southwest.

Figure 2.2: Digital elevation model (DEM) and major stream of Phillips County, Kansas. KNWR is indicated by the solid-color polygon.

The DEM prepared for KNWR was modified in that elevation data representing the water surface of Kirwin Reservoir were deleted, and pre-lake elevation data were substituted to represent the original riverine topography (Fig. 2.3). This rendering provides a relatively good indication of the distribution of the high terrace (light turquoise) and of the low terrace and flood plain (dark turquoise), particularly in the valley of the North Fork Solomon River. KNWR is situated in the uppermost position in the North Fork Solomon River system where the valley is sufficiently wide and hydrologically sound for reservoir construction. Although dominated by bottomland, KNWR

Prairie Dog Creek

North Fork Solomon River

Deer Creek

Bow Creek

7

includes bedrock valley margins, which are loess-mantled in some instances. Terrain characteristics of KNWR include many of those prized by prehistoric people, such as sites of perennial water supply, a combination of upland and lowland game habitats, and fertile bottomland soils.

Figure 2.3: Modified DEM of Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge. Black line is the refuge boundary.

Surficial Geology Phillips County During the late 1940s and early 1950s, geology of Phillips County was investigated extensively, with particular attention focused on the Miocene-Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits. Economic impetus was responsible for much of the research, such as Landes and Keroher’s (1942) inventory of mineral and ground water resources, Frye and Swineford’s (1946) study of silicified sandstone lentils in the Ogallala Formation, the Bureau of Reclamation and State Highway Commission study of sources of aggregate by Byrne and others (1948), A.R. Leonard’s (1952) study of ground-water resources in the North Fork Solomon River valley, and Frye and Leonard’s (1954) investigation of middle- and late-Pleistocene stratigraphy exposed in the cutoff trench

8

excavated during construction of Kirwin Dam. Subsequent to construction of the reservoir, several ground-water and surface-water studies were conducted in conjunction with the Kirwin Dam impoundment and with other hydrologic projects in the area. The most recent and detailed investigation of surficial geology in Phillips County was conducted by Johnson and Arbogast (1993) and Johnson (1993). Outcropping rocks in Phillips County, ranging from Upper Cretaceous to Holocene in age, include the Carlile Shale, Niobrara Chalk, Pierre Shale, Ogallala Formation, and an array of unconsolidated late-Quaternary eolian and alluvial deposits. Oldest exposed rock units date to the Late Cretaceous (Upper Cretaceous) at less than 100 mya (Fig. 2.4). While Paleogene rock units appear to be absent from the surface geology, the Neogene Ogallala Formation is well-represented in the county. Quaternary rock units cover much of the upland and comprise the valley fills.

Figure 2.4: Geologic time scale. Scale extends only to the Cretaceous, which are the oldest rocks in KNWR and Phillips County. USGS ages (1) are after Geologic Names Committee (1984), and GSA/DNAG ages (2) are after Palmer (1983). Figure is from Johnson (1993). Late-Quaternary stratigraphic succession in Phillips County ranges from pre-Illinoian deposits to late-Holocene eolian sand and silt and alluvium (Fig. 2.5). While Pre-Illinoian deposits have not been recognized at the surface, Illinoian deposits appear in a limited fashion, such as in gullies within the upland loess-mantle and along slopes beveling the loess mantle. Wisconsinan-age sediments are commonly exposed on the uplands, in particular the upper part of the loess mantle

9

(i.e., Peoria loess). Historically, many of the stratigraphic correlations within late-Quaternary deposits have been derived from volcanic ash beds, but these are not yet well dated. On some upland drainage divides, remnants of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition Brady soil and overlying Holocene Bignell loess still persist. Alluvium of both Wisconsinan and Holocene ages occur with valley bottoms. Isolated accumulations of eolian sand persist in meander bends of the North Fork Solomon River and on the uplands.

Figure 2.5: Generalized late-Quaternary stratigraphy of Phillips County, Kansas. Modified from Johnson (1993). Ages are approximate and from various sources. Surficial geology of Phillips County has a pattern that reflects the near-layer-cake character of the consolidated and unconsolidated geologic units (Fig. 2.6). From northwest to southeast in the county, successively older rock units are exposed. The loess mantle is thick and continuous on the upland north of Prairie Dog Creek in the Northwestern corner of the county, but it is confined to narrow elongate forms on the narrow divides between Prairie Dog Creek and Deer Creek. Here the loess rests unconformably on the Ogallala Formation. The southern flank of the divide between

10

20

50

130

190

1650

10

Prairie Dog Creek and Deer Creek is comprised of the Smoky Hill chalk member of the Niobrara Formation, which is overlain in limited areas by the Sharon Springs Member of the Pierre Shale. Farther south toward Deer Creek, tributary divides are broad and mantled with loess. Smoky Hill chalk is exposed along the north and south sides of the North Fork Solomon River valley downstream to the Kirwin area where the Fort Hays limestone member of the Niobrara Formation is exposed. Blue Hill shale and Codell sandstone members of the Carlile Shale are exposed in limited localities beneath the Fort Hays limestone member. Valley fill is mapped as flood plain and high terrace, also known as the Kirwin terrace in the North Fork Solomon River valley and as the Almena terrace in Prairie Dog Creek valley (Frye and A.R. Leonard 1949). Scattered, small areas of dune sand have developed on the Ogallala Formation outcrops, particularly in the southwestern corner of the county, and within stable meander bends of the North Fork Solomon River. The Smoky Hill chalk member contains silicified chalk, sometimes called jasper, and variably prefixed with locational modifiers such as Smoky Hill, Graham, Alma, or Republican River (Stein 2005:1; McLean 1998). This variably exposed material was widely used throughout the Central Plains and adjacent regions by prehistoric peoples for the production of chipped stone tools. Stein (2005) describes utilized sources in northwestern Kansas. Eight workshop sites are in the Deer Creek drainage, northern Phillips County, adjacent to the KNWR. Three of these are associated with silicified chalk outcrops and the others are nearby (Stein 2005:44). While none has yielded temporally diagnostic artifacts, they point to the importance of Smoky Hill silicified chalk in prehistoric technologies and may have been used by prehistoric inhabitants of the KNWR.

Figure 2.6: Surficial geology of Phillips County, Kansas (Johnson and Arbogast 1993).

11

Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge Most rock units recognized in Phillips County are present in KNWR, the exceptions being the Carlile Shale, Pierre Shale, and Ogallala Formation (Fig. 2.7). The Fort Hays Limestone Member of the Niobrara Chalk is a buff-colored, chalky marine limestone displaying massive bedding (<1.5m) separated by thin shale partings (Hattin 1982) and tends to be a cliff-former due to its resistance to erosion. Two major outcrop areas in KNWR are along both valley walls of Bow Creek and on the north and south sides of Kirwin Reservoir, resulting in a bedrock valley constriction that no doubt influenced the location of Kirwin Dam at this valley juncture. The bedrock valley in this reach is cut into the Carlile Shale, which subcrops below the alluvial fill. Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk is the other bedrock unit within KNWR. This unit comprises the upper approximately 182m of the 200m of the Niobrara Chalk documented in western Kansas (Hattin 1982). This chalk is olive-gray when freshly exposed (weathers to light gray), well-laminated to non-laminated, and contains numerous, thin (<10cm) zones of bentonite that weather to dark rusty-gray. The lower contact is difficult to ascertain due to the shaly nature of

Figure 2.7: Surficial geology of KNWR. Extracted from Johnson and Arbogast (1993).

12

the uppermost Fort Hays limestone. Smoky Hill chalk is exposed above the Fort Hays along the valley walls adjacent to the middle and lower parts of the reservoir, and upstream from the Fort Hays limestone outcrops. Occasionally, Smoky Hill chalk is eroded as to create badland topography, an example of which is located on the east side of the juncture of Bow Creek and North Fork Solomon River bedrock valleys, near the Dane G. Hansen Boy Scout camp. Late-Quaternary units expressed in KNWR include Illinoian-age loess, Wisconsinan-age loess and alluvium, and Holocene-age loess, alluvium, and eolian sand deposits. Most of these deposits are punctuated by intercalated soil development. The Illinoian-age Loveland loess, the oldest Quaternary deposit with surface exposure within KNWR, is a yellowish-brown or reddish-brown eolian silt capped by the Sangamon soil, which formed during the Last Interglacial, about 120ka. While not outcropping, Pre-Illinoian deposits are present in KNWR: within the cut-off trench excavated for construction of Kirwin Dam, Frye and A.B. Leonard (1954) described, from bottom to top, nearly 22m of the Meade Formation (Pre-Illinoian unit made up of the Sappa and Grand Island members), about 10m of overlying Illinoian Loveland Loess and Crete alluvium, and about 3m of Wisconsinan-age Peoria loess. Situated unconformably on the Sangamon soil is the Gilman Canyon Formation (Reed and Dreeszen 1965), a middle-Wisconsinan loess dominated by soil development, typically a Mollisol. Basal age of the Gilman Canyon Formation is uncertain, but it lies in the range 50-40ka (Johnson, unpublished data). Soil development occurred from about 36ka to 20ka, during which a mixed prairie to C4 grass-dominated prairie prevailed (Johnson 1993). Middle-Wisconsinan or older alluvium, capped by a temporal equivalent of the Gilman Canyon Formation soil, has been preserved in fill of the North Fork Solomon River valley immediately west of KNWR. Late-Wisconsinan Peoria loess mantles much of the upland and protrudes into KNWR along tributary interfluves, particularly on the north side of the valley along the lower part of the reservoir. It rest conformably on the Gilman Canyon Formation soil and is a yellowish to tan-buff, homogeneous, massive, locally fossiliferous, variably calcareous loess, ranging in texture from fine sand and coarse silt to fine sit and coarse clay (Frye and Leonard 1952). No late-Wisconsinan alluvium was recognized in KNWR, although it may exist basally within the high-terrace fill. Such fill has been recognized at Lovewell Reservoir in Jewell County, Kansas to the east (Mandel 2002) and at Harlan County Lake to the north in Nebraska (Johnson 1989). Alluvium and eolian sand deposits comprise the detectable Holocene-age units in KNWR. If the Holocene-age Bignell loess (Schultz and Stout 1945) yet remains above the Peoria loess, then it has been incorporated in to the modern soil. Alluvial fills are subdivided into those associated with the high terrace, low terrace and flood plain. The high terrace (a.k.a. Kirwin terrace) is extensive and dominates the valleys of both the North Fork Solomon River and Bow Creek. This study documents a middle- to late-Holocene age for the upper few meters of fill, though a basal age has not yet been ascertained. Flood plain, as mapped, includes small areas of low terrace, all of which are submerged during normal pool level (~527m). Age determinations on the uppermost buried soils within high-terrace fill suggest that entrenchment and subsequent development of the

13

low terrace and flood plain occurred within the last several hundred years. Eolian sand deposits have developed in the interiors of the two meander bends of the North Fork Solomon River at the west end of KNWR, the apparent source of the sand being pre-existing point-bar deposits.

Soils Phillips County is a prime example of the predictable pattern of soil series distribution as it relates to geology, terrain (aspect and relief), climate and plant communities. In most instances, an individual soil will transition into another soil as one or more of the above factors change. The role of the soil survey is to map soils as polygons on the landscape, and, during the course of mapping, decisions must be made as to where to locate the boundary between soil types. An single map polygon, as depicted on the soil map, represents a soil series or, if subdivided, a soil phase. The general soils map of Phillips County (Fig. 2.8) presents soils as associations which are named after the soil series that dominate these large subdivisions of the county. Since soil associations include two or more soil series, they are listed in order of areal extent within the defined polygon(s). Most of the associations consist of uplands (divides and slopes). The Harney-Holdrege-Uly association

Figure 2.8: General soils map of Phillips County, Kansas, with Kirwin Reservoir. (STATSGO database)

14

consists of deep, nearly level to moderately steep, well-drained soils that form on uplands and have a silty clay loam or silt loam subsoil (i.e., the B horizon, taken as that part of the solum below the plow zone). The Harney-Uly-Holdrege association is similar to that above, but with a change in order of dominance. Similarly, the Holdrege-Uly-Coly association represents loess mantled uplands and upland slopes. Uly-Coly-Holdrege and Uly-Holdrege-Coly associations are two other groupings of loess-derived soil series. Although upland associations, the Nuckolls-Holdrege-Campus and Uly-Holdrege-Penden contains soils derive both in loess and in Pleistocene alluvium (Campus and Penden series). The Wakeen-Uly-Penden association consists of upland soils developed in limestone and chalky shale, loess, and calcareous, loamy old alluvium, respectively. Lastly, the Roxbury-Hord-McCook association is one formed in silty, calcareous alluvium expressed as stream terraces and flood plains in all four major drainages within the county. KNWR is included in the Harney-Holdrege-Uly, Holdrege-Uly-Coly, Roxbury-Hord-McCook, and Wakeen-Uly-Penden associations. In contrast to general soil maps, like that of Phillips County, detailed soil maps consists of map units representing individual parcels of the landscape that are designated with the appropriate soil series or soil phase. Occasionally, map units consist of two or more major soils, which are called soil complexes. Included within the soil map units are miscellaneous areas, which have little or no soil to characterize (e.g., quarries, made land, water). The detailed soil map of KNWR includes 22 different soil-map unit categories, consisting of 17 soil series or phases, 3 soil complexes, and 2 miscellaneous areas (Fig. 2.9, Table 2.1). Soil series, phases and complexes include a wide range of landscape positions and parent materials within KNWR (Table 2.1). Holdrege silt loam (Ho) is found on the relatively level, loess-mantled uplands and is most mature of all other soils in KNWR, as evidenced by its Bt horizon. Uly silt loam soils occur on the slopes off the flat upland, and the phases represent increasing slope steepness from Uc to Uh. These soils have a less well developed B horizon (Bw) because of the increase instability (greater erosion) on the upland side slopes. Downslope from the Uly silt loam and in small tributaries, the Uly-Penden complex (Up) appears within the transition from loess to exposed high-level, calcareous alluvium of middle-Pleistocene or older age. Also topographically below the Uly series, but along the North Fork Solomon River and Bow Creek valley walls is the Wakeen-Nibson complex (Wk), which typically occurs on down slope from the Uly silt loam , where the loess mantle has been removed and chalky limestone and shale bedrock is exposed. Lowermost valley-wall soils appear as the Brownell-Heizer gravelly loam complex (Bw) or Armo loam (Ar), which are derived from limestone bedrock and from chalky limestone colluvium, respectively. Anselmo fine sandy loam (An) is a phase of this series that typically occupies a landscape position similar to that of the Uly silt loam, but is on side slopes that contain more fine sand that the Uly. Anselmo fine sandy loam (3-7% slope) occurs below the Uly (Ud) in the large meander at the west end of KNWR, where the loess has likely received fine sand blowing up from the river deposits. Uppermost alluvial soils are the Roxbury silt loam phases (Rp, Rs) in tributaries to the North Fork Solomon River valley and Bow Creek valley. Within the two main valleys, Detroit silty

15

Figure 2.9: Soil series polygons for KNWR and adjacent areas (SSURGO database). clay loam is the highest in elevation and best developed of all bottomland soils. The Detroit series occurs on stream terraces, especially those formed in silty (loess-derived?) alluvium; it is mapped on a slightly elevated part of the high terrace in the western end of KNWR. The next best-developed high-terrace soil series is the Hord silt loam (Hw); it too has an apparent loess contribution, and, in KNWR, occurs adjacent to Detroit silty clay loam. A third high-terrace soil series, McCook silt loam (Mk), occurs in a topographic position similar to that of the Hord silt loam, but has a somewhat thinner A horizon and can occur in a greater variety of drainage positions. The phase of the Roxbury silt loam that is subject to only rare flooding (Ro) is a fourth high-terrace soil and covers a large area above Kirwin reservoir. Topographically below the Roxbury silt loam is the Roxbury Variant silty clay loam (Rv), a frequently-flooded soil that has been enriched in clay and is poorly drained as a result of reservoir construction. Munjor sandy loam (Mu) is situated on low terrace and higher flood plain segments; consequently, it experiences occasional flooding. Dunes created as a result of eolian reworking of point-bar deposits and channel-bed sediments within the large meander bends in the western end of KNWR are indicated by the Inavale loamy fine sand. The first of two phases, formed on low terrace and flood plain (In), experiences occasional flooding, while the second, formed on low and high terraces (Ip), is in hummocky terrain and experiences flooding only rarely.

16

17

Climate Historical climate records Climate of Phillips County and KNWR is continental, midlatitude rainy, with mild to cold winters. In the empiric Köppen System, most popular climatic classification system (Strahler and Strahler 2006), a C climate (mesothermal) is one with the coolest month must average below 18oC (64.4oF) and the warmest month above 10oC (50oF). Conversely, for a D climate (microthermal), the coolest month must average below -3oC (26.6oF) and the warmest month over 10oC (50oF). Temperature data for KNWR indicate that the coolest month (January) averages from -4oC (24.8oF) to -3.10oC (26.4oF), depending on which normal period is used (Table 2.2). These means are very close to the threshold temperature for the coolest month of C and D climates, placing KNWR near or on a climatic boundary using this system. The second letter of the Köppen system, which indicated the annual distribution of precipitation, meets the criteria for relatively even distribution throughout the year, that is, the “f” category (Table 2.2). The third letter designate is for annual temperature pattern, and KNWR fits the criterion for the “a” category, that is, the warmest month over 22oC (71.6oF). Hence, the Köppen System climate classification for KNWR is Cfa. Temperature-wise, the warmest month is July and the coolest, January. For precipitation, the driest month is January and the wettest, June (Table 2.2). For 1931-2000, mean monthly temperature and precipitation ranges are 14.6oC (52.8oF) and 87mm (3.41”), respectively. The mean monthly distribution of temperature displays marked seasonality, with relatively conservative standard deviations about the monthly means, whereas the same for precipitation illustrates seasonality, but standard deviations that rival the annual range in monthly precipitation (Fig. 2.10). This dramatic variability in monthly precipitation is characteristic of this central Great Plains prairie environment, which is a reflection of being within the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains and a relatively large distance from the moisture-laden air from the Gulf of Mexico. For the five individual normal periods and for the entire period of record, variation in mean annual has been relatively conservative, ranging from 11.6oC (52.8oF) to 12.0oC (53.6oF), a range of less than one degree (Fig. 2.11). Not surprisingly, the warmest normal period was that of 1931-1960, one that included the drought of the 1930s. Mean annual precipitation for the various normal periods ranges from a low of 657 (25.9”) in the 1931-1960 normal period to a high of 698mm (27.5”) for 1971-2000, which contained the wet year of 1993 and others (Fig. 2.11). Overall, it appears from Figure 2.11 that relatively warm normal periods were characterized by relatively low precipitation, and relatively cool normal periods by higher precipitation. Considering normal-period mean monthly and annual temperature and precipitation, prehistoric peoples of the area would have experienced a reasonably hospitable climate. The obvious source of stress would have been from frequent, prolonged, often intense growing season droughts. Scarce water would have reduced game populations and the potential for gathering or growing food plants. Drought may have been even more stressful to these peoples if the mega-droughts realized from climatic proxies in the northern Plains (Laird et al. 1996) affected KNWR.

18

1931-2000 Monthly Mean Temperature

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Months

Tem

pera

ture

(deg

. F)

1931-2000 Mean Monthly Precipitation

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Months

Prec

ipita

tion

(inch

es)

Figure 2.10: 1931-2000 monthly means: temperature (left) and precipitation (right). Data are for the north-central region of Kansas (NOAA).

Mean Annual Temperature

52.4

52.6

52.8

53

53.2

53.4

53.6

53.8

Normal Periods

Tem

pera

ture

(deg

. F)

31-00

31-60

41-70

51-80

61-90

71-00

Mean Annual Precipitation

25

25.5

26

26.5

27

27.5

28

Normal Periods

Prec

ipita

tion

(inch

es)

31-00

31-60

41-70

51-80

61-90

71-00

Figure 2.11: Mean annual temperature (left) and mean annual precipitation (right). Data are for the north-central region of Kansas (NOAA). Late-Quaternary climates It has long been recognized that the central Great Plains lacked the traditional proxies (e.g., fossil pollen, tree rings) for reconstruction of past climates in the region. Consequently, alternative proxies have been sought out, such as fossil opal phytoliths, fossil diatoms, relative sand dune activity, and stable isotopes. These new proxy data sets, in combination with traditional proxy data sets from the periphery of the Great Plains, have started the process of assembling records of the prehistoric climate in the region. Due to the archaeological context, the latest Pleistocene, Pleistocene-Holocene transition, and Holocene are characterized. The hallmark of late-Pleistocene Wisconsinan glacial period was the Last Glacial Maximum, when climate was coolest and the boreal environment most extreme (COHMAP Members1988). Climatic reconstruction indicated drier and cooler conditions in the High Plains due to a strong high pressure cell over the North American ice sheet (Kutzbach and Guetter 1986).

19

Northwesterly winds carried high loess loads (Roberts et al. 2003), and parabolic dune complexes were formed (Arbogast 1996). Scattered populations of spruce and shrubs and boreal fauna characterized the biotic environment of the central Great Plains (Grüger 1973; Wells and Stewart 1987; Jaumann 1991). Climate and associated environmental change at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition was dramatic, as this was a time of transition from the boreal environment to the mixed to C4-dominated prairie. Atmospheric global circulation model (AGCM) simulations show the northern branch of the polar jet stream shifting south and merging with its southern branch by 12ka, in response to the shrinking continental ice sheet (Kutzbach 1987), and by 9ka the jet stream assumed a pattern similar to that of the present (COHMAP Members1988). About 9ka, insolation reached a peak (Berger and Loutre 1991), and global climate quickly transitioned into the Younger Dryas (12.8ka to 11.5ka), a 1300 year-long retreat from climatic amelioration (Alley et al. 1993). This event, precipitated by release of meltwater toward the Gulf of Mexico that cooled sea-surface temperatures (Flower and Kennett 1990), reduced the latitudinal difference in temperature and in the magnitude of winter storm tracks. Further, rising summer insolation increased the temperature gradient between the cooled Gulf waters and the continent, thereby increasing the flux of growing season moisture to High Plains (Forman et al. 1995). Increased moisture and warmer temperatures likely promoted the expansion of the central Great Plains prairie. The prairie-forest ecotone in Kansas was responding to the prairie expansion: deciduous trees and shrubs as well as grasses and forbs expanded at the expense of spruce in northeastern Kansas (Grüger 1973). At Harlan County Lake, a short distance north of KNWR, fauna associated with a spring environment transitioned from those of a spruce-aspen parkland (e.g., spruce grouse, snowshoe hare, bog lemming, sauger) to those of a significantly warmer, prairie environment (e.g., hognose snake, prairie vole) (Fredulund 1989; Stewart 1989). Employing opal phytolith assemblages from modern soils and from late-Pleistocene to early-Holocene assemblages in the region, Fredlund and Tieszen (1997) developed statistical regression models that showed a major change in the biota between 14ka and 10ka. This period was characterized by relative landscape stability and resultant soil formation (Forman et al. 1995; Johnson and Willey 2000). In the early Holocene, AGCM simulations signify a response to increased insolation, that is, higher surface temperatures, with the southern parts of the central Great Plains realizing increased southerly winds (Kutzbach 1987). Plant communities continued to change, for example, grass dominated the northeastern Kansas Muscotah Marsh pollen record by about 9ka (Grüger 1973). Moreover, geomorphic systems became increasingly active, for example, large stream systems began aggrading (Johnson and Logan 1990; Bettis and Mandel 2002), Bignell loess began to accumulate on the landscape (Johnson and Willey 2000; Mason et al. 2003), and isolated eolian activity occurred, perhaps in response to drought brought on by La Nina-dominated climate regimes (Forman et al. 2001). At Moon Lake in the Northern Great Plains, diatom assemblages indicate an open-lake environment, with low salinity (Laird et al. 1996).

20

Middle-Holocene climate was dominated by decreased effective moisture associated with the Altithermal (Antevs 1955). Climate modeling by Harrison and others (2003) indicated middle-Holocene (6ka) aridity, which was attributed to increased insolation in northern hemisphere summers and early winters. Stable carbon isotope data from Bignell loess deposits in northwestern Kansas and adjacent southwestern Nebraska indicate an increase in the C4 grass component (Johnson and Willey 2000, Feggestad et al. 2005). A closed saline lake system developed at Moon Lake from 7300 to 4700 yrs BP (Laird et al. 1996), and a reduction in Cheno-Am pollen types and rise in ragweed pollen 8500-3700 yrs BP at Cheyenne Bottoms in central Kansas suggests lower water levels (Fredlund 1995). To the northeast along the prairie-forest ecotone in northwestern Minnesota, several parameters (e.g.,magnetic susceptibility, geochemistry, varve thickness) measured on core sediments from Elk Lake indicate extreme aridity about 7.0-5.8ka, with a shift to more fresh-water conditions 5.4-4.8ka (Whitlock et al. 1993). Geomorphically, this was a time of net erosion and sediment transport in small valleys and episodic aggradation in large valleys and on alluvial fans (Mandel 1994). Episodic mobilization of eolian sand in the Great Bend area of Kansas indicates episodic aridity beginning ~7700 yrs BP (Arbogast 1998; Arbogast and Johnson 1998). Sand dune activity peaked between about 7ka and 5ka throughout the central and southern Great Plains (e.g., Holliday 1995; Muhs et al. 1996; Stokes and Swinehart 1997; Forman et al. 2001). Late-Holocene climate appears to have been characterized by high-frequency fluctuations. Variation in lake salinity, as inferred from fossil diatom assemblages in the bottom sediments of Moon Lake, North Dakota, indicates recurrence of droughts over the last 2300 years (Laird et al. 1996). Prior to A.D. 1200, persistent droughts occurred on a regular basis with major events for the periods A.D. 200-370, 700-850, and 1000-1200. Since about A.D. 1200, droughts, including that of the 1930s, have been less intense and shorter in duration. Although the climatic mechanisms responsible for this shift in drought regime about A.D. 1200 are not resolved, this timing does approximate the beginning of the globally extensive Little Ice Age. Relatively wet conditions lasted until about A.D. 1850, the approximate end of the Little Ice Age. Significant sand dune activity has been documented for the late Holocene. For example, sand mobilization was recorded in northeastern Colorado at 4.85, 2.37, 1.06, 0.8, 0.6-0.53, and 0.37 ka (Clarke and Rendell 2003), in the Great Bend Sand Prairie of Kansas at 2.3, 1.4, 1.1, 0.7, and 0.3ka (Arbogast 1996; Arbogast and Johnson 1998), and in western Nebraska at about 1.4, 0.67, 0.47, 0.24, 0.14 and 0.07ka (Forman et al. 2005). Stream systems during this period have undergone episodic aggradation, resulting in periodic soil formation (Johnson and Logan 1990; Bettis and Mandel 2002). Clearly, prehistoric cultures in KNWR would have had to cope with an ever changing and vast array of climatic regimes and associated environments. Consequently, human adaptation would have required a number of different strategies, whatever happened, to be effective in the prevailing environmental conditions. While it is not certain that changes in cultural adaptations documented in the region to date (see Chapter 3) were responses to shifts in environmental conditions, it is likely they would have contributed to them to some extent.

21

Flora and Land Use Potential natural vegetation Küchler produced the first detailed map of pristine or near-pristine plant communities in Kansas (Küchler 1974), a condition he referred to as “potential natural vegetation.” Kansas, as essentially a prairie or grassland state, consists of three north-south oriented zones: short-grass grama-buffalograss prairie in the west, mixed prairie with tall to short grasses in central Kansas, and tall grasses and forbs in the east (Fig. 2.12). Because precipitation falling on the Kansas prairie is highly variable which results in often severe and prolonged droughts, plant communities are dynamic and must be robust to persist and recover. The drought of the 1930s resulted in several early studies of grassland community dynamics (e.g., Albertson 1937, Weaver 1943, Küchler 1972). These studies point in particular to drought sensitivity of mixed prairie.

Figure 2.12: Potential vegetation of Kansas (Küchler 1974). Kirwin Reservoir is visible in Phillips County (white outline).

22

Phillips County and KNWR lie centrally within the mixed prairie and west of the westernmost occurrence of any significant forest islands (Küchler 1974). Mixed prairie is characterized by C4 (warm-season) grasses and forbs, and these plants form dense communities with two strata, one of dense low-growing short grasses and another of clustered medium to tall grasses and forbs. Bluestem-grama (Andropogon-Boutelous) communities dominate the mixed prairie of Kansas. Indicator species include big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), little bluestem (Andropogon scoparius), sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), and blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis). Riparian communities differ dramatically from the mixed prairie of the uplands and slopes. In western Kansas, including Phillips County, these consist of tall to low broadleaf deciduous and scattered trees and shrubs. Indicator species include cottonwood (Populus deltoides), and willows (e.g., Salix nigra). Although prairie persists in this zone, it is under keen competition from arboreal plants and from marsh grasses such as prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata). Certainly this floral environment offered a rich resource base to prehistoric occupants of KNWR, who developed intimate relationships with a multitude of plants, many of which served as cultivars. Examples of major native plant foods from the Archaic, Woodland, Late Prehistoric, and Protohistoric periods included goosefoot (Chenopodium spp.), pigweed (Amaranthus spp.), ragweed (Ambrosia spp.), sunflower (Helianthus spp.), bedstraw (Galium sp.), bushgrape (Vitis sp.), marshelder (Iva xanthifolia), and many of the grasses (Adair 1988). Because Holocene climate went through various regimes, attendant changes in plant communities and associated fauna would have required certain adaptations by prehistoric cultures to this altered resource base. Further, time scales of these climatic regimes were variable; for example, drought conditions of the Altithermal persisted for millennia, whereas droughts during the last 2000 years were apparently of shorter but variable duration. Paleoindian people would have experienced the transition from cool C3 grasslands and woodlands to warm-season C4 grasslands; Archaic people, the dry conditions of the Altithermal; and Woodland people, episodes of drought. Modern land cover European settlement has resulted in obvious changes to pristine plant communities, through introduction of non-native species, cultivation for production of cultigens (e.g., wheat), grazing of prairie by livestock, and destructive developments such as feedlots and urbanization. All these factors are in evidence to some degree in Phillips County. Because of disruption in many of the plant communities and the resulting diversity in contemporary land use, the term “land cover” is perhaps better suited to describe the present vegetation of Phillips County and KNWR. The Kansas GAP Land Cover Database came out of a program which was a land cover mapping project designed to fill in the spatial “gaps” within our knowledge of vegetation cover. The database is was originated and published by the Kansas Remote Sensing (KARS) Program to meet the requirements of the National GAP Analysis Program of the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey. Data for Kansas, generated using a two-stage hybrid classification of multi-temporal Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery, depict 43 land cover classes and are available through the Kansas Geological Survey DASC portal (http://gisdasc.kgs.ku.edu).

23

Land cover (GAP) data for Phillips County includes 16 classes, including water (Kirwin Reservoir) and urban areas (Phillipsburg, Kirwin, Glade, Logan, Prairie View, Long Island, Agra) (Fig. 2.13). The entire county, including uplands and large valley bottoms, is dominated by cultivated land and mixed prairie (native and disturbed), with scattered areas of CRP (Conservation Reserve Program). From the data, it is apparent how little of the pristine or near-pristine mixed prairie remains. Data for KNWR and adjacent areas (Fig. 2.14) depict a diversity of land cover classes. Clearly, the potential natural mixed prairie reconstructed by Küchler (1974) has largely been destroyed. In some areas the diversity of land covers is quite high, for example, in the yet-unsurveyed (archaeologically) tract within the core of the large meander in the North Fork Solomon River channel at the western end of KNWR. Largest areas of cultivated land are on the high terrace in western KNWR. Tracts of mixed prairie are small and fragmented, but found throughout KNWR. Contemporary land cover patterns provide a sense of just how extensive disturbance of surface and near-surface (<20cm) prehistoric cultural remains has been in KNWR. Although cultivation serves to expose such resources, it also is the mechanism by which they are disarticulated, dispersed and destroyed.

Figure 2.13: Land cover for Phillips County, with Kirwin Reservoir depicted.

24

Figure 2.14: Land cover for KNWR and adjacent areas.

Fauna Pristine plant communities (Fig. 2.12) contained a wide variety of vertebrates and invertebrates that were important to the subsistence economies of the region's prehistoric inhabitants. Most important were the larger mammals, bison (Bison bison), elk (Cervus canadensis), pronghorn (Antiolocapra americana), and deer, only the latter of which is now extant regionally. Of these, bison were likely the most frequently obtained during most of prehistoric time, as they were by 19th century native populations. Throughout the Holocene, the mixed grass community supported prolific herds of bison that contributed to the rich biomass of the prairie. Bison were not only a source of protein and fat, but also a source of clothing, shelter, bone tools, and fuel (McDonald 1981). So important was the species that it figured prominently in the spiritual life of the historic Indians of the region, as it likely did in that of their prehistoric predecessors.

25

Edge environments, formed where gallery woodlands fingered into grasslands, contained two species of deer, mule (Odocoileus hemionus) and white tail (Odocoileus virginianus), both of which currently range the area. Other animals of importance to past Native Americans in the Kansas High Plains include raccoon (Procyon lotor), turkey (Melagris gallopavo), upland game birds such as the sharp-tailed grouse (Pedioecetes phasianellus) and prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido), and a variety of aquatic species such as beaver, Canada goose (Branta canadensis), mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), pintail (Anas acuta), shoveler (Spatula clypeata), and blue-winged teal (Anas discors). Fish such as suckers and catfish appear to have figured to a lesser extent in the native subsistence economy. Mussels were gathered from streams, probably for food, but certainly for the use of their shells as tools and ornaments (Wedel 1986:22-25). The prairie biome was home to a variety of predators that were hunted or trapped for food or pelage. These include the plains grizzly (Ursus horribilis), black bear (Ursus americanus), cougar (Felis concolor), wildcat (Lynx rufus), mink (Musetela vison), coyote (Canis latrans), wolf (Canis lupus), and black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) (Wedel 1986:22-23). Throughout the prehistoric and historic periods, the High Plains prairie has been filled with an incredible variety of birds, including raptors, owls, songbirds, resident and migratory waterfowl, and shorebirds (Wedel 1986:23-24).

26

27

Chapter 3

CULTURAL PREHISTORY Brad Logan Introduction The prehistory of western Kansas is poorly known compared to that of the eastern part of the state. While this reflects the fact that fewer archaeological investigations have been undertaken there (itself a consequence of the smaller amount of federal property therein), it probably is also a reflection of the more sparse settlement of that region throughout the late Pleistocene and Holocene. What follows, then, is an overview of what we do know about the regional prehistory and an indication of how much there is to learn. The systematic reconnaissance surveys done by KUMA at the KNWR were steps toward increasing our knowledge about the culture history of northwestern Kansas. It will be apparent by the end of this report, however, that much more remains to be done there. It is notable that much of the information in this chapter derives from more extensive archaeological work at localities, such as Harry Strunk Reservoir (hereafter, Medicine Creek) and Harlan County Lake in southwestern Nebraska. Given the proximity of these localities to the KNWR and the wide-ranging mobility of most of their prehistoric inhabitants, it is likely that the project area was utilized by the latter, at least transiently, at various times. Paleoindian Despite recent verification of pre-Clovis occupation of the New World (Meltzer et al. 1997), only a few sites in the central High Plains have been touted as possible candidates for such occupation and all have yielded "evidence", either artifacts of an ambiguous nature or from questionable contexts, that has yet to be widely accepted (cf. Hofman 1996:43-46). One of the more extensively investigated such sites in the vicinity of the KNWR is La Sena, a putative mammoth processing site in the Medicine Creek drainage, southwestern Nebraska (Holen and May 1994). This site has yielded many fragmented pieces of mammoth bone, including flaked pieces and bone flakes, which have been interpreted as evidence of bone tool processing. Radiocarbon dates from the bone and its loess matrix are ~18,440 BP. There are no cultural remains, other than the putative worked bone, from the site. Mammoth remains from a site at Lovewell Reservoir in Jewell County, Kansas east of the KNWR have also been interpreted as evidence of human predation. A sample of the bone was radiocarbon dated to 19,530+80 BP (Holen et al. 2005). Another putative pre-Clovis site on the Republican River is North Cove, exposed in a deeply buried context on a wave-cut face along Harlan County Lake, Nebraska. Here four small flakes of Niobrara jasper were recovered from convoluted spring deposits in association with a Wisconsinan floral and faunal assemblage (Logan 1989). Radiocarbon dates from deposits that sealed the spring sediments range from 10,580+2200 to 14,700+100 BP (Johnson 1989:49-51;

28

Stewart 1989:76). The paucity of cultural evidence and its problematic stratigraphic context prevent this site from general acceptance as evidence of pre-Clovis occupation in the region (cf. Hofman 1996:45). There is more convincing evidence, however, from sites in the upper portion of the Republican River basin that it attracted late Paleoindian bison hunters. One of these sites, Jones-Miller, is located on the bluff line of the Arikaree River in Yuma County, Colorado, just a short distance from the Nebraska boundary. Here the remains of about 300 individual bison (Bison bison antiquus, according to the more recent taxonomy) were uncovered that attest to several autumn through winter kills. Among the bones were found Hell Gap projectile points, as well as a variety of cutting and scraping tools of a variety of lithic raw materials from regions to the north (Spanish Diggings in Wyoming), east (Niobrara jasper Kansas or Nebraska), and south (Alibates agatized dolomite from Texas; Flat Top chalcedony and Bijou Basin petrified wood from eastern and central Colorado). The various lithic sources represented point to the wide territorial range of the hunters, their trade relations with groups in those lithic source areas, or the convergence of several groups there from for the hunt (Stanford 1974, 1975, 1978). Additional evidence of late Paleoindian bison hunting comes from a series of sites in the Medicine Creek drainage. These sites, Allen, Lime Creek and Red Smoke, are all deeply buried in loess, the latter two along Lime Creek, a tributary of Medicine Creek, and the first along the major stream. All of the sites were discovered during investigations by the Smithsonian Institution River Basin Surveys in 1947. Cultural debris at all of them had been exposed by a devastating flood that year and the fortuitous nature of their exposure and the abundance of material at comparable depths in terrace fill suggest they are but windows into what may have been numerous camps in that area. Three zones of cultural occupation at the Lime Creek site yielded numerous chipped stone tools, including several lanceolate projectile points identified as Scottsbluff, Milnesand, and Plainview types (Davis 1953, 1962; Hofman 1996; Wedel 1986). Bison bones, as well as those of smaller game (pronghorn, deer, wapiti, prairie dog, jackrabbit), were recovered in more abundance from the lowermost zone, as were those of many beaver. The latter, in conjunction with the sedimentology of this zone, suggest the site was then (~7575 BC) rather swampy (Davis 1962). The higher zones reflect increasingly cooler, drier conditions marked by the more restricted faunal assemblages of the larger grazing animals. The Red Smoke site, located a short distance upstream from Lime Creek, is more poorly described in the literature. Here too several stratified cultural zones (seven in this case) were found, the richest of which, a middle stratum, is called Zone 88. This zone yielded many lithic artifacts, including Plainview projectile points, in association with hearths and bison bone. Higher cultural zones provide a minimum age for Zone 88 of 6000-6900 BC (Hofman 1996; Wedel 1986:69-70. The abundance of lithic artifacts of the locally available Niobrara jasper at Lime Creek and Red Smoke suggest that material was the primary reason for repeated stays in this area. The Allen site, located along the next Medicine Creek tributary below Lime Creek, consisted of two occupation zones buried by some 6m of loess (Holder and Wike 1949; Hofman

29

1996; Wedel 1986). The rich faunal assemblage includes bones of bison, pronghorn, deer, coyote, rabbit, prairie dog, smaller rodents, and fewer elements of reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish. At least 20 hearths were recorded in the zones, attesting to prolonged or repeated camping. Artifacts recovered include Angostura type projectile points, scrapers, lanceolate blades, drills, grinding and abrading tools, bone needles and awls. Radiocarbon dates from the occupation zone are inconsistent, the two more realistic suggesting it was occupied sometime between 6300 and 8550 BC (Wedel 1986:71). That Paleoindians ranged in the vicinity of what is today the KNWR is suggested by its proximity to the Tim Adrian site (14NT604) in Norton County, just west of Phillips County (O'Brien 1984). This site, an extensive lithic scatter, is on the first terrace along Walnut Creek, a tributary of Sappa Creek. O'Brien (1984) conducted a review of a private collection of materials from the surface of this site. Limited testing of it suggested artifacts only occur within the upper ten cm of the terrace. Niobrara jasper is found in bedrock exposures about 30m south of the site. O'Brien assigns Tim Adrian to the Plano complex of the late Paleoindian period based on the presence of the basal portion of a projectile point of the Hell Gap type. The presence of several cores in the assemblage, plus the presence of "chert nodules" and primary and secondary debitage at the site, led O'Brien (1984:53) to suggest it served as a quarry locale and primary workshop. Several scrapers, bifacial blanks, choppers and other woodworking tools, point to other activities as well. The variety and surface extent (16,000m2) of the site suggest it was used over several episodes of occupation. Archaic Sites of the Archaic period, which dates to ~7000-500 BC in the central Great Plains, are precious few in number and those that have been extensively excavated may be counted on one hand. Their rarity is likely due to several factors, the most critical being the limited material inventory of the mobile, foraging groups who characterized this period, the deep burial of sites located in valley settings (Johnson and Logan 1990:286-290; Logan 1996a), and the generally surface-limited archaeological surveys undertaken throughout the region. It is notable that the Archaic sites that have provided most of our information about this period in the region were found at depths that would have precluded discovery were it not for their fortuitous exposure by stream erosion. These include sites such as Spring Creek in Nebraska, which is discussed below, and the Snyder and Coffey sites, which are located in the southern and northern Flint Hills respectively (Grosser 1973, 1977; Schmits 1978). Spring Creek (25FT31), the most intensively excavated Archaic site in the vicinity of the KNWR, is on the second terrace at the confluence of Red Willow and Spring Creeks in Frontier County, Nebraska. It was excavated by the Nebraska State Historical Society in 1961-1962 (Grange 1980:12-47). This investigation recovered 276 stone and bone artifacts, most of them chipped stone. They include 21 projectile points, most of which are side-notched forms but they include a few lanceolates. Other chipped stone tools include knives, choppers, and scrapers. The majority of the latter are generic end scrapers. None of the scrapers is described as notched, a

30

characteristic of scrapers associated with the Logan Creek complex (Kivett 1959), to which Spring Creek was assigned, primarily on the basis of the side-notched projectile points. However, three of the scrapers are bifacially worked, which is an attribute of Logan Creek. The groundstone assemblage includes a grinding slab to which "fragments of red pigment adhere" (Grange 1980:38), and four manos. Worked bone from Spring Creek consists of bison ulna picks, a scapula pick, bison long bone fleshers, a shaft wrench (bison rib), bone abrader, awls, rib and split rib flakers, and a spatula made from a bison scapula. While the faunal remains include deer, fox, antelope, beaver, cottontail, pintail, goose and other remains that were probably intrusive, the great majority are bison. Only one radiocarbon date was obtained from the site that indicates its occupation ~5680+160 BP. The site is interpreted as a general purpose base camp with hearths, piles of waste bone and one possible storage pit. In his discussion of the Logan Creek complex affiliation of Spring Creek, Grange (1980:47) suggests the site was occupied "early in the Altithermal period of climatic change" and that the Logan Creek and Simonsen sites along the Missouri River in Nebraska and Iowa respectively, were occupied prior to that change. However, this interpretation is not consistent with current dates of the Altithermal (Hypsithermal) episode for the central Plains of ~9000-5000 BP, which would embrace all three sites, with the occupation of Spring Creek occurring nearer its end. Grange (1980:47) also suggests that the more recent date of the site vis-a-vis Simonsen may reflect westward movements of Plains Archaic populations. One of the problems that must underlie our scanty knowledge about the Archaic is the relatively high mobility of the small groups of foragers that ranged the High Plains. Possessing limited inventories of gear in order to facilitate movement across the landscape during seasonally-determined subsistence activities and spending short periods of time at campsites, Archaic peoples lost, discarded or abandoned considerably fewer diagnostic artifacts than later ceramic-age groups. Given the vicissitudes of preservation and discovery, it is not surprising that archaeologists have documented so few Archaic sites. Moreover, it is likely that most of the archaeological evidence of Archaic activity in the region, and specifically at the KNWR, may be found in deeply buried contexts (see Chapter five). Woodland Woodland adaptations in the central Plains (~500 B.C.-A.D. 1000) are distinguished by evidence of increased sedentism (storage pits, habitation structures) and the practice of ceramic technology. Several Woodland complexes are recognized in the central Plains, including Bemis Creek, Butler, Cuesta, Grasshopper Falls, Greenwood, Kansas City Hopewell, Keith, Schultz, and Valley (Adair 1996; Johnson 2001; Johnson and Johnson 1998; Logan 2006a; Logan and Beck 1996a; O'Brien 1984). However, Woodland is less well known in western Kansas (Bozell 2006). Indeed, only one complex, the Keith variant (Johnson 2001), is recognized there. Among the few habitation and mortuary sites of the Keith variant that have been excavated in the vicinity of the KNWR are the Doyle site (25RW28) in Red Willow Reservoir (Grange 1980), the type site (25FT18) in the Medicine Creek area, and Woodruff Ossuary (14PH4). The last site is about 45km

31

northwest of the project area (Kivett 1953). More pertinent to this report is another Phillips County site of this complex, West Island (14PH10), which is located on a terrace now occasionally isolated by the waters of Kirwin Reservoir (Witty 1966). Keith variant The Keith variant is recognized at several localities in the western two-thirds of Kansas (Kivett 1949, 1953; Wedel 1959; Bozell 2006). Its salient traits are: varied burial practices that include primary and secondary burials in villages and camps, as well as primary and secondary burials in mounds and ossuaries (Strong 1935; Kivett 1949; Wedel and Kivett 1956); production of a distinctive ceramic ware (Harlan Cord-Roughened) with some evidence of spatial variability that might lead to the identification of local phases in some areas (Kivett 1953; Johnson 2001); manufacture of personal ornaments such as tubular bone beads, shell beads, and shell pendants; and a lithic technology that includes corner-notched dart points, Scallorn-like arrow points, and small, triangular arrow points, as well as knives, scrapers, and grinding stones. Woodruff Ossuary (14PH4) is the best-known mortuary site of the Keith variant. Its proximity to the KNWR, in conjunction with the presence of human remains at the West Island site (see below), attests to significant Woodland occupation of the region that includes the Kirwin reach of the North Fork Solomon River. Woodruff Ossuary, as its name indicates, included several interments along with a variety of grave goods, such as elaborate shell-beaded robes. The ossuary is on a terrace in the valley of Prairie Dog Creek at the Kansas-Nebraska state line (the border passes through the northern edge of the site about a hundred yards north of the ossuary; Kivett 1953:113). Here the remains of 61 individuals were buried with associated items of pottery, worked shell and bone, and chipped stone. They included persons of both genders that range in age from infants to old age. Indeed, nearly half (45%) of the individuals represented were 12 years old or younger at time of death, attesting to a high mortality rate for youths (Kivett 1953:138). The most reknowned burial is the single flexed interment of an adolescent that lay on its left side, facing west. Around the pelvis and extending up the chest and around the neck of the well-preserved, fully articulated skeleton were rows of shell disk beads. Triangular shell pendants were found on both the upper and lower sides of the individual, and near the skull as well. Also found with the remains were worked pieces of marine shells and a modified deer tibia that was inferred to have been “a shaft-wrench type of tool or possibly a digging stick handle” (Kivett 1953:117). Settlements are generally small and associated house remains reflect occupancy of round, basin-like structures 4.5 to 5m in diameter with interior hearths, occasional subfloor burials, and relatively abundant material (shell, hearthstones, ceramics, chipped stone tools and manufacturing debris) (Grange 1980). Subsistence appears to have been a combination of hunting (bison, deer, antelope, smaller mammals, indigenous birds, and migratory waterfowl) and gathering (including mussels, fish, and wild plants). No evidence of horticulture has been found at any sites to date, though the presence of a scapula digging tool and grinding implements point to increasing reliance on plant foods (Adair 1996:116). Radiocarbon dates from Keith variant sites are limited to five: A.D. 607+240 (C-928) from the Woodruff Ossuary; A.D. 823 (M-841) from 25FT18 in the

32

Medicine Creek Reservoir (Wedel 1959:619; Johnson n.d.); and, from a trash-filled pit at 25NH12, a Keith variant site in the Harlan County Lake project of southwestern Nebraska, A.D. 700+110 (UGa-5478), A.D. 900+70 (UGa-5482) and A.D. 730+55 (DIC-3325) (Adair et al. 1987:96). West Island may be a typical Keith variant settlement. It was discovered in 1951 by the Smithsonian Institution River Basin Survey, during the first survey of the Kirwin project area. It was then on a terrace on the south side of the North Fork Solomon River. At that time, it yielded a modest assemblage of pottery and chipped stone tools. By the early 1960s, filling of the reservoir had raised the water level such that the site was confined to a small remnant of the terrace that, at maximum flood pool, is an island. Discovery of human remains at West Island in 1963 led to more intensive survey and limited profiling of wave-cut faces by the Kansas State Historical Society by Thomas Witty (Witty 1966). In 1963, survey of the beach at the site yielded more human remains, as well as cordmarked, calcite tempered pottery, chipped stone (e.g., corner-notched arrow points), groundstone tools, and modified and unmodified bone (Witty 1966; Bass and Grubbs 1966). The pottery and projectile points are indicative of the Keith variant. Artifacts were also found within a buried soil (though the horizon was not described as such by Witty) exposed on the north and south sides of the island. The depth of this horizon was 4.6ft or 1.4m. This horizon is discussed in more detail in Chapter five. The affect of fluctuating lake levels on West Island is shown in Chapter 6 and the accompanying animations.

Late Prehistoric

The Late Prehistoric period (~A.D. 900-1500) in the central Plains is characterized as one of increasing reliance on domesticated plant foods, the more consistent appearance of house remains at habitation sites, and a more varied ceramic and bone technology. Many complexes have been defined for this period, including those of the Central Plains tradition- the Upper Republican, Smoky Hill, Solomon River, Itskari, Nebraska, and Steed-Kisker phases (Logan 1996b; Logan and Beck 1996b). Of these, only the first appears to have been recorded thus far in the vicinity of the project area (e.g., Blasingham 1963; Logan et al. 2001b). The White Rock phase, a Late Prehistoric manifestation of a westward extension of the Oneota tradition, was centered just 60km east of the KNWR in southcentral Nebraska and northcentral Kansas. Given evidence of trade with groups of the High Plains, or movements in that direction for bison hunting (Logan 1998b; Logan et al. 2001a), it is possible that short-term hunting camps of White Rock phase groups could be found in the project area. For that reason, discussion of that phase is also included here. Upper Republican phase The Upper Republican phase of the Central Plains tradition was initially described by Strong (1933, 1935) based on archaeological excavations in 1930 of the Lost Creek site (25FR3), in Franklin County, Nebraska. Subsequent excavations at numerous habitation sites in the Medicine Creek drainage added considerably to the database of this complex (Wedel 1933, 1934). Following World War II, the River Basin Survey program of the Smithsonian Institution augmented our knowledge of this complex with extensive research at the Medicine Creek locality (Kivett 1949;

33

Kivett and Metcalf 1997) and the Red Willow Creek area (Grange 1980) in Nebraska, and in the Solomon River valley of north-central Kansas (Carlson 1971; Lippincott 1976; Krause 1970). Additional investigations in the Medicine Creek locality included excavation of the Mowry Bluff site (24FT35), undertaken in 1967 as part of a seminar offered by Wood (1969) of the Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia. This project took as its research design a comparison of two sites of the Nebraska and Upper Republican cultures (cf. Wedel 1970). More recent work in that important area has been carried out by Roper (1988, 1991, 1993) with support from the Bureau of Reclamation. This entailed excavations of a lithic workshop area at the Marvin Colson site (25FT158) and of House 4 at 25FT22. The Upper Republican phase is extensive, including the High Plains of southeastern Wyoming and northeastern Colorado (Irwin and Irwin 1957; Reher 1973; Wood 1971), as well as southwestern Nebraska (see references above) and northwestern Kansas (Wedel 1959:381-407) and north-central Kansas (e.g., the Solomon River locality). Temporally, it has been divided into three units, only two of which are currently in vogue. Referring to the complex as a variant (a term he applied to Nebraska and Smoky Hill as well), Krause (1969) recognized, from oldest to youngest, the Solomon River, Classic Republican, and Loup River phases. Chronological placement of Solomon River (cf. Carlson 1971) was based on radiocarbon assays by the laboratory at Gakushuin University in Japan, determinations now suspect. Lippincott (1976, 1978), in a review based on ecological and formal archaeological data, was critical of the sequence developed by Krause and Carlson. On the basis of more recently obtained radiocarbon dates from Upper Republican sites in the Solomon River locality, located at the confluence of the North and South Forks of the Solomon River at Waconda Reservoir, Blakeslee (1999) shows contemporaneity of sites therein with those previously regarded as Classic Upper Republican. Upper Republican ceramics belong to two wares, thickened (collared) and unthickened, also referred to as classes I and II (Wedel 1936:188; cf. Wedel 1986:106-108, Strong 1935:248, Champe 1936:270-272, and Cooper 1936:35-38). Vessels are small to medium-sized globular forms generally tempered with sand. Exterior surfaces are cordmarked and without decorative treatment below the rim. Decorated rims exhibit a variety of incised lines, including opposed diagonals, parallel horizontal lines, and chevrons, as well as tool impressions and finger-pinched nodes. Sigstad (1969: 17-23) provides a detailed analysis of typical Upper Republican pottery from the Mowry Bluff site in the Medicine Creek locality. He defines a Typical Medicine Creek Paste, distinguished from Grog-Tempered ceramics. The former includes two wares, a collared form called Frontier ware, and an unthickened form called Cambridge ware. Miniature vessels are also represented in the assemblage. Upper Republican lithic tools are characteristic of Central Plains tradition chipped and groundstone tool assemblages. The former includes triangular notched and unnotched arrow points, a variety of bifacial cutting tools of which alternately beveled knives are most distinctive, and axes. Groundstone artifacts include grooved sandstone abraders, especially of the paired type, manos, metates, hammerstones, pipes and pendants (Strong 1935; Wedel 1935, 1986:111); Champe 1936; Klippel 1969; Calabrese 1969). Exotic stone material indicative of trade is rare but includes copper

34

(Wedel 1986:112-113), malachite and turquoise (Roper 1988). Raw materials for chipped stone tools is predominantly Niobrara jasper, as well as Flat Top chalcedony, Ogallala quartzite, Alibates agatized dolomite, and Permian cherts from the Flint Hills (Wedel 1986:111; Roper 1994) Bone, antler and shell were shaped into a variety of usable forms (Falk 1969:39-43; Wedel 1986:108-112). They include agricultural implements such as bison scapula hoes and knives, hideworking tools such as awls and needles, fishhooks, antler shaft straighteners and picks. Ornamental items include bone and shell beads and antler bow guards. An example of the latter, recovered by Strong (1935:111; Wedel 1986:112-113) from Graham ossuary in Harlan County, Nebraska, bears an incised design reminiscent of the hand-and-eye motif of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Exotic shells indicative of trade are Gulf Coast conch, freshwater snails from the Ohio and Wabash Rivers region, marine olivellas from the Gulf or Atlantic coasts, and marginella from the Florida or Gulf Coasts (Strong 1935:111-114; Wedel 1986:111). Upper Republican subsistence patterns were dependent on agriculture, hunting and gathering. Wedel (1986:114-121) has discussed the various implications of dry farming of maize in a marginal climatic region such as the Upper Republican River region. Problems of crop yield, seasonal variations in rainfall and frost appearance, food preparation and storage are explored. Adair (1988) also examines the development and practice of agriculture among the Central Plains tradition, as well as other cultures, in the Central Plains. The generalized and varied nature of Upper Republican hunting and gathering practices are also examined by Falk (1969), Mick (1982), Bozell (1991) and Scott (1993). Wedel (1970; 1986:123-126) has critically reviewed Wood's (1969) interpretation of the need for long-distance bison hunting from the Medicine Creek locality. Wood (1971) offered as support for such forays the presence of Upper Republican sites lacking evidence for agriculture in eastern Colorado (but cf. Reher 1973:119). However, in more recent evaluations of High Plains sites Wood (1990) and Roper (1990) suggest there may be evidence of local Upper Republican groups who lacked the houses and farming practices elsewhere characteristic of that culture and that therefore deserve special recognition as a distinctive phase or subphase of the Central Plains tradition. Upper Republican mortuary sites consist of blufftop pit ossuaries, such as Graham (25HN5), into which the disarticulated bones of the dead were disposed (Strong 1935:108-114; Adair et al. 1987:78-89). Artifacts included with the remains include pottery, shell pendants and beads, arrow points, scrapers, modified bone tools, and copper ornaments. White Rock phase Most of our knowledge about the White Rock phase is based on data from six sites located in three localities: Harlan County Lake on the Republican River in south-central Nebraska, and the Glen Elder/Waconda and Lovewell Reservoirs in north-central Kansas. Only one White Rock phase site at Glen Elder, the Glen Elder site (14ML1), has been excavated. Two smaller sites, possibly bison hunting camps, at Harlan County Lake have been excavated: Green Plum (25HN39) and Blue Stone (25HN45). Principal White Rock phase sites at Lovewell are White Rock (14JW1),

35

Warne (14JW2) and Intermill (14JW202) (Cummings 1953; Kivett 1947b; Rusco 1960; Neuman 1963; Marshall 1969). Recent investigations at Lovewell have added significant new insights about this complex (Logan and Hedden 1992; Logan and Banks 1994; Logan 1995, 1998a, 1998b; Logan et al. 2001a; Ritterbush and Logan 2000). It is now apparent that this archaeological culture was the result of a migration of Oneota peoples from a locality to the east, perhaps along the Missouri River (Logan 1995, 1998a; Ritterbush and Logan 2000; Ritterbush 2006). Though some traces of two habitation structures were found at the White Rock site, no satisfactory data concerning their architectural form could be obtained. No such information was forthcoming from any of the other five sites of this culture. Consequently, we have no knowledge of this formal characteristic of White Rock. Features such as hearths and storage pits (basin, cylindrical and bell-shaped) are associated with these sites, as is a variety of stone, bone and ceramic artifacts. Chipped stone and bone tools from White Rock sites are comparable to those of Plains Village sites in the same area. Unlike the generally triangular, notched arrow points found at Central Plains tradition sites, those from White Rock phase sites are far more frequently unnotched and they were produced with minimal retouching from flakes of Niobrarite silicified chalk and Permian (Flint Hills) cherts. Blades, the preferred blank for end scrapers, and flakes were driven from tabular cores, often quite large (e.g., > 25 cm long), of Niobrarite. Chipped stone tools such exotic raw materials as obsidian from sources in Malad, Idaho and Obsidian Ridge, New Mexico (Logan et al. 2001), White River group chalcedony, and Hartville Uplift quartzite (Logan 1998a), were probably acquired through trade with groups encountered during westward bison-hunting forays. Bison bone tools include ubiquitous scapula hoes, scapula "squash" knives, toothed metatarsal fleshers, ulna picks, hide grainers, and incised ribs and dorsal spine paddles. The most distinctive artifacts of the culture, however, are the ceramics (Rusco 1960; Marshall 1969). Defined as Walnut Decorated Lip, the ware consists of vessels of the same general shape and form as Plains Village pottery. The pottery is relatively thin (two to eight mm) and generally tempered with moderate amounts of medium to coarse grained sand. Shell temper, an Oneota attribute previously believed to occur in low frequency (2% of 11,627 sherds, a compiled total of assemblages described by Rusco [1960], Neuman [1963], and Marshall [1969]), has been noted in relative frequencies closer to 50% in a ceramic assemblage of 548 sherds from middens and features at the White Rock site (Logan and Banks 1994; Wininger and Logan 1995). Exterior surfaces are smoothed or simple stamped. Decorative motifs consist of trailed or incised lines on the lip, interior of the rim, or shoulder. Appendages such as strap and loop handles occur and are frequently decorated with tool impressions or incised lines. White Rock subsistence was a combination of hunting and plant gathering-cultivation. Charred kernels of maize from some sites provide direct evidence of horticulture. Hunting was markedly more specialized than that of other Plains Village complexes. Where sites of the latter often have remains of a diverse array of mammalian, avian and aquatic species indicative of a generalized economy, White Rock sites have thus far yielded only elements of bison, deer, canid, and turtle. The high proportion of bison to other species reflects a hunting adaptation focused on that animal. Use of bison is reflected not only by the variety of tools manufactured from their bones

36

but the presence, at the White Rock site, of a feature that consisted of a dense mass of fragmented bison bones suggesting it was used as a boiling pit for bone grease production (Logan 1995, 1998b). Small samples of ceramics noted in private collections from other sites located on tributaries of the lower Republican and upper Blue Rivers support an extension of the White Rock culture to this region (Ritterbush and Logan 1991:87-94). For example, lithic (in the form of a high frequency of jasper) and ceramic evidence from two sites (14CY5 and 14CY462) in the Five Creek drainage, indicates the White Rock culture area extended eastward in the lower Republican River basin as far as Clay County, Kansas. Several pipestone artifacts from 14CY5, now in the Schultz Collection at the KU-ARCC, and others in private collections in Clay County, support such an interpretation. Such artifacts from the Glen Elder, White Rock, and Warne sites (Wedel 1959:612; Neuman 1963; Marshall 1969) are also evidence of the Oneota origin of the White Rock phase. Precise dating of White Rock remains somewhat problematic, though radiocarbon assays point to Late Prehistoric temporal placement. Rusco (1960:43, 71, 75) and Wedel (1986:134-135) suggest a date of ~A.D. 1500-1600 for the complex based on the Oneota-like nature of its ceramics, the presence in low frequency of shell-tempered "Oneota" pottery, and the relative absence of Euroamerican artifacts. However, radiocarbon dates from western Oneota sites (e.g., Dixon, Leary, Guthrie) indicate this complex has a broad temporal range, ~A.D. 900-1700, that spans the late prehistoric and protohistoric periods (Henning 1970:168-170). Assignment of the complex to the protohistoric period based on Euroamerican artifacts is tenuous. Marshall (1969:91) suggested that such evidence, in part, supported Protohistoric placement of Lovewell Reservoir sites (White Rock, Warne and Intermill) ~A.D. 1650-1700. However, only the Intermill site yielded objects of Euroamerican manufacture. These were limited to a single tubular copper bead and a few pieces of worked glass, all from shallow, disturbed contexts (Neuman 1963). Surface survey of Intermill in 1991 also resulted in recovery of a fragment of an historic clay pipe (Logan and Hedden 1992:57). The small sample of historic artifacts, its ambiguous context and the site’s proximity to the 19th century settlement of Ruben (14JW202), whose occupants might have been the source of some artifacts at Intermill, undermine Marshall's suggested temporal placement. Six radiocarbon dates, one from a small pit feature at 14JW24, another from a basin-pit feature at 14JW8, and two each from two pits at 14JW1, now indicate a late prehistoric origin of the White Rock culture (Logan 1995; 2006b). Such placement requires revision of the relations between White Rock and cultures of the Central Plains tradition, particularly Smoky Hill. A 14th to 15th century occupation of the lower Republican River basin by the White Rock culture would have been contemporaneous with Smoky Hill in the same region, given at least ten radiocarbon dates of the latter that fall within that time (Logan and Ritterbush 1994; but see Blakeslee 1994). However, to date, there is no evidence of interaction from any site of either culture. The terminal date of the complex is not yet certain. That it may have extended into the Protohistoric period is suggested by Walnut Decorated Lip ceramics at the Burkett site (25NC1), a

37

major Lower Loup occupation near Genoa, Nebraska. Of 41 Lower Loup sites whose ceramic assemblages he examined, Grange (1968:123; Plate 33) notes that only this site yielded such material, which suggests there may have been contact between White Rock and Lower Loup. Unfortunately, the temporal parameters of the Lower Loup phase have not been satisfactorily determined. In particular, its time of origin remains unknown. It is noteworthy that according to Grange's chronological ceramic seriation of Lower Loup pottery, the Burkett site was occupied during the earliest period of the sequence. There is a single radiocarbon date of 320+100 B.P.: A.D. 1630 (M-1368) from Burkett. Unfortunately, it intercepts three wiggles on the calibration curve (the protohistoric period as a whole suffers from its coincidence with this noisy part of the curve). This makes interpretation of the calibrated date (one sigma range and [intercept] A.D. 1453 [1530, 1537, 1635] 1666) impossible. Grange (1968:129) believes that the uncalibrated date is slightly later than the earliest occupation of the site, which he infers to have been A.D. 1500-1650. Contemporaneity of White Rock and Dismal River, a protohistoric Plains Apache culture of the central Plains (see below), was inferred by Marshall (1969:76) based on the association of ceramics of both complexes at some sites in Hooker, Cherry, Lancaster, and Sioux counties, Nebraska (Gunnerson 1960:207-208, 211, 227). However, Gunnerson (1960:239), who dates Dismal River to a 50 year period centered ~A.D. 1700, suggests the "Glen Elder-White Rock" material pre-dates Dismal River. Both Grange (1968:122) and Wedel (1959:594) have noted that no Lower Loup or Dismal River site has yielded evidence of contact between these two complexes, despite their temporal overlap during the late Lower Loup period. It is difficult to explain any association between White Rock and Dismal River when the former appears to have had only marginal contact with Lower Loup during the early period of that complex. Thus, the present evidence appears to indicate a temporal span for White Rock from the 14th to the 15th centuries A.D. (~A.D. 1300-1450). Undoubtedly, more radiocarbon dates and ceramic cross-dating will further refine this tentative assignment. The significant implication of the temporal placement of White Rock is that it strengthens Blakeslee's (1994) reassessment of Central Plains tradition radiocarbon dates, which suggests abandonment of the Republican River valley ~A.D. 1300. The present interpretation of the White Rock phase, then, is that it represents a 14th century migration of an Oneota population to the lower Republican River valley, an area that would have just been abandoned by Central Plains tradition populations (Logan 1995, 1998a; Ritterbush and Logan 2000).

Protohistoric The Protohistoric period is that time dating from the Spanish entrada of 1541, though archaeologists generally round its beginnings to A.D. 1500. It designates that period prior to Euroamerican settlement (~A.D. 1700) when indigenous populations of the central Plains shared the region with European transients and were exposed to varying degrees of influence. These included trade for some material goods, reflected in the material assemblages of some protohistoric sites by artifacts of metal (e.g., axes, gun parts), glass (beads), and clay (pipes). The affects of European contact varied from among these groups, who in the Kansas-Nebraska region included

38

the ancestors of the Wichita (Great Bend culture), Pawnee (Lower Loup phase), and Apache (Dismal River phase). Given the proximity of known Lower Loup and Dismal River sites (for an example of the latter, see Logan and Pearson 2001), there is reason to believe that hunting groups of these cultures may have included the project area in their hunting territory (Logan 1996c, 1996d). Dismal River Dismal River is recognized as a protohistoric manifestation ancestral to the Plains Apache. Sites of this complex can be readily distinguished by certain traits, including a simple but distinctive pottery called Lovitt Plain and Lovitt Simple Stamped (which may actually be a single ware arbitrarily distinguished on sherds from the same vessel that exhibit different surface treatments). Other hallmarks are roasting or baking pits with bell-shaped cross sections, fired walls and often with burned-rock covered floors; tubular ceramic pipes sometimes referred to as "cloud blowers" that are reminiscent of Southwestern pipes; double bitted drills; house structures with five-post base patterns; absence of storage pits; and presence of trash-filled borrow pits (Gunnerson 1960, 1968, 1987; Wedel 1986:135-151. Dismal River sites are in a variety of topographic settings from the Black Hills in South Dakota through the western half of Nebraska and Kansas, eastern Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle. They have been recorded in the Harlan County Reservoir locality to the north (Gunnerson 1960) and the Webster Reservoir locality to the southwest (Logan and Pearson 2001:63-66, 72) of the KNWR, suggesting that the latter locality may have been traversed, if not occupied, by Dismal River groups. All village sites occur in the eastern portion of the Dismal River range where rainfall conditions permitted more sedentism among these corn growing peoples. The western sites appear as small, more temporarily occupied camps. At least one site, the famous "El Cuartelejo" or Kansas Pueblo in Scott County, has ruins of a seven room stone habitation (sometimes attributed to refugee Puebloans from Taos or Picuris) and remains of irrigation ditches (Gunnerson 1960, 1968, 1987:102-106). Trade with Southwestern groups is evidenced at some sites by such exotic items as Puebloan potsherds of a type called Ocate Micaceous or painted types such as Tewa Red-on-Buff; obsidian and turquoise from New Mexico, Olivella shell beads and a few Pueblo style shaft straighteners (Gunnerson 1987:105). Contact with Euroamericans is limited to an iron trade ax found in a hearth at White Cat Village in south-central Nebraska, which Gunnerson (1987:105) suggests may have been left by a Pawnee raiding party, and two gunflints from that site. Other sites have yielded a few scraps of metal and such artifacts as jinglers and awls. The Dismal River culture has been dated by dendrochronology and cross-dating of Puebloan pottery to a relatively brief period ~A.D. 1675-1725. Gunnerson (1974) has demonstrated that many of the Dismal River people merged with the Jicarilla Apache to become the Llanero Band about A.D. 1730. Others may have joined the Lipan. Gunnerson and Gunnerson (1971) have suggested that the Northern Dismal River people may have become the Kiowa Apache. The disappearance of Dismal River in the late 1720s has been attributed to pressure from other Plains groups, such as the Pawnee and Comanche (Gunnerson 1974; Gunnerson 1987).

39

Lower Loup Archaeologists agree that the central-Nebraska culture referred to as Lower Loup is the protohistoric expression of the Pawnee, who are grouped with the Kitsai, Wichita, and Arikara as the Northern Caddoan branch of the Caddoan linguistic family (Lesser and Weltfish 1932; Parks 1979; Lesser 1979:60-61). Strong (1935) so interpreted the culture, based on the 1901-1907 explorations by Blackman (1903, 1905, 1907) and subsequent excavation by the University of Nebraska Archeological Survey in 1931 at the Burkett and Schuyler-Gray sites. Confirmation was provided soon thereafter by Wedel (1936, 1938, 1940) using the same data. More recent perspectives of Lower Loup archaeology have included comparative and seriational analyses of ceramics (Grange 1968, 1974, 1984), inter-band relationships as reflected in ceramic variability (Grange 1979), lithic analyses focused on procurement strategies (Hudson 1982; Holen 1983, 1991), and comparison of Lower Loup hunting camps with models of such sites based on ethnohistoric data of Pawnee hunting practices (Roper 1989, 1994). Biometric analyses of Lower Loup skeletal remains demonstrate close affinity to historic Pawnee, evidence of an ancestral relationship also echoed culturally by common mortuary practices (Jantz 1977; Ubelaker and Jantz 1979; O'Shea 1984). Still subject to controversy is the validity of an ancestral connection between this complex and the Central Plains tradition, an idea first tentatively offered by Strong (1935:245-246). The complexity of CPt-Lower Loup connections, entailing a northward movement of groups of the former to the Big Bend area of South Dakota and a subsequent return as the latter, has been interpreted in a well-reasoned argument by Roper (1993). Steinacher and others (1991) evaluate data that they believe precludes interpretation of any ancestral relationship between Central Plains tradition cultures and protohistoric Pawnee. Their major points of contention are: a) a 200-year gap between the Central Plains tradition and Lower Loup cultures; b) major archaeological differences between them; c) no demonstrable biological connection despite intensive analysis of skeletal remains between them; and d) "irreconcilable discrepancies between archaeological hypotheses and tribal origin accounts". In her review of these data and others for the Smithsonian Institution's Repatriation Office, Roper (1993) points out that it is unnecessary to posit any direct ancestral relationship between cultures within the geographic area of Lower Loup. Therefore, Roper argues that the northward movement of Central Plains tradition populations to the Middle Missouri River region during the temporal hiatus (the Initial Coalescent period; Lehmer 1971:111-115; cf. Lehmer 1954:147-154), interaction with Siouan populations there and consequent transculturation, subsequent split of protohistoric Pawnee from their Caddoan kin, the Arikara, and return of the former to the Loup River basin as the Loup River culture is sufficient reason to accept an ancestral relation between some Central Plains tradition groups and the historic Pawnee. More recently, she has suggested that it is wiser to avoid the simplicity of a “monolithic” CPt-Pawnee (i.e., Lower Loup) relationship by recognizing both as Northern Caddoan (Roper 2006:132). Formal characteristics of Lower Loup are described by Strong (1935), Wedel (1936, 1938) and Dunlevy (1936). Roper (1993) and O’Shea (1989) review more recent research. Based on a

40

detailed description of the Burkett and Schuyler-Gray sites, type sites of the culture, Dunlevy (1936) defined the Lower Loup focus as an archaeological taxon within the Midwestern Taxonomic System. Within that system, Dunlevy found Lower Loup to be comparable to Oneota and therefore part of the Upper Mississippi phase. Wedel (1938) compared Lower Loup, Oneota and Pawnee material culture according to a list of 120 selected traits in what has since been recognized as one of the classic examples of the direct historical approach to archaeological recognition of historic cultures. His conclusion that Lower Loup was closer to Pawnee than Oneota refuted Dunlevy's broader taxonomic assignment of that "focus". Wedel augmented his interpretation with a review of the ethnohistoric record that strengthened the Lower Loup-Pawnee connection. Though less well known than subsistence practices of the historic Pawnee, those of the Lower Loup appear to have been comparable. Hunting was primarily oriented toward bison with procurement dependent to some extent on communal hunts beyond the village probably organized much like those of the later Pawnee (Roper 1989, 1994). Farming of tropical and indigenous cultigens was an important part of an economy that also included the gathering of wild plant foods. Settlements are unfortified villages on terraces and uplands in the Loup and Platte River valleys and along lower reaches of their tributaries. Houses are comparable to Pawnee in outline and differ from those of the CPt. As represented at the type sites, they were circular earthlodges 11- 15m in diameter with eastward oriented entryways and interior support posts arranged around a hearth. At least one of the houses at Burkett had a bison skull altar on the side of the lodge opposite the entryway (Dunlevy 1936:160). Storage pits may be intra- or extramural and, like those of the Pawnee, are deep, bell-shaped features 2-2.5m deep. Lower Loup ceramics are generally represented by globular jars of varying sizes with relatively thin walls, rounded to sub-conical bases, constricted necks and grit temper. The vessels exhibit plain or simple-stamped exterior surfaces and incised or trailed decorations in the form of parallel diagonal or opposed parallel diagonal lines, chevrons and herringbone designs. Lips may be decorated with incisions or punctates. Shoulders are flattened, angled but predominantly rounded in form. Appendages include strap handles of varying outlines with flattened rectangular or oval cross sections and, in low frequency, loop handles with round cross sections. On direct or collared vessels, these occur in pairs on opposite sides or as four handles at quadrant points. Braced vessels may have a series of multiple handles in the form of a cloister. In a detailed analysis of both Lower Loup and Pawnee wares, Grange (1968) established several types distinguished by attributes in rim form (straight and flared, direct; solid and S-shaped collared; braced). Named Lower Loup wares are Nance, Burkett, Wright, Colfax and Webster with Nance Flared Plain being the predominant type. He established a seriation of both Lower Loup and Pawnee ceramics that remains an essential tool for the relative chronological placement of sites. O'Shea (1989:76), while lauding the seriation, is critical of Grange's classification, calling it "over-precise". He believes the plethora of Grange’s types masks broad patterns of ceramic change that reflect significant social developments in Pawnee history. O'Shea notes three parallel trends in ceramic change through time: 1) increase in the proportion of collared vessels vis-a-vis non-

41

collared forms; 2) increase in the proportion of non-collared vessels with rim decoration; and 3) increase in collar height. All of these trends are in the direction of greater ceramic ornamentation and, as this change corresponds with the process of village aggregation among the Pawnee, they may indicate that the pottery served, in addition to its utilitarian function, as a means of expressing group or sub-group identity during that critical time. Because of the paucity of useful radiocarbon dates (only three are available for Lower Loup; Roper 1993:11), Grange's (1968) seriation still lacks a temporal datum in real time. More recently, Grange (1984) attempted to fix the seriation calendrically by applying the historical archaeology method of ceramic formula dating. This effort is a revision of an earlier attempt (Grange 1974) that "resulted in considerable variety of initial and terminal dates for Pawnee pottery types" (Grange 1984:278). The revised Pawnee dating system is based on ceramics from the seven most securely dated historic sites. Its utility still requires verification through other absolute dating methods, such as radiocarbon and archaeomagnetism. The lack of any reliable absolute dates from Lower Loup sites has thus far prevented determination of the time of origin of the culture. Grange (1984:276) assumes an appearance ~A.D. 1500. In his most recent statement about the culture, Wedel (1986:153) brackets Lower Loup ~A.D. 1550-1750. O'Shea (1989) skirts the issue by discussing the question of Pawnee history primarily in terms of ethnohistoric documents. However, he notes a significant change in Plains settlement patterns from the small, scattered hamlets of the Late Prehistoric adaptation ~A.D. 1000 to 1500 to the large villages, such as those of Lower Loup, after that time. Roper (1993:11-12) conservatively accepts a mid-seventeenth century date for the appearance of Lower Loup while noting that archaeological evidence neither establishes nor precludes its existence "a century or so earlier". Lithics from Lower Loup sites are comparable in most respects to those from other Central Plains protohistoric complexes. Unnotched, triangular arrow points, alternately beveled knives and small end scrapers are common finds. Other chipped stone tools include heavy duty bifacial tools, drills, notched flakes, and spokeshaves. Groundstone artifacts include grinding implements, sandstone abraders, pipes, and incised tablets. The relative frequency and variety of stone tools differs between village sites and hunting camps (Roper 1994). More telling about lithic procurement activities is the relative frequency of stone tools and debris at protohistoric and historic Pawnee sites. Holen (1983, 1991) has demonstrated that the long distance bison hunting trips of the protohistoric Pawnee from the Burkett and Gray (Schuyler-Gray) sites took them to areas that included key sources of lithic raw materials, Niobrarite (a Cretaceous silicified chalk) and Permian cherts. The high frequencies of these "exotic" materials in the village assemblages reflect purposeful collection and preparation of blanks during the hunt, an example of an "embedded" (after Binford 1979) resource procurement strategy. Hudson (1982) has also shown how the importation of Euroamerican metal tools to early Pawnee groups affected their stone-age technology. Chipped stone tools including points, scrapers and cutting tools were most rapidly replaced by metal equivalents; groundstone tools were more gradually supplanted, and sometimes actually enhanced as honing instruments for metal tools.

42

Items of bone and shell in Lower Loup assemblages do not differ from those at other Central Plains protohistoric sites. Scapula hoes and other farming implements of bone and antler are ubiquitous. Bone awls, metapodial fleshers, antler shaft wrenches and cancellous bone paint daubers or hide grainers are also common. Mussel valves were used as paint holders and corn shellers. Euroamerican trade goods occur with differing frequency and variety at both Lower Loup and historic Pawnee sites. Indeed, it was the presence of such items at the Burkett and Schuyler-Gray sites in the absence of any historic documentation of these settlements that led to their recognition as protohistoric (Strong 1935; Dunlevy 1936; Wedel 1936, 1938). Recent analysis of trade goods at 25HW16, an early Skidi village on the Loup River, has focused on their chronological value, as well as their reflection of cultural changes due to contact (Peterson and Watson 1993; Watson and Holen 1994). Mortuary practices of both the Lower Loup and historic Pawnee consisted of primary, flexed, single inhumations (Ubelaker and Jantz 1979:256).

43

Chapter 4 DESCRIPTION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES Brad Logan

Introduction

The 32 sites investigated during the KUMA surveys of the KNWR are described here, following discussion of the field methods used from 1999 to 2002. As is apparent in the light of the geomorphological findings of the project, much of the prehistoric occupation of the project area likely lies buried below the reach of the traditional surface reconnaissance methods employed each season by the archaeological survey teams. Thus, the coverage of the project area by the latter must not be considered comprehensive or final. Given the low probability of discovering artifacts at sites characterized by light lithic scatters, no one should assume that sites do not exist where none was encountered during our survey. In other words, our tests of areas obscured by ground cover could tell us where some sites were, but they could not with certainty tell us where sites were not. Future monitoring of the federal lands, particularly where erosion of buried surfaces has a higher probability of exposing cultural material, is required. All federal terrain that was traversable at the time of survey was covered by pedestrian reconnaissance. Survey tracts, generally correlating with distinct fields of cultivation or grass, were numbered consecutively during each season. The locations of the tracts are shown on U.S.G.S. topographic quadrangle maps and described in the daily field journals kept by the PI and field directors. The maps and journals are on file at KU-ARCC and copies have been provided to the Nebraska-Kansas Area Office, Bureau of Reclamation. During each season, much ground was covered by grass, so shovel testing was done. Survey teams of four to seven persons walked transects 20m apart and, where visibility was less than 5%, each person excavated a shovel test at 20m intervals. Shovel tests were approximately 30x30cm and were dug to a depth of 25-30cm. The fill was broken up with the shovel and inspected for cultural remains. Occasionally, the fill was inspected with a trowel; in no case was it screened. Some tracts in lowlands had been leased for cultivation, providing welcome relief from shovel testing, an enterprise with low probability for site discovery in this area. Few sites at KNWR yielded more than a few pieces of debitage. Generally sites were diffuse lithic scatters or isolated flakes, indicative of short-term encampments. We employed a variable artifact collection policy during initial site surveys, the one constant being recovery of temporally or culturally diagnostic items. During return visits to sites (e.g., 14PH17), only artifacts that provided some insight to cultural/temporal affiliation and site activities other than tool maintenance, such as chipped stone tools, were collected. The locations of all artifacts or artifact clusters, however, were marked with pin flags in order to determine the horizontal extent of the site. At prehistoric sites marked by only a few artifacts, and at those that

44

consisted of isolated finds, we plotted the locations of each item with the Global Positioning System (GPS). At sites with several artifacts, ones that appeared to mark the perimeter at cardinal directions were located with the GPS receiver. The locations of all artifacts that were diagnostic of cultural affiliation or tools that provided more insight to site activities were also mapped in this manner; as noted above, those items were collected for curation. The GPS receiver used during the 1999 and 2000 seasons is a Magellan ProMARK X, which has a post-processed differential accuracy of 2-5 meters given the three minute readings we applied. Differential accuracy for fixes was obtained with MSTAR version 1.0 Professional GPS Software, and the data from the GPS receiver maintained by Kansas State University at the Salina campus. This geodetic control site supplied data to the Kansas Geological Survey, which made them available in one-week, downloadable blocks on the Internet (http://gisdasc.kgs.ukans.edu/). Post-processed readings in the form of UTM coordinates (NAD 1927 datum) are found on the State of Kansas Archeological Site forms completed for the project. During the 2001 season, all archaeological and geomorpological sites were plotted with a Trimble GPS receiver with sub-meter accuracy. During the 2002 season, a Garmin 12 GPS receiver with default accuracy of 15m was used for site mapping. State of Kansas Archeological Site forms were completed for all sites. This includes updates of previously recorded sites. Originals are on file at KU-ARCC; copies were submitted to the Kansas State Historical Society. Also curated at KU-ARCC are the field topographic quadrangles that show locations of sites encountered (with temporary field numbers), daily journals kept by the Principal Investigator and Field Director, photographs (color slides and black-and-white negatives), all collected artifacts, and the catalog of recovered materials. In the following summary descriptions, site locations are generalized; legal and Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM; NAD 1927) coordinates are found on the site forms and the latter are provided in the GIS database that accompanies the report.

Site Descriptions

14PH7 This previously recorded site was relocated in a plowed field during the first season of survey at KNWR on July 2, 1999 and was visited during each subsequent field season. It is on a terrace and adjacent dunes on the northern side the North Fork Solomon River in the western portion of the federal land. During the discovery of this site by the Smithsonian Institution River Basin Surveys in 1952, 15 artifacts were recovered and pieces of debitage, burned and broken stones, and mammal bones were noted (Solecki 1952:4). Artifacts then collected included a grit-tempered pottery sherd, small side-notched projectile point, fragments of two other points, four scrapers, two knife fragments, and five pieces of lithic debris. The side-notched point suggests a Late Prehistoric component; the pottery, to the extent it is described, is not incompatible with this identification. No artifacts were collected during our initial survey, when more than a dozen pieces of debitage were seen in a portion of the field then in tilled corn stubble. During each subsequent survey, fewer pieces of lithic debris were seen in the tilled portion of the site. In

45

2000, shovel tests were dug along a series of transects southward across the dune field in the grass-covered tract adjacent to the tilled ground in an attempt to confirm the River Basin Survey description of the site, which indicated it extended to that area. One shovel test yielded a very small jasper chip, sufficient to confirm that the site extends to the upper portion of the dunes. No diagnostic artifacts were found at the site during any of our surveys. 14PH10 Despite several visits to West Island during the various seasons of the survey, no prehistoric artifacts were found. On July 2, 1999, when the lake level isolated the site, the survey team of four persons was taken to the island via boat by Mr. Shannon Rothchild of U.S. Fish and Game. Our investigation then entailed shovel testing at 5m intervals along a single transect down the center of the island for its entire length, then ~30m long. At the time, the site was covered with weeds, predominantly stinging nettles. A beaver that was “spooked” along the shovel test transect hinted at subsurface disturbance that was more apparent during survey the following year. No cultural material was seen in the shovel tests. On October 3, 2000 when the lake level was low, the author found the “island” was again a terrace remnant accessible on foot from the south side of the refuge. At that time, survey around the remnant, where visibility was good, did not reveal any cultural material. Several beaver chutes were on the southeastern side of the “island”, indicating some disburbance of the fill below the terrace in that area. The “island” was only about a meter above the surrounding lake bed, suggesting its surface had been truncated by wave action or that the lakebed had aggraded above the cultural horizon recorded by Witty (1966:129) at a depth of 4.6 to 5.6 feet. Geomorphological inspection of the West Island site was conducted by William Johnson and the author on May 21, 2001. It revealed a buried horizon, likely the one described by Witty as having contained the cultural material assigned to the Keith variant (see chapter five). Because this horizon may extend below the island and contain more evidence of Plains Woodland activity with significant research potential, the site is recommended for NRHP evaluation. 14PH15 This site is actually an isolated find of a flake found in a fallow (overgrown) field of wheat stubble on the northern side of the North Fork Solomon River in the western portion of the project area. It was found during the first survey of the KNWR on July 2, 1999. No additional artifacts were found during surveys of the same field during subsequent seasons (2000, 2001). 14PH16 This site is an isolated find of a flake found in the same cultivated field that contained 14PH7, which is ~350m south of 14PH16. A shelter belt of trees separates this field from that containing 14PH17, which is ~250m to the north-northeast. The site area was surveyed on June 17, 1999 by a team of four persons.

46

14PH17 The most extensive prehistoric site found during our surveys, 14PH17 is also the only one that yielded at least one temporally diagnostic artifact. The site covers an area 900m north-south and 670m east-west on a terrace adjacent to North Fork Solomon River near the northwestern edge of the project area. At the time of our initial survey on July 25, 1999, the site was in a recently disced field with 100% surface visibility. The survey team of seven persons found a diffuse scatter of lithic debris (more than 60 flakes of Niobrara jasper) and chipped stone tools. An historic component found in the southern portion of the site consisted of a surface scatter of glass, ceramic, porcelain, and brick. Artifacts recovered include an alternately beveled knife fragment, indicative of Late Prehistoric or Protohistoric occupation, and one end scraper, four biface fragments, one bifacial core, a retouched flake, unmodified flake, and pieces of burned bone. GIS fixes were taken at the locations of all collected artifacts. The site was visited during each subsequent field season (2000, 2001, 2002) but only a few pieces of debitage were seen at any time and none was collected. The site area during those visits was in low alfalfa. The paucity of artifacts noted then was probably due to the lack of plowing after the first survey season. Because this site may contain more extensive evidence of Late Prehistoric or Protohistoric activity not only in the plowzone but below it as well, it is recommended for additional survey and test excavations in order to determine its eligibility for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. 14PH18 An historic well and windpump base were found at this site, which is ~150m due south of 14PH7 and in the same grass covered field that contained the southern portion of that site. 14PH19 This is an historic site that was found on May 21, 2000 ~750m east-northeast of 14PH18. It includes the remnants of a stone foundation on a steep, cliff-like projection over the northern bank of the reservoir and, in a wooded area ~100m northeast of the latter, the razed remains of a farmstead. Pieces of glass, barbed wire, and some nails were found nearby. GPS fixes were eventually collected at this site during the geoarchaeological survey by the author and William Johnson in June 2002. Both structures appear to be of 20th century age. 14PH20 Likely of 20th century, pre-reservoir age, this site includes a dismantled wind pump and tank (shown on the USGS topo map) and, ~100m to its north and west, a grove of cottonwoods that shields a concrete foundation that is the southern portion (~3-4m long) of a structure of unknown function (farmhouse?). A concrete slab and corrugated tin fragments were found on the tree line north and slightly west of the foundation. A bottle and some large metal scraps were seen a few meters southwest of the foundation.

47

14PH21 This is the remains of an historic water catchment (cistern?) that includes a corrugated pipe 70cm in diameter set vertically in and flush with the ground to a depth of about 60cm. The slope of the terrain 50m west-northwest of this feature has been cut to a flat grade resulting in a meter-high wall against which someone had set a wooden frame for gunfire targets. About 10-15m from this wall the ground was littered with 40cal Smith & Wesson pistol (?) shells, many corroded but some still shiny. A few weathered, multi-perforated squares of plywood found between the expended shells and target frame appear to have served as targets. 14PH22 This is an isolated jasper flake found, but not collected, on the recently burned slope of a ridge on the northern side of the reservoir about one km east of the KNWR Headquarters. 14PH23 This is a fenced well and water trough of recent (but pre-reservoir?) vintage. It is on the same slope as and ~100m northeast of 14PH22. 14PH24 This historic site consisted of the remains of a farmstead, remnants of a stone foundation, a few associated artifacts (bottle glass), and a limestone post. The post and foundation were on either side of a gravel road that provided access to a campground and boat ramps on the uplands on the northern side of the reservoir 1.8km east of the KNWR Headquarters. The only artifact collected at the time of survey (May 23, 2000) is a metal button with the embossed words “POWELL St. Joseph”. 14PH25 This is an historic site the visible remains of which were limited at the time of survey (May 21, 2000) to the stone foundation of a small structure of unknown function. Surrounding the foundation was a 20m2 area of gravelly soil. 14PH26 This terrace site was exposed on the beach on the southern side of the lake where a wellhead is surrounded by bricks, cinderblocks, and ceramic pipe fragments within a ~10x10m area. Its recent age is indicated by associated electrical conduits and a circuit box. During the initial surveys (May 18-19, 2001), several bison bones were exposed on the beach 10-20m from the historic component. Sediments there and at the adjacent 1m high wave-cut face are Peoria loess, indicating the Pleistocene age of the bones, a sample of which was collected. 14PH27

48

This is another historic site that covers a small area (~40m2). It consists of a low concrete foundation on the west side of a road that accesses a picnic area on Bow Creek. 14PH28 This is the razed remains of a structure now limited to large concrete blocks. These are exposed on the surface of a point of land southwest of Bluegill Point and in the eroding wave-cut face adjacent to the beach below. A water pump is nearby, as are the remains of another structure some 20m distant from that first described. All are probably date to a time when the site was a picnic area (shown on the 1972 U.S.G.S. quadrangle). 14PH29 Here we found an isolated flake of Niobrara jasper that exhibits flake scars on both surfaces, though less on one (ventral?) which suggests it was a resharpening flake. It was ~200m from the beach and 9m above the floodpool, so it cannot be attributed to float erosion from a site offshore (e.g., 14PH307, ~300m to the north). It was at the toe of a slope at the base of a ridgetop on which Camp Hansen is located. Given its proximity to 14PH307, this find may be evidence of activity related to the occupation of that site. 14PH30 We gave this designation to a very recent feature on the summit of a small hill just east of Camp Hansen. It was made by Boy Scouts who periodically use the camp. A wooden cross-over staircase straddles the barbed wire boundary fence at the base of the hill to provide access to the feature. Atop the grass-covered hill the Scouts have erected a small granite monument inscribed “A Warrior’s Vow - I Passed This Way - And Placed a Stone - Upon This Plain - I’ll Lead and Serve and Someday - Pass This Way Again”. A collection of a few dozen small pieces of limestone, each inscribed with initials, surrounds the monument. 14PH31 This historic site, found on May 26, 2001 by a crew of seven, is on the northwest side of a ridge toe east of Bow Creek about 1.5km upstream from Crappie Point. It consisted of a concentration of large concrete blocks, the remnant of a wall, and a rusted 20gl drum. 14PH32 This is an historic farmstead, including a circular depression with mortared stone (well?), a trench with fragmented stone (wall?), and two piles of concrete blocks. It is on a terrace on the east side of Bow Creek. Irises, good indicators of historic domestic sites in the region, were seen by the discovery team on May 28, 2001. 14PH33

49

This site, as well as 14PH34 and 14PH35, was found by a crew of six on May 29, 2001. It consists of a few wooden posts and fencing wire in an area ~30m2. They were concealed by high grass on a ridge toe on the east side of Bow Creek near the southern edge of the federal boundary. 14PH34 This scatter of cement blocks and fence posts was found in a ~15m2 area about 150m northwest of 14PH33. 14PH35 This site includes a house foundation, quonset cellar (the door of which was blocked by a concrete slab), and associated artifact scatter (e.g., rusted bed frame, roll of fencing wire, tin cans, and nails). It covers an area of ~40m2 on the west side of Bow Creek near the southwestern corner of the project area. 14PH36 This site on the south side of the reservoir has historic and prehistoric components, the latter of questionable integrity. The only evidence of the prehistoric component was a large jasper flake recovered from the beach, less than a meter from the water’s edge. It was found during geomorphic survey by the author and William Johnson on May 21, 2001. A few meters west of the flake we noted a small pile of large pieces of concrete slab that may be remnants of a structure. The site is ~500m north-northwest of 14PH9, a Late Prehistoric site that is inundated during normal flood pool. 14PH37 This designation was given to a cluster of broken, coarsely conglomerate concrete blocks and a few finer grained concrete slabs. Some of the former were molded around what must have been three-inch ceramic piping, suggesting they were part of a water pump that may have been destroyed and capped. Within 10m of a corner of the boundary fence, the site was on a grass-covered terrace near a toe slope. It may be associated with 14PH38. 14PH38 Here, in the gallery of cottonwoods along the reservoir, we found a lidded, corrugated steel water tank ~10ft in diameter and 2ft high. It is on the same terrace as 14PH37 and ~500m to its west.

50

14PH39 This designation was given to a well and metal-capped watering trough on the northern side of the reservoir near the axis of the dam. It was found during survey on June 7, 2001 14PH40 An historic site, 14PH40 consists of a well, a decaying limestone foundation, and, a short distance south and west of the latter, a cement foundation. It is in wooded area on a ridge near the northern end of the dam about 400m west of the town of Kirwin. A survey team of six persons found this site and 14PH41, 14PH42, and 14PH43 on May 28-30, 2002. 14PH41 This historic site is immediately southwest of the town of Kirwin in a tree-covered tract ~250m north of a landing strip. It contains several piles of historic debris, partially buried pieces of concrete that may have been part of a foundation, a collapsed root cellar, and two pits that may have been wells. 14PH42 This designates a jasper flake ~1cm in diameter seen in a fallow field that presented excellent surface visibility. This isolated find is on a terrace ~350m north of the North Fork Solomon River and 800m east of the dam. 14PH43 Several pieces of Niobrara jasper debitage were recovered from the edge of a grass-covered upland. They were found only where soil is exposed at the edge of a high embankment just south of the main road from Kirwin town. The site is ~400m below the dam and on the south side of the North Fork Solomon River, which here issues from the spillway. Artifacts were collected from the upper portion of the exposure for a distance of less than 100m. While shovel tests in the grassy area beyond the exposure did not reveal cultural material, it is likely the site extends there. It is apparent that construction of the adjacent road impacted the site at least indirectly through the creation of a steep embankment prone to erosion that has exposed artifacts at the surface of the ridge. Additional survey is recommended in order to better determine the horizontal extent of the site and to find artifacts diagnostic of its age and function. 14PH43 is a few hundred meters downstream from 14PH1 and on the opposite side of the river from that site, which was destroyed by dam construction. 14PH44 This site, found by a team of four persons, is in a triangular upland tract on the south side of the reservoir and just south of the road along a prairie dog park that is maintained by KNWR. It is about 3km west of Crappie Point and on the opposite side of the lake. This grass tract contained two small knobs of ground that had been disturbed by construction of agricultural

51

terraces. It was apparent that the area had not been tilled for several years, an inference supported by the presence of several large, isolated trees. While about 75% of the tract was shovel tested; vegetation in the rest of the tract was sparse. A rectangular piece of Niobrara jasper that exhibited some rather ambiguous modification was found at the mouth of a rodent burrow near the road and on the northern edge of the tract. On exposed ground farther to the south, the survey team noted a core and piece of shatter of the same material. Given the disturbed nature of the tract and the questionable cultural modification of the few pieces of jasper, no additional work is recommended for this site.

52

53

Chapter 5

GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS

William C. Johnson

The Approach Geoarchaeological investigation of KNWR was conducted to document stratigraphy in order to create a context for archaeological investigations. Implicitly, this investigation results in a predictive model for probability of preservation and burial of prehistoric cultural materials. Creating a geomorphic and stratigraphic framework for archaeological investigations (survey, testing, and mitigation) has become an accepted and essential approach. Application to this project area has demonstrated that, as with most reservoir projects in the central Great Plains, much or even most of the prehistoric cultural remains are likely buried in these valley-bottom settings. Further, it is anticipated that findings reported herein will enrich the geoarchaeological database that has been evolving for Kansas since the middle 1980s (e.g., Johnson and Logan 1990; Mandel 1994).

Methods

Field Methods 1) Reconnaissance of the project area, the first activity once on site, was conducted on land in a 4x4 vehicle and on foot and from the lake using rented and Bureau of Reclamation watercraft. 2) Mapping surficial geology was the next activity, but this was minimal, consisting of an updating and resolution check of the county-wide map developed by Johnson and Arbogast (1993). 3) Once natural and man-made exposures had been located, mapped and characterized, some were selected for establishment of study profiles. Sites for coring were also selected. 4) Profiles were documented (measured, described, photographed) and sampled for radiocarbon dating. 5) Soil-sediment cores were extracted in plastic core-tube liners using a trailer-mounted, hydraulic soil coring machine and then transported back to the University of Kansas. Laboratory Methods Once at the Soils Laboratory at The University of Kansas, cores were frozen until study. After thawing, the 1.2m core segments were positioned in custom jigs and sliced open longitudinally. They were then described, photographed, and sampled for magnetic analysis. Samples for magnetic analysis were placed into specially designed, 8cm3 plastic sample cubes. Cores were then resealed and curated at room temperature.

54

Samples for radiocarbon dating were transported back to the Soils Laboratory where they were frozen until pretreatment prior to submission to the radiocarbon laboratory. Pretreatment included disaggregation through soaking in reverse osmosis-deionized (D2) water, wet-sieving through a #230 sieve (63µm) to isolate silt- and clay-size particles, oven-drying at 60oC, pulverizing, weighing, and packaging for shipment. Samples weighing 1200-2000gr were shipped to the Illinois State Geological Survey Radiocarbon Laboratory for assay of the soil organic matter (SOM). It was there that, prior to combustion, samples were acidified to remove carbonate and dolomite (i.e., sources of inorganic C). The only exception to the above pretreatment was that applied to the single wood sample, which was picked of any intruding rootlets and other contaminants during maceration, cleaned in D2 water, dried, and then submitted for conventional radiocarbon dating. Magnetic susceptibility (MS), a measure of the extent to which a sample may be magnetized, is dependent primarily on mineralogy, but is also affected by size and shape of magnetic grains, temperature during measurement, and other variables (Gale and Hoare 1991; Evans and Heller 2003). Pedogenic processes enhance susceptibility through formation of maghemite and other secondary ferromagnetic oxides, and to a lesser extent through biomineral- lization (Evans and Heller 2003). Because MS increases during pedogenesis, it was used to verify the presence of soils recognized in cores and to characterize the degree of pedogenesis. MS changes in core sediments may also be attributable to changes in sediment source, an example of which is the alternating MS pattern typical of laminated flood sediments (e.g., flood drapes). MS was measured using a Bartington Susceptibility Measurement System with a MS2B36 dual-frequency sensor. Low-frequency MS (or simply “susceptibility”) is reported in SI units (International System of Units), which is expressed as 10-8 m3/kg. Moreover, measurement of room-temperature magnetic susceptibility is a relatively expeditious way to characterize a sedimentary sequence.

Numerical Age Data To develop an absolute chronology of stratigraphic events in the project area, a numerical-age database was developed using radiocarbon-age determinations from buried soils. Samples for radiocarbon samples (ca. 5 kg) were collected from the uppermost 5cm of buried soil A horizons. Ideally, the upper 5cm represents the terminal age of the soil, that is, the latter part of the soil-forming interval. The only exception was a single wood sample submitted for dating. Numerical age data, presented in Table 5.1, include radiocarbon ages corrected for isotopic fractionation, calibrated calendar ages, calibrated calendar dates, and associated cultural affiliations. By convention, a numerical age expressed as “yrs BP” (years before AD 1950) is implicitly radiocarbon years, whereas one expressed as “cal yrs BP” is in calendar years. Similarly, ages expressed as “ka” are in calendar years, but do not refer to specific radiocarbon ages. Calibration from radiocarbon years BP to calendar years BP may be accomplished with a number of available software packages, for example, Calib5.0 (http://calib.qub.ac.uk), OxCal (http://www.rlaha.ox.ac.uk/orau/oxcal.html), Fairbanks0805 (http://www.radiocarbon.Ideo.

55

columbia.edu/research/radiocarbon.htm), and CalPal (http://www.calpal.de). All generate similar results for a given radiocarbon age, and CalPal was selected for this application because of it is capable of calibrating ages back to about 50,000 yrs BP and its design and derivation for archaeological applications. Table 5.1. Radiocarbon ages from Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge and adjacent areas

Site # Site Name Sample # Source Lab # 14C Age δ13C Calendar Age* 68% Range Calendar Date Cultural Affiliationyr BP (‰) cal yr BP cal yr BP cal yr BC/AD

KRG 01 Genesis 204 bulk SOM ISGS-5026 1520±70 -15.7 1422±72 1349-1494 AD 528±72 Woodland449 bulk SOM ISGS-5027 2020±70 -15.1 1988±85 1903-2073 38±85 BC Late Archaic

KRG 02 160 bulk SOM ISGS-5045 1580±70 -14.8 1469±70 1398-1539 AD 481±70 Woodland230 bulk SOM ISGS-5055 3060±70 -14.4 3250±91 3158-3341 1300±91 BC Late Archaic

KRG 03 120 bulk SOM ISGS-5033 2770±70 -14.2 2881±75 2806-2956 931±75 BC Late Archaic

KRG 05 West Island 150 bulk SOM ISGS-5034 940±70 -15.7 846±70 776-916 AD 1104±70 Late Prehistoric(14PH10) 150c clay fraction ISGS-5029 890±70 -16 817±74 742-891 AD 1133±74 Late Prehistoric

150w wood ISGS-5072 550±70 -27.8 579±49 529-628 AD 1371±49 Late Prehistoric

KRG 06 159 bulk SOM ISGS-5057 19970±170 -21.5 23929±299 23630-24228 21979±299 BC Pre-Clovis172 bulk SOM ISGS-5064 20460±120 -19.5 24448±296 24152-24744 22498±296 BC Pre-Clovis207 bulk SOM ISGS-5058 25560±380 -15.2 30493±334 30159-30827 28543±334 BC Pre-Clovis251 bulk SOM ISGS-5060 29520±260 -14.9 34783±418 34364-35201 32833±418 BC Pre-Clovis266 bulk SOM ISGS-5066 25050±190 -15.9 30062±236 29826-30298 28112±236 BC Pre-Clovis306 bulk SOM ISGS-5062 23020±190 -17.2 27818±330 27487-28148 25868±330 BC Pre-Clovis310 bulk SOM ISGS-5259 30120±840 -15.6 35114±932 34181-36046 33164±932 BC Pre-Clovis

KRG 07 Kiln 210 bulk SOM ISGS-5019 1750±70 -14.4 1671±89 1581-1760 AD 279±89 Woodland

KRG 08 Pop 179 bulk SOM ISGS-5021 1640±70 -16 1537±92 1445-1629 AD 413±92 Woodland

KRG 09 104 bulk SOM ISGS-5022 1720±70 -13.9 1634±77 1556-1711 AD 316±77 Woodland220 bulk SOM ISGS-5050 2990±70 -13.9 3164±108 3055-3272 1214±108 BC Late Archaic

KRG 14 126 bulk SOM ISGS-5052 1330±70 -16.3 1236±60 1176-1296 AD 714±60 Woodland305 bulk SOM ISGS-5048 1600±70 -14.2 1492±76 1416-1568 AD 458±76 Woodland

KRG 32 Railroad cut 273 bulk SOM Tx-6747** 25500±820 -14.7 30220±687 29532-30907 28270±687 BC Pre-Clovis

KRG 33 Trench silo 215 bulk SOM Tx-6748** 2880±70 -13 3023±106 2917-3129 1073±106 BC Late Archaic

KRG 34 Siebert pit 580 bulk SOM Tx-6624** 24270±750 -14.4 29112±795 28316-29907 27162±795 BC Pre-Clovis625 bulk SOM Tx-6625** 35590±2260 -14.4 38792±2238 36554-41030 36842±2238 BC Pre-Clovis

* Calibration via CalPal ver. 1.2 (Cologne Radiocarbon Calibration and Paleoclimate Research Group)** reported in Johnson (1993)

Site Locations All geoarchaeological investigation site locations within the project area are distributed in the upper reaches of the two reservoir arms (North Fork Solomon River and Bow Creek) (Fig. 5.1). They are situated where high-terrace stratigraphy is accessible for viewing and sampling via exposures and unsaturated-zone coring. Toward the dam, this surface and underlying fill were inundated by lake waters at the time of fieldwork. Four exceptions are KRG-06, -32, -33, and -34: KRG-06 and -32 document stratigraphy of the loess-mantled uplands, and KRG-33 and -34, high-terrace fill located below and above the reservoir, respectively. KRG-32, -33, and -34 were originally investigated during geologic mapping of Phillips County (Johnson 1993).

56

Site Descriptions

Thirty-four sites were used to establish a stratigraphic framework for the project area and consisted both of existing natural or manmade exposures and of locations where cores were extracted. Many with established profiles were also cored for laboratory sampling and to provide a greater depth of exploration than offered by profiles in wave-cut or road-cut exposures.

Figure 5. 1: Locations of KRG sites in the KNWR. Sites are presented on the modified DEM. The project area is outlined in black.

Ensuing site descriptions are designated by the KRG number and name/archaeological site number, where applicable. KRG numbers followed by a “c” (e.g., KRG-01c) are cores and, when in parentheses, indicate extraction of a core adjacent to an established exposure profile. KRG was adopted as shorthand for “Kirwin Reservoir Geoarchaeology.” KRG-01 Genesis site (KRG-01c) The Genesis site, located in the lower end of an unnamed tributary on the south side of the upper part of Kirwin Reservoir (Fig. 5.2), was named as such because this was the first exposure profile studied. A 7m-high face exposes fill beneath the tread of the high terrace and

57

exhibits three buried soils, a 170cm-thick sequence of flood drapes consisting of alternating clay and silt laminations, and a sand splay (Fig. 5.3). The uppermost buried soil, 2Ab, is weakly-developed (A/C horizonation). The 3Ab, best developed of the three buried soil A horizons, displays A and Bw development and radiocarbon dates to 1520±70 yrs BP, and a sample from the 4Ab (A/C horizonation) produced an age of 2020±70 yrs BP (Table 5.1). MS, as measured from KRG-01c (Fig. 5.3), displays a higher degree of variance than any of the other sites documented with this parameter, but nonetheless has discernable features. The 3Ab and 4Ab and the zone of flood drapes provide muted, but identifiable signals, and transition from the redoximorphic zone beneath the 4Ab to the gleyed zone is revealed by the excursion between 6m and 7m depth. The core penetrated a second sand splay and underlying 5Ab. A reconstruction of events from the visible stratigraphy includes flood-plain stability during 5Ab development, over-bank deposits, stability again about 2000 yrs BP, high-frequency of over-bank deposition (floods) for about 250 years (resulting in about 2m of flood-plain aggradation), flood-plain stabilization lasting until about 1500 yrs BP, and periodic overbank deposition (ca. 2m) with one or more short periods of flood-plain stability during the last 400 years. This layer-cake stratigraphy is traceable for several hundred meters up- and downstream from this site, as it is elsewhere along the shoreline of middle and upper Kirwin Reservoir.

Figure 5.2: Site locations in the western sector of KNWR.

58

KRG-01c

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

0 20 40 60 80 100

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

sand splay5Ab

sand splay

flood drapes

2020 ± 70

1520 ± 70

Figure 5.3: View north of KRG-01 (top). MS data derived from KRG-01c, a core extracted ~10m from the profile (bottom). Radiocarbon ages from the two prominent buried soils (arrows) are separated by nearly 2m of flood drapes.

2Ab

3Ab

4Ab

flood drapes

59

KRG-02 (KRG-02c) KRG-02 is a wave-cut exposure located within high-terrace fill about 1.6km west of KRG-01, on the south side of upper Kirwin Reservoir, immediately west of the cut from a pre-reservoir N-S section-line road (Fig. 5.2, 5.4). Exposed within the 265cm-high prepared profile were three buried soils and an intervening zone of flood drapes (Fig. 5.5). The uppermost 2Ab is weakly developed, consisting of A-C horizonation. Between the 2Ab and underlying 3Ab is a 45cm-thick zone of flood drapes. The cumulic 3Ab and the underlying 4Ab are slightly welded to one another and radiocarbon date to 1580±70 and 3060±70 yrs BP, respectively (Table 5.1). MS, as measured from KRG-02c (Fig. 5.5), provides good definition of the poorly-developed surface soil and upper two buried soils. The 4Ab is poorly expressed in the susceptibility curve, which may be due to the gleying (reduction, not oxidation of iron) that has occurred increasingly with depth as a result of the elevated water table associated with the impoundment.

Figure 5.4: KRG-02, as viewed to the southwest.

60

Events recorded by this stratigraphy consist of slow aggradation punctuated by development of two closely spaced soils, represented by the 4Ab and 3Ab horizons. Radiocarbon ages suggest that relative flood-plain stability reigned from at least 3100 yrs BP to about 1500 yrs BP. Stability end abruptly with the advent of repeated over-bank events, as evidenced by the flood drapes. Convolute bedding expressed within the flood drapes indicates wet-sediment deposition, that is, deformation of hydroplastic sediment layers due to localized, differential forces exerted by loading from the introduction of overlying sediments (Reineck and Singh 1975). Relative flood-plain stability resumed, resulting in development of the 2Ab, following by slow aggradation to the surface.

KRG-02c

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

20 40 60 80 100 120

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

1580 ± 70

3060 ± 70

Figure 5.5: MS data derived from KRG-02c, and radiocarbon ages from samples collected in the KRG-02 profile.

KRG-03 and KRG-04 KRG-03 and KRG-04 are situated on the southeast and northwest sides, respectively, of an embayment created by a small unnamed tributary entering the reservoir from the southwest (Fig. 5.2). Both profiles were prepared in wave-cut faces and are only about 2m high because the high terrace becomes inundated by the reservoir less than 1km to the east (downstream). KRG-03 (Fig. 5.6) exhibits a well-developed surface soil, underlain by a gravel splay and finer sediment. The gravel splay consists of angular, locally-derived bedrock fragments, rather than rounded stream gravels. Consequently, its source was either a subcrop of the Smoky Hill Chalk or colluvium/alluvium from the adjacent slope or from a buried alluvial fan associated with the

2Ab

3Ab

4Ab

flood drapes

61

unnamed tributary. Subsequent to deposition of the coarse material, surface stability did occur at about 2770±70 yrs BP (Table 5.1). KRG-04, despite its close proximity to KRG-03 (Fig. 5.2), reveals somewhat different stratigraphy (Fig. 5.7). Based on a lack of any substantial pedogenesis, the surface soil is very likely historical, and the buried soil (2Ab) appears to be the 2Ab radiocarbon dated to 2770±70 yrs BP at KRG-03; this supposition is based on similar soil development and on color and texture of the fill within which both of these soils are developed. Absent from KRG-04 is the gravel lens dominating the 2Ab in KRG-03, indicating that the lens is a local feature. Survey of the stratigraphy up- and downstream of the profile suggests that the historical surface soil was eroded by runoff from an adjacent field, a result of accelerated erosion. No cores were extracted at either KRG-03 or KRG-04.

Figure 5.6: View to the southwest of the profile established in the exposure at KRG-03 (left). The buried soil, incorporated gravelly zone, and radiocarbon age at KRG-03 (right).

2770 ± 70

62

Figure 5.7: View east of KRG-04 (left). The buried soil, likely equivalent to the one dated at KRG-03, expressed in the prepared profile (right). KRG-05 West Island site: 14PH10 (KRG-05c) A high-terrace remnant, apparently isolated by scour on its south side, was found to contain a buried component (Witty 1966). This site was re-examined through a prepared profile and a core (Fig. 5.2, 5.8), both on the west end of West Island. The prepared profile produced buried soils and wood (Fig. 5.10). A distinct buried soil (3Ab) located at 150cm depth produced two radiocarbon ages of 940±70 and 890±70 yrs BP; these bulk SOM ages, separated by only 50 years, were determined on the total silt and clay fraction and only the clay fraction, respectively. These SOM ages, though within one standard deviation of each another, are significantly older than the radiocarbon age of 550±70 yrs BP determined on a 9cm-diameter log found resting on top of the 3Ab horizon. The approximate 365-radiocarbon-year disparity reduces to about 250 calendar years after calibration (Table 5.1), but is still significant. Since the small log was within flood drapes deposited on top of the 3Ab, it was probably deposited on the soil surface during a high-water event. Also, some of the age separation between the soil SOM ages and that derived from the log may be attributable to the more approximate nature of the SOM radiocarbon ages.

63

Figure 5.8: Locations of KRG-05 and -05c on West Island (left), and the excavated profile at KRG-05 on the west end of West Island (right).

Figure 5.9: View west-southwest of West Island on 5/15/1963 (left), and view northeast of archaeologists surface collecting on the northeast edge of West Island (right) (Kansas State Historical Society) Because the island, particularly the east end, was heavily bioturbated by a beaver colony, it was necessary to survey the island feature for a viable core site. Magnetic analysis of the core (KRG-05c) produced a susceptibility signal that correlated with the soil stratigraphy (Fig. 5.10). MS increase at the bottom of the core (ca. 325-340 cm) is telltale of a muck zone resting on a dense silt-rich zone (drop in clay content). Stratigraphic correlation of the KRG-05 profile with that profile documented by Witty (1966) leaves little doubt that the same buried soil (3Ab) was investigated in both instances (Fig. 5.11).

KRG-05 KRG-05c KRG-05

64

KRG-05c

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

550 ± 70 (wood)

940 ± 70 / 890 ± 70

Figure 5.10: MS data obtained from KRG-05c and radiocarbon ages from the profile.

Figure 5.11: Correlation of the KRG-05 profile on the west end (left) with Profile X142, south wall of West Island on 10/23/1965 (Kansas State Historical Society).

wood flood drapes flood drapes

2Ab

3Ab

flood drapes

65

KRG-06 (KRG-06c) An east-west section line road between Section 34 (T. 4 S., R. 17 W.) and Section 3 (T. 5 S., R. 17 W.) makes two cuts through upland ridges, exposing Smoky Hill chalk bedrock and the overlying late-Quaternary loess mantle (Fig. 5.2). While both road cuts reveal a buried soil within the loess, the easternmost roadcut provided the best opportunity for establishment of a profile (Fig. 5.12). From above the cut, the reservoir is in view, and KRG-02 is located about 0.8km north (Fig. 5.2).

Figure 5.12: View north of the roadcut exposure and profile KRG-06. Kirwin Reservoir is visible in the distance (arrow). Four well-developed soils are clearly visible in the prepared profile on the north side of the road: the surface soil and three buried soils (Fig. 5.13). Further, four ubiquitous upland stratigraphic features are expressed in the profile: the Last Interglacial Sangamon soil (ca. 120,000 yrs BP), middle- Wisconsinan Gilman Canyon Formation loess (ca. 40k – 36k yrs BP), Gilman Canyon Formation soil complex (ca. 36k – 20k yrs BP), late-Wisconsinan Peoria loess (ca. 20k – 10k yrs BP), and the existing surface soil (Johnson, 1993). The array of seven radiocarbon ages from the Gilman Canyon Formation clearly documents its antiquity, but ages in the lower part (3Ab) are not in a consistent stratigraphic sequence (Table 5.1). This disorder of ages is a likely result of bioturbation by prehistoric ground squirrels (Spermophilus cf. richardsonii) and prairie dogs (Cynomys cf. ludovicianus). These critters commonly exploited this grassland environment and its soils (Tobin 2004). Consequently, one or more resulting krotovinas apparently went undetected during radiocarbon sampling. MS indicates each of the soil and loess zones through variation in the levels of magnetic enhancement (Fig. 5.13). The susceptibility signal diminishes upward through the Peoria loess in response to an increase in rate of dust influx during the Last Glacial Maximum.

66

KRG-06c

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

20 40 60 80 100 120

Susceptibility (SI Units)D

epth

(cm

)

Smoky Hill chalk

30,120 ± 840

~120,000

19,970 ± 170

Figure 5.13: MS from KRG-06c, radiocarbon ages, and late-Quaternary stratigraphic units at KRG-06. (GCF: Gilman Canyon Formation) With exception of the uppermost Peoria loess, sediments and soils preserved at this site are unlikely to contain any vestiges of prehistoric cultural activity. Conversely, this upland stratigraphic setting is one in which Pre-Clovis to historical cultural material would be concentrated within the upper few centimeters, that is, there exists a low probability for deep (>1m) burial of cultural artifacts. KRG-07 Kiln site (KRG-07c) KRG-07, located on the east side of Bow Creek next to the channel of a small tributary entering from the southeast, was one of several sites selected to characterize fill of the high terrace in Bow Creek (Figs. 5.14, 5.15). The profile, prepared in the cutbank of the tributary, exposes the upper 3m of high-terrace fill. Two buried soils are expressed in the profile, but little surface soil development has occurred or been preserved (Fig. 5.16). Radiocarbon dating of the 3Ab indicated an age of 1750±70 yrs BP (Table 5.1); the 2Ab was undated because of the possibility that it is historical (modern). With all radiocarbon age data assembled, it now appears that the 2Ab is not historical, but rather may date to about 1300 years BP (see discussion below). Flood drapes immediately above the 3Ab indicate that major overbank flow events occurred subsequent to 1750±70 yrs BP.

Peoria loess

2Ab GCF soil 2

3Ab GCF soil 1

GCF loess

4Ab Sangamon soil

67

Figure 5.14: Site locations in the eastern sector of KNWR.

Figure 5.15: View northwest of KRG-07 and KRG-07c.

KRG-7cKRG-7

68

A 3.5m core collected 12m east of the exposure (KRG-07c; Fig.5.16) produced a MS signal that clearly defined three buried soils, the lowermost of which was not visible in the 3mhigh prepared profile. The visual impression of the surface soil is confirmed by the lack of magnetic expression, attesting to recent surface erosion or construction disturbance.

KRG-07c

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

1750 ± 70

4Ab

3Ab

2Ab

Figure 5.16: MS data derived from KRG-07c and the radiocarbon age from the 3Ab exposed in the profile at KRG-07. The lowermost increase in MS represents the 4Ab slightly below the profile. KRG-08 Pop site (KRG-08c) KRG-08 is located adjacent to a road cut on the north side of the upper reservoir (Figs. 5.2, 5.17). This profile was established due north across the reservoir from KRG-02 in order to compare the stratigraphy. Two buried soils and an interval of flood drapes are the hallmarks of this 250cm-high exposure within high-terrace fill. Lower of the two buried soils (3Ab) radiocarbon dated to 1640±70 yrs BP (Table 5.1) and is likely equivalent to the buried soil dated to 1580±70 yrs BP at KRG-02, located about 0.5km to the south. The interval of flood drapes displays prime examples of convolute bedding that resulted from wet-sediment deposition during flood events (Fig. 5.18). The generalized history depicted in the stratigraphy is slow aggradation with increasing silt and decreasing sand content, flood-plain stability and soil formation until about 1600 yrs BP, abrupt shift to an interval of high-frequency flood events, resumed flood-plain stability and soil formation, slow aggradation and lastly surface stability/soil formation.

2Ab flood drapes 3Ab

69

Figure 5.17: View northwest of exposures at KRG-08 (Pop site). The documented profile is on the west side of the roadcut, with the KRG-08c site in close proximity (arrows).

Figure 5.18: Convolute bedding created by wet-sediment deposition during flood events following the period of stability indicated by formation of the 3Ab horizon.

flood drapes

wet-sediment deformation

3Ab

KRG-08 KRG-08c

70

MS data derived from a core (KRG-08c) taken 6m north of the exposure reflects the stratigraphy of the profile (Fig. 5.19). MS is relatively high, as anticipated within the 3Ab, but remains high in the underlying sediments, which is likely due to high concentrations of magnetite and possibly maghemite. Similarly, the less-well developed 2Ab is magnetically enhanced, as is the surface soil. Cultivation (Ap horizon) of the upper 20cm resulted in the surface (0-20cm) signal decline.

KRG-08c

0

50

100

150

200

250

20 40 60 80 100 120

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

1640 ± 70

Figure 5.19: MS data from KRG-08c and radiocarbon age of the 3Ab. KRG-09 To ascertain if stratigraphy and radiocarbon ages of buried soils within high-terrace fill were consistent within a short distance, a profile (KRG-09) was documented about 0.4km west of KRG-08 (Fig. 5.2). The prepared profile at KRG-09 was about 275cm high and yielded at least three buried soils (Fig. 5.20). The 4Ab dated to 2990±70 yrs BP, and the 2Ab to 1720±70 yrs BP (Table 5.1); the former age was not realized at KRG-08, whereas the latter is within one standard deviation of the 1640±70 yrs BP obtained on the 3Ab at KRG-08. Also, no convoluted bedding is visible at KRG-09. If it were present, it would be presumably in the upper one meter; bedding may have been present originally but later destroyed by pedogenesis due to its proximity to the surface.

2Ab flood drapes wet-sediment deformation 3Ab

71

Figure 5.20: KRG-09 profile with radiocarbon ages determined from the 2Ab and 4Ab. A bison bone involved in the surface soil is circled in the upper left. About 75cm to west of the profile and at 43cm depth was a bison bone, likely a carpal or tarsal (Fig. 5.20). It was an isolated find and was not intruded into the soil, that is, contemporaneous with the alluvium within which the surface soil developed. KRG-10c Site KRG-10c, in the valley bottom adjacent to the present Bow Creek channel (Fig. 5.14), consisted of only one extracted core (no exposure was present). Sediment encountered in the core was medium-sand to gravel size (>250µm diameter) and contained no evidence of soil formation, surface or buried. Some of the coarse fraction consisted of angular bedrock fragments, which were locally derived. Based on observations, presence of coarse sediment is probably due to sediment contributions from a steep tributary entering from the northwest and/or from bar formation due to bed-load deposition as the valley abruptly widens in the downstream direction. The core extended to about 2m deep, and no core samples were collected.

2Ab 1720 ± 70 3Ab 4Ab 2990 ± 70

72

KRG-11c Site KRG-11c consists of a core extracted from the valley bottom of Bow Creek, about 1.5km downstream from KRG-10c (Fig. 5.14). Although 480cm of core was retained, laboratory examination indicated that it was void of any soil formation and consisted of sand, silt and clay lenses, indicative of recent, channel bottom or floodway deposition, that is, it indicated a slightly lower level of stream energy than deposits at KRG-10c. KRG-13c A 640cm-deep core was extracted from a poorly drained tract of the high terrace on the east side of Bow Creek at the upper extent of reservoir embayment (Fig. 5.14). The core from this site exhibited four distinct buried soils, the weakest of which was the 2Ab expressed from about 75cm to 100cm (Fig. 5.21). Sediments above the 2Ab (60-0cm) contain little or no evidence of surface-soil formation; recent aggradation, rather than erosion, is a likely cause due to the presence of a pebble zone (not a stone line) at 23cm depth.

KRG-13c

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

0 20 40 60 80 100

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

2Ab

3Ab

4Ab

5Ab

Figure 5.21: MS data with recognized buried soil expression at core site KRG-13c, and the site as viewed to the north-northeast.

73

MS data reflected laboratory observations from the core (Fig. 5.21). The bottom of the core encountered the uppermost 5Ab, as verified by the abrupt rise in susceptibility at the base of the core. Loamy sediments (no laminations) occurred up to the base of the 4Ab, at about 220cm. Observation that the 3Ab and 4Ab were partially welded is confirmed by susceptibility. The 2Ab is thinnest and most weakly developed of the buried soils, as reflected in the low and vertically confined susceptibility signal. Minor surface soil development is indicated by low susceptibility. KRG-14 KRG-14 is an exposure of high-terrace fill on the west side of Bow Creek between KRG-10c and -11c (Figs. 5.14, 5.22). A profile prepared in the upper 325cm at this site exposed two buried soils, radiocarbon dating to 1600±70 yrs BP and to 1330±70 yrs BP (Table 5.1). Sediments between the 3Ab and 2Ab consisted of flood drapes and sand-silt laminations. Above the 2Ab, particle size was dominantly sand, and the surface soil was a weakly developed Entisol. It appeared that there had been some recent human disturbance of the surface soil located on the terrace tread above the exposure. No cores were extracted from this site due to lack of vehicle and coring machine access.

Figure 5.22: Terrace scarp and KRG-14 on Bow Creek (left) and the profile with radiocarbon ages (right).

1330 ± 70 flood drapes 1600 ± 70

74

KRG-17c Catfish Cove Campground In order to examine stratigraphy of the high-terrace fill within Bow Creek between KRG-14 upstream and KRG-13c downstream, a core was collected from the campground at Catfish Cove (Fig. 5.14). The 458cm-long core displayed up to five buried soils; the 3Ab was best developed and consisted of an A/Bw solum (Fig. 5.23). Texture and MS suggest the presence of a 4Ab and 5Ab. The basal part of the core was silt, overlain by silty sand; this was in turn capped with the 3Ab; flood drapes and sand laminations extended from the 3Ab to about 175cm depth; silt dominated up through the 2Ab, which was overlain by sand that clearly exhibited indications of disturbance, likely associated with construction and user activity at the campground. MS data reflect the stratigraphy and changes observed within the core.

KRG-17c

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dpe

th (c

m)

2Ab

flood drapes

3Ab

4Ab

5Ab

Figure 5.23: MS data with recognized buried soils and flood drapes at KRG-17c, located in Catfish Cove campgrounds. KRG-18c 14PH7 14PH7 was cored to determine if buried surfaces were located in association with this archaeological site and to determine if artifacts extended below the plow zone (Fig. 5.2). No

75

buried artifacts were found, but a relatively well-developed surface soil (A-AB-Bw-C) and two buried, partially welded soils were detected visually and magnetically: 2Ab (A-C) at 425-450cm depth, and 3Ab (A-Bw-C) at 490-560cm depth (Fig. 5.24). Below the 3Ab, the core became increasingly sandy with depth. Above the 2Ab, textures ranged from silt to silty sand.

KRG-18c

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

2Ab

3Ab

Figure 5.24: MS data and recognized buried soils within the core extracted at KRG-18c. KRG-21c Due to the expansive valley width and apparent extent of the high terrace exposed in the upper part of the reservoir flood pool zone, KRG-21c was extracted about 0.7km north-northeast of the exposures in the shoreline reach around KRG-08 (Fig. 5.2). Four buried soils were readily recognizable in the 363cm-long core, with the upper three being welded into a pedocomplex (Fig. 5.25). Core texture was silt, except for a thin pebble zone at 81-84cm depth, immediately below the surface-soil solum. MS data clearly express the four buried soils, including the welding of the upper three, and surface soil development. The pebble zone (81-84cm) is indicated by the lowest values in the profile (~40 SI units).

76

KRG-21c

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

20 40 60 80 100 120

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

2Ab

3Ab

4Ab

5Ab

Figure 5.25: MS data and recognized buried soils from KRG-21c. KRG-22c KRG-22c was collected in high-terrace fill about 0.3km west of KRG-05 (14PH10), near the north edge of a cultivated field (Fig. 5.2). This was collected as an effort to compare stratigraphy here with that of KRG-05c, collected at 14PH10. As at KRG-05c, the core contained two buried soils, but both were, however, better developed than those at the archaeological site (Fig. 5.25). The surface soil had an A-Bw solum modified by a well demarcated, 33cm-deep Ap horizon, and was slightly welded to the 2Ab horizon. KRG-24c This core site was located on a dune crest south of 14PH07 within an intra-bend dune field of the North Fork Solomon River (Fig. 5.2). A well-developed soil was encountered 3.25m below the dune surface, with flood drapes below the soil to a depth of about 5m (extent of core). The buried soil appeared to be the flood-plain or low-terrace surface soil inundated by the dune field. The core was examined on site and discarded. This stratigraphy is characteristic of meander-bend core dune fields within this reach of the valley (Johnson 1993).

77

KRG-22c

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

2Ab

3Ab

Figure 5.26: MS data and recognized buried soils from KRG-22c, and the view northeast of KRG-22c and KRG-05 (14PH10). KRG-25c KRG-25c was collected in high-terrace fill from within a dirt-track road adjacent to an abandoned farmstead along the east side of the North Fork Solomon at the uppermost end of the reservoir (Fig. 5.2). A well-developed surface soil was underlain by two well-developed buried soils, one at 400cm and the other at 490cm. The lowermost soil was best developed and was underlain by coarse sand and gravel, which halted coring at 594cm. The core was examined on site and discarded. KRG-26c 14PH17 KRG-26c was extracted from 14PH17, within high-terrace fill about 1km north of KRG-25c (Fig. 5.2). A 410cm-long core recovered a relatively well-developed buried A horizon at 230cm and ended with refusal in medium to coarse sand. The surface soil was well developed and had a 30cm-deep Ap horizon. No cultural artifacts were recovered within the core. The core was examined on site and discarded.

KRG-22c KRG-05 (14PH10)

78

KRG-28c This core site was situated in high-terrace fill about 300m north of KRG-25c, immediately adjacent to the established north-south dirt road (Fig. 5.2). A well-developed surface soil was underlain by three buried soils (Fig. 5.27). The 2Ab, buried at about 110cm, was a dark cumulic horizon. The 3Ab and 4Ab, between 300cm and 400cm depth, were less well-developed than the 2Ab. MS data clearly depict the surface soil and the welded nature of the underlying buried soils (including their partially welded nature).

KRG-28c

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

2Ab

3Ab

4Ab

Figure 5.27: MS data with recognized buried soils and the view west of KRG-28c and the high terrace. KRG-29c KRG-29c was extracted immediately adjacent to the terrace scarp on the north side of the North Fork Solomon River in the northwest corner of the project area (Fig. 5.2). The 7m-long core encountered six buried soils beneath a well-developed surface soil (Fig. 5.28). Of the buried soils, the 6Ab and 7Ab were best developed. Welding obscured somewhat boundaries of the buried soils between 1m and 4m depth. Texture of the core is silt, except for two intervals of flood drapes above the 7Ab. The lower flood drapes consisted of silt and fine sand laminations, whereas the upper flood drapes were silt and clay laminations.

79

KRG-29c

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

20 40 60 80 100 120

Susceptibility (SI Units)D

epth

(cm

)

2Ab

3Ab

4Ab

5Ab

6Ab

7Ab

flood drapes

flood drapes

Figure 5.28: MS data with recognized buried soils and flood drapes at KRG-29c, and the view southeast of the coring site. KRG-31c Approximately 400m west of KRG-29c, in the extreme northwest corner of KNWR, KRG- 31c was collected in high-terrace fill to check continuity of the soil stratigraphy observed in the previous core (Fig. 5.2). The 681cm-long core displayed six buried soils, the middle three of which were partially welded to one another (Fig. 5.29). Similarity between KRG-29c and -31c is apparent, especially in the multiple buried soils clustered between about 150cm to 400cm depth and in the flood drapes within the upper core sequences.

KRG-32 Railroad cut (KRG-32c) This upland site is a profile prepared in the south face of a Missouri Pacific Railroad right-of-way cut along the south side of Kansas State Highway 9 (Fig. 5.2) and was established during geologic mapping of the county (Johnson 1993). Stratigraphy represents late-Quaternary stratigraphy of the uplands and is similar to that at KRG-06 (Fig. 5.30). A single radiocarbon age of 25,500±820 yrs BP is consistent with those obtained at KRG-06 and elsewhere in the region.

80

KRG-31c

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Susceptibility (SI Units)D

epth

(cm

)

2Ab

flood drapes

3Ab

4Ab

5Ab

6Ab

7Ab

Figure 5.29: MS data with recognized buried soils and flood drapes at KRG-31c and the view southeast. A 520cm-long core extracted in the wheat field above the profile (KRG-32c) penetrated the loess mantle to the subcrop of the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation. MS data reflect the upward sequence of Sangamon soil, Gilman Canyon loess, Gilman Canyon Formation soil, Peoria loess, and surface soil (Fig. 5.31). Pedogenic enhancement of the Gilman Canyon Formation soil and well-developed surface soil is apparent in the curve. The signal diminishes in the Gilman Canyon Formation and Peoria loess due to decreased weather. Slight enhancement at the base of the curve (>470cm) is indicating the Sangamon soil. KRG-33 Trench silo KRG-33, another site established during mapping of surficial geology in Phillips County (Johnson 1993), is located east of Kirwin Dam (Fig. 5.14). A pair of abandoned trench silos excavated into the high-terrace scarp exposed buried soils (Fig. 5.32). While the 2Ab was undated, the 3Ab exposed in a profile created in the east face of the eastern silo produced a radiocarbon age of 2880±70 yrs BP (Table 5.1).

81

Figure 5.30: View southeast of the railroad cut at KRG-32 (left). The truck is parked on the abandoned right-of-way for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. View west of the core site (KRG-32c) and railroad cut (right). The arrow indicates the location of the prepared profile in both views.

KRG-32c

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110

Susceptibility (SI units)

Dep

th (c

m)

25,500 ± 820

Figure 5.31: MS data derived from KRG-32c, and the KRG-32 profile with late-Quaternary units. The 1m-tall spade provides scale.

Peoria loess GCF soil and loess Sangamon soil Smoky Hill chalk

82

Figure 5.32: View north of a barn and the adjacent abandoned trench silos on each side of the barn (left). Profile KRG-33 was established in the east face of the east trench (arrow). KRG-33 with the two buried soils and resulting radiocarbon age (right). KRG-34 Siebert gravel pit Although located about 0.8km west of KNWR, the Siebert gravel pit is relevant due to its anomalous antiquity (Figs. 5.2, 5.33). The site was first documented during geologic mapping of Phillips County as a remnant of middle Wisconsinan alluvial fill (Johnson 1993). A notable buried soil exposed in the northern end of the pit was initially thought to be temporally equivalent to the soil dated within the trench silo (KRG-33) immediately downstream (east) of the project area. Two radiocarbon assays indicated, however, that the age of the buried soil made it a temporal valley equivalent of the upland, loess-derived Gilman Canyon Formation soil (Table 5.1). Extent of the pre-Holocene terrace fill is unknown but could potentially occupy a large tract, given this extraordinarily wide valley reach (ca. 3.5km). Deeply buried (>1m) prehistoric sites are unlikely to occur in this valley reach, in contrast to that within the project area. KRG-31c, about 1km to the northeast, immediately within the project area, consists of Holocene stratigraphy. Stratigraphic anomalies such as that exposed in this gravel pit serve as a reminder that one can not always rely on a morphostratigraphic approach or model. There is, however, a slight rise in the surface of the older fill, suggesting that it extends for about one third of the valley width.

2Ab

3Ab 2880 ± 70

83

Figure 5.33: North wall of the Siebert gravel quarry with the location of profile KRG-34 indicated (left). The dark band near the top of the exposure is the modern soil buried by spoil from the quarry. Profile KRG-34 with radiocarbon ages obtained from the upper and lower 2Ab horizon (right). The dashed line indicates the contact between the silty alluvium and underlying sand and gravel-dominated alluvium in both views.

Stratigraphic Correlations Although somewhat limited, numerical age data from exposure profiles and magnetic data from cores provide a basis from which stratigraphic correlations may be made within the study area. Coring in high-terrace fill demonstrated clearly that the ubiquitous buried soils noted in prepared profiles are indeed pervasive and seemingly correlative. Like most alluvial deposits, however, morphostratigraphic relationships are not always constant, for example, ages of fill may vary dramatically in the horizontal beneath what appears to be an isochronous terrace tread. However, limited stratigraphic data available indicated that vertical accretion has dominated in the process of valley aggradation at KNWR, resulting in a quasi-layer-cake stratigraphy. The number and sequence of buried soils realized from profile to profile and core to core is relatively consistent, although the presence and degree to which welding of buried soils has occurred varies. Chronostratigraphic and pedostratigraphic correlations Distribution of radiocarbon ages indicates the existence of up to five different middle- to late-Holocene episodes of surface stability in the valley fill. These would be time intervals when the frequency of overbank deposition (flooding) was very low and/or flood waters were relatively sediment-free, providing a stable surface within which pedogenesis could progress.

24,270 ± 750 35,590 ±

84

The oldest cluster of radiocarbon ages consists of 3060, 2990, 2880, and 2770 yrs BP, yielding a mean of about 2925 yrs BP. This oldest recognized alluvial soil is found at sites KRG-02, -03, -09, and -33, all of which are in fill of the North Fork Solomon River valley (Fig. 5.1). Despite the large range in radiocarbon ages, these occurrences are thought to be isochronous because of the vagaries associated with the radiocarbon dating of soils (e.g., Martin and Johnson 1995; Wang et al. 1996) and of the very real possibility that the soils had, in some instances, been scoured prior to burial, thereby positioning older SOM at the top of the detectable buried A horizon. Further, the terrace fill unit capped by soils of this age has a distinct yellowish brown color (10YR5/4), whereas the overlying fill, with its intercalated soils, is gray to light-brownish gray (10YR6/1). The older fill is likely derived at least in part from upland loess deposits. The next oldest buried soil age is that of 2020 yrs BP from a single site, KRG-01 (Fig. 5.3). Assuming this is a viable radiocarbon age, it is likely a temporally distinct soil due to the relatively large temporal separation from the next oldest and youngest clusters. This is a soil of only moderate development and may have been assimilated into another soil through welding, that is, incorporated into the temporally adjacent soil(s). Alternatively, this soil may be a scoured remnant of a soil dating to the next youngest cluster (below). If it is a discrete soil-forming interval, one possible profile in which it may be expressed, but undated, is that of KRG-09 (Fig. 5.20), which exhibits a buried soil between two dated to 2990 yrs BP and 1720 yrs BP. A third and broadly defined cluster consists of six ages in the range 1520-1750 yrs BP, with a mean of about 1635 yrs BP. The 230-year range is substantial but is consistent with what might be anticipated given the potential sources of age variability noted above, that is, radiocarbon dating of soils and possible scour. Only one radiocarbon age defines a possible fourth period of alluvial soil development: 1330 yrs BP from KRG 14 at the upper end of the reservoir in Bow Creek (Figs. 5.14, 5.22). This age may well exist at other locations with an upper, undated buried soil, for example, KRG-02, -07, -08, and -33. There was reluctance, however, to expend limited radiocarbon dating resources on buried soils high in profiles and beneath weakly-developed surface soils due to the concern that they may be modern, that is, buried historically. The most recent radiocarbon ages are from the same buried soil at KRG-05 (West Island; Fig. 5.10). If this soil-forming interval was widespread in this reach of the valley, it may be expressed as the uppermost undated buried soil at some sites (rather than ca. 1300 yrs BP), may have been assimilated into the modern surface soil, or may be the surface soil where it was buried early in its development. However, because this site is apparently within high-terrace fill, it is believed that the SOM-derived radiocarbon ages reflect contamination by younger carbon, perhaps during reworking of the buried soil during overbank flow, that is, when the small log may have been deposited along with the flood drapes. Visual correlations may be readily made among several of the established profiles. KRG- 08 on the north side of the upper end of the reservoir (Fig. 5.2), KRG-07 at the upper end of the Bow Creek arm of the reservoir, and KRG-14 in Bow Creek above the reservoir (Fig. 5.13) appear to exhibit the third temporal cluster of radiocarbon dated soils at the profile base. Only at

85

KRG-14 is the upper soil dated (1330 yrs BP), an age that is potentially correlative with upper buried soils at KRG-08 and KRG-07 (Fig. 5.34).

Figure 5.34: Soil and radiocarbon-age correlations among KRG-08, -07, and -14. In addition to stratigraphic correlation of buried soils, flood drapes, that occur clearly in five of the profiles (KRG-01, -02, -07, -08, and -14), attest to periods of frequent flooding. At four sites (KRG-02, -07, -08, -14), the flood interval occurred after the soils dating to the third cluster of radiocarbon ages (1520-1750 yrs BP). Two of these sites (KRG-07, -14) are located within Bow Creek valley, suggesting that Bow Creek was affected by flooding, flood slackwater from the North Fork Solomon River, or both. This period of rapid aggradation apparently ended prior to soil development dated to 1330±70 yrs BP at KRG-14. Flooding is also recorded after 2020 yrs BP and before 1520 yrs BP at KRG-01. Although flood drapes were not evident at this site after 1520 yrs BP, a sand splay does overly the soil dated to that time, indicating over-bank movement of sediment in a proximal channel location. Conversely, the pre-1520 yrs BP flood-drape sequence was not detected in any of the other profiles. Existence of flood drapes was also documented in cores not associated with established profiles (e.g., KRG-29c, -31c). Magnetostratigraphic correlations Though MS data curves derived from the sampled cores are individually unique, they all provide notable enhancement in response to past and present pedogenesis. KRG-02c and KRG-08c are across from one another in the upper reservoir (Fig. 5.2) and display similar patterns (depth and number) of buried-soil expression (Fig. 5.35). Also, both displayed flood drapes

?

?

1640 ± 70

1750 ± 70

1330 ± 70 1600 ± 70

86

immediately above the 1600-1500 yr-old soil. KRG-21c, -22c, -28c, -29c, and -31c each contain a series of welded soils buried between about 1m and 4m depth (Fig. 5.36). KRG-22c shows a similar pattern, but coring was terminated at a depth of about 250 cm. These soils are very similar site to site, but the degree of welding varies, with the weakest welding occurring in KRG-29c and the strongest in KRG-28c. Overall, the best developed soils have enhanced magnetic susceptibility to 100 or more SI units.

KRG-02c

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

20 40 60 80 100 120

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

1580 ± 70

3060 ± 70

KRG-08c

0

50

100

150

200

250

20 40 60 80 100 120

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

1640 ± 70

Figure 5.35: Probable magnetostratigraphic correlation of buried soils between KRG-02c and KRG-08c. Two sites in Bow Creek, KRG-07c and KRG-13c (Fig. 5.14), display similar MS signals, including the same number and respective magnitudes of enhancement (Fig. 5.37). Soils that appear correlative between the two cores exhibit similar levels of development and compare well with those soils expressed in the other Bow Creek site, KRG-14.

Isotope-Derived Climatic Reconstruction Stable carbon as a climatic proxy Carbon consists of two naturally-occurring stable isotopes, 12C (98.89%) and 13C (1.11%), which are usually expressed in ratio form (13C/12C). Plants discriminate against 13C during photosynthesis such that plant tissue is isotopically depleted in 13C relative to the atmosphere

87

Figure 5.36: Presumed pedostratigraphic correlations, based on magnetic susceptibility data, among core sites KRG-21c, -22c, -28c, -29c and -31c. Dashed lines define the interval of extensive pedogenesis and attendant soil welding.

KR

G-21c

050

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

2040

6080

100120

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Depth (cm)

KR

G-22c

050

100

150

200

250

300

2040

6080

100120

140

Susceptibility (SI Units)

KR

G-28c

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

2040

6080

100120

140

Susceptibility (SI Units)

KR

G-29c

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

2040

6080

100120

Susceptibility (SI Units)

KR

G-31c

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

2040

6080

100120

140

Susceptibility (SI Units)

?

88

KRG-07c

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

1750 ± 70

4Ab

3Ab

2Ab

KRG-13c

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

0 20 40 60 80 100

Susceptibility (SI Units)

Dep

th (c

m)

2Ab

3Ab

4Ab

5Ab

Figure 5.37: Possible pedostratigraphic correlations, from magnetic susceptibility data, between two sites in lower Bow Creek valley, KRG-7c and -13c.

(O’Leary 1981; Boutton 1996). Grasses fix carbon from atmospheric CO2 by one of three pathways, the Calvin-Benson (C3), Hatch-Slack (C4), and Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). Because CAM is employed by desert plants, it is not wide-spread in the Great Plains, occurring only locally near the western and southwestern fringes of the grassland. Each of these photosynthetic pathways results in differing levels of discrimination against 13C (Smith and Epstein 1971; O’Leary 1988; Ehleringer and Cerling 2002). C4 plants produce a range in δ13C of about -17‰ to -10‰, with an average of -13‰ , whereas C3 plants range between -32‰ and -20‰ and average -27‰ (Ode et al. 1980; Farquhar et al. 1989; Cerling et al. 1989; Boutton 1991) and values reflective of the plants characterize the soil organic matter.

Carbon isotope signals contained within buried soils appear to remain largely unaltered for long periods of time, for example, Cerling and others (1989) used carbon isotopes values determined from soil organic carbon in buried soils dating back to the Miocene. In the Great Plains, studies that have used 13C/12C ratios of buried soils to interpret past environments have focused primarily on the record of the last 20,000 years (e.g., Arbogast and Johnson 1998; Johnson and Willey 2000; Nordt et al. 2002).

89

Recorded climatic shift Using δ13C values derived by the radiocarbon laboratory for the purpose of correcting radiocarbon ages for isotopic fractionation (Table 5.1), an approximation of vegetation change, and hence climate change, can be reconstructed for the project area. When plotted against calendar ages, the δ13C values for both the Holocene and Pleistocene samples are consistent with other stable carbon isotope-based reconstructions of regional climatic history (Fig. 5.38). Data from the middle-Wisconsinan Gilman Canyon Formation soil and alluvial equivalents depict a C4 grassland from about 36k cal yrs BP to 30k cal yrs BP, and then climatic deterioration manifests itself as a shift toward C3 plants (grasses, shrubs and trees). Though no data exist for the project area, a dashed line was inserted to represent the regional isotopic picture. Following the Altithermal, which was a time of prairie and C4 grass expansion, C3 populations increased in plant communities. This decrease in δ13C values (increase in C3 contribution) is apparent in the project area (Fig. 5.38). Climatic shift following the end of the Altithermal about 4,000 yrs BP is better articulated in a closer look at the middle and late Holocene isotopic record (Fig. 5.39), in which the most rapid change appears to have occurred after about 2500 yrs BP.

-24

-20

-16

-12

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000Cal yrs BP

d13C

Last Glacial Maximum

Last InterstadialAltithermal

Figure 5.38: Patterns in δ13C and respective calendar ages BP. Ages to the right represent those of the Gilman Canyon Formation soil (KRG-06) and its temporal equivalent in alluvial fill (KRG-32), and those to the left are from buried alluvial soils of Holocene age, within high-terrace fill. The dashed line represents an approximation of the regional climate model for δ13C change.

90

-20

-18

-16

-14

-12

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

Age BP

d13C

Cal yrs BP

RC yrs BP

Figure 5.39: Holocene patterns of δ13C variation with corresponding radiocarbon and calendar ages.

Geoarchaeological Model Geomorphic history of KNWR From the stratigraphic information gleaned in this investigation and those earlier (e.g., Frye and Leonard 1949; Johnson 1993), a simple model of late-Quaternary landscape evolution can be assembled. Available data from cores and exposures in KNWR and Phillips County as a whole suggest the late Pliocene and earliest Pleistocene were times of major erosion of the Miocene/early-Pliocene Ogallala Formation (Frye and Leonard 1949). Consequently, the oldest unconsolidated deposits to have survived are pre-Illinoian in age (e.g., Meade Formation). Renewed incision during Illinoian time is evidenced by about 15m of entrenchment within the North Fork Solomon River valley. Late Illinoian or early Wisconsinan-age alluvium (Crete Formation) and upland loess deposits (Loveland Formation) have been preserved in isolated locations within the county. The Siebert gravel quarry (KRG-34) is excavated into sand and gravel presumably of the Crete Formation. Loveland loess has not been identified within KNWR but was documented at KRG-32, the railroad cut north of the refuge headquarters and at the roadcut along the refuge boundary at KRG-06. At both sites, a thin deposit of Loveland loess remains on top of the Smoky Hill chalk, but it has been weathered to form the Sangamon soil. The post-Sangamon (early Wisconsin) period featured moderate erosion, as evidenced by limited finds of the Sangamon soil and underlying Illinoian-age loess. Middle-Wisconsinan time was punctuated by deposition of a relatively thin (<4mm) layer of loess (Gilman Canyon Formation loess) from about 45ka to 35ka. Subsequently, the Gilman Canyon Formation soil

91

developed within the loess until about 20,000 yrs BP. A temporal equivalent of the Gilman Canyon Formation soil formed in valleys, an example of which is that soil at KRG-34 (Siebert gravel quarry). Biogenic opal data from southwestern Nebraska indicate that the Gilman Canyon Formation soil developed under C4-dominated grassland until the latter few millennia of its genesis, when it was influenced by mixed C3-C4 vegetation (Fredlund et al. 1985). Late-Wisconsinan Peoria loess influx brought this long-term period of pedogenesis to an end. Valley erosion occurred during the late Wisconsinan, as to leave only isolated remnants of the Crete Formation. Valley aggradation likely resumed prior to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Loess-mantled uplands became stable during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, resulting in a period of major pedogenesis. The resulting soil is the Brady soil, which can be differentiated as a buried soil where accumulation of Holocene Bignell loess has occurred. An alluvial equivalent developed regionally and was identified in Phillips County (Johnson 1993), but was not recognized in KNWR. Vertical aggradation of major valleys (e.g., North Fork Solomon, Bow Creek, and Deer Creek) has occurred episodically during the Holocene. During periods of slow or no aggradation, soils formed on the existing flood-plain surface. Dramatic changes in the hydrologic regime occurred, as evidenced by the abrupt change from stable, soil-forming intervals to times of frequent over bank flows, which deposited the ubiquitous flood drapes. About 1000 yrs BP, pronounced entrenchment isolated the high terrace, and shortly thereafter modest re-entrenchment created the low terrace. Areal extent of the low terrace is limited, and most expanses in KNWR are inundated by the reservoir, even at its lowest levels. Buried cultural remains: landform perspective (valleys vs. uplands) Although cultural materials may be found distributed throughout an alluvial fill, intervals of soil development tend to concentrate such materials because of (1) the slowed rate of aggradation and (2) the likelihood of increased cultural use of a stable (low-flood frequency) surface (Ferring 1986). Since the oldest soils documented in valley fill of the wildlife refuge dated to about 3000 yrs BP (Table 5.1), the oldest, buried cultural materials could conceivably of only Late Archaic age. Subsequent periods of soil formation at about 2000 yrs BP, 1600 yrs BP, and 1300 yrs BP would have Late Archaic, Woodland and Woodland cultural associations, respectively. Preservation through burial of Paleoindian and early to Middle Archaic cultural remains may have occurred in the study area, but alluvial deposits of this age were not recognized through radiocarbon dating of buried soils. Fill beneath the high terrace may indeed date to the early and middle-Holocene but was simply not exposed naturally, thereby precluding an opportunity to obtain bulk samples for conventional radiocarbon dating of SOM. Some cores extracted from high-terrace fill (e.g., KRG-18c, -29c, -31c) exhibited buried soils (e.g., 6Ab, 7Ab) that appear to be below, and consequently older than the overlying clustering of buried soils dating to about 3000 yrs BP and younger. If these soils do in fact date to the earlier cultural periods, then preserved archaeological remains are buried at depths greater than 5m. Dating these deeper soils with AMS radiocarbon dating of core samples would resolve this issue. Moreover, a program of deeper coring may be required to fully document the sequence of buried soils in high-terrace fill.

92

Eolian sand deposits within meanders of the North Fork Solomon River have certainly been active within at least the last half of the Holocene. Antiquity of these sand deposits is attested to by a radiocarbon age of 3920±90 yrs BP (4348±131 cal yrs BP) obtained from an organic layer within a silt drape buried 7m below the dune crest and below three, undated weakly-developed Ab horizons (Johnson 1993). The radiocarbon sample, collected from a loader cut in a sand pit immediately south of the Siebert quarry pit, should be considered a maximum age, however, in that organic carbon assayed in the sample may have been partially recycled, older organic carbon. The fact that these dune fields have had time to develop through winnowing of point-bars and the channel bed also indicates significant antiquity for these deposits. In turn, this suggests that the high-amplitude meander forms have, in many instances, been relatively stable (fixed) for the latter half of the Holocene. Consequently, these sand fields and other intra-meander areas have the potential to yield surface and buried cultural materials, especially given proximity to the river channel and resources of the riparian zone. Sand deposits within the large meander in the western end of KNWR, though yet not investigated archaeologically or geoarchaeologically, may contain the potential for cultural remains. Unconsolidated upland and slope deposits within KNWR consist of weathered bedrock residuum and late-Quaternary loess. Due to sheer antiquity, bedrock residuum will contain prehistoric cultural material within the upper few centimeters where it has been incorporated into the surface soil; exceptions would be features such as burials and cache pits. These bedrock residuum scenarios will be concentrated near valley margins, that is, within toeslopes, alluvial fans, and colluvial aprons. Late-Quaternary loess deposits mantle most of the uplands in KNWR and in the county, and in most instances these deposits are of late-Pleistocene age. In isolated locations within the county, the Pleistocene-Holocene transition Brady soil has been recognized, but none of these occur within KNWR (Johnson 1993). Elsewhere on uplands in the county and KNWR, a thin blanket of the Holocene Bignell loess was undoubtedly deposited, but drainage development and slope erosion, perhaps several millennia ago, largely removed it and the underlying Brady soil. Any late-Pleistocene and early- to middle-Holocene cultural record has been destroyed as a consequence. Observations from soil mapping (Palmer and Hamilton 1987) and surficial geologic investigations (Johnson 1993) indicate that modern soils of the uplands are relatively young (late Holocene), which suggests that they are neither exhumed Brady soils nor soils formed in significant thicknesses (>10-20cm) of Bignell loess. Accordingly, all cultural remains are very likely within the A horizons (ca. 0-50cm) of modern upland soils, unless they had been buried by early peoples (e.g., burials, cache pits). In rare instances, historic and prehistoric episodes of blowing sand and silt may have locally buried cultural materials to a greater depth. Buried cultural remains: soils perspective If mapped correctly, soils in KNWR should reflect parent material, landscape position, and duration of soil-formation (landscape stability). As a result, general correlations may be made between soil series or phase and the potential for buried archaeological material. This approach provides a slightly different perspective than that above. Soil-specific cultural

93

associations were derived based on available soil mapping, geologic field mapping, and geoarchaeological field investigations (Table 5.2). Generally, upland loess-derived soils (e.g., Holdrege, Uly series) are relatively mature, but have developed in the previously eroded mantle of late-Wisconsinan Peoria loess within the last two to three millennia, at most. Consequently, Archaic materials are likely the oldest affiliated artifacts to be realized. Eroded and high-slope loessal soils appear younger, which would be reflected in the age of affiliated cultural material. Soils formed in bedrock or bedrock colluvium (Armo, Brownell-Heizer, Wakeen-Nibson series), especially where slopes are steep, have a low probability and shallow depth of occurrence of late prehistoric materials. Soil phases identifying sand sheets and dunes (Inavale series) may contain archaeological material, perhaps to several meters depth, especially associated with the higher, hummocky phase. Highest probability soils and parent materials are those associated with the high terrace (Detroit, Hord, McCook, Munjor, and Roxbury series). Within the Roxbury silt loam series, the Ro phase has the greatest archaeological potential. Roxbury Variant silty clay likely has a potential where it is underlain by the same age fill as the Ro phase. Overall, the soils associated with the high terrace may contain archaeology as old as Paleoindian, although yet unrealized. Patterns of alluvial stability

A basic tenet is that soil development on a flood plain or low terrace is an indication of relative hydrologic stability, that is, a lack of overbank flows and associated vertical accretion of the surface, or, at most, sufficiently slow vertical accretion as to permit dominance of pedogenesis. This is not to exclude lateral accretion coeval with soil formation on alluvial surfaces. Conversely, times of rapid vertical accretion (sufficient to overwhelm pedogenesis) preclude soil formation, and often leave stratigraphic traces such as flood drapes and structures indicative of wet-sediment deformation. From a paleoclimatological perspective, periods of soil development imply a hydrologic regime characterized by few large floods.

Comparing ages and sequences of buried soils in the valley fill of KNWR with those data derived from valley fills of other stream systems in the central Great Plains provides an impression as to how the alluvial history of KNWR compares regionally. Relevant study basins include Deer Creek (Johnson 1993), Wolf Creek (Arbogast and Johnson 1994), Republican River (Martin 1992), South Solomon River (May 1991), Pawnee River (Mandel 1994), Smoky Hill River (Mandel (1992), Loup River (May 1989, 1992, 2003), and Kansas River and eastern tributaries (Johnson and Martin 1987) (Fig. 5.40).

Radiocarbon ages reported in the literature were tabulated. For consistency, only those radiocarbon ages obtained from bulk SOM were considered. Only exceptions were two samples from the Pawnee River basin which were derived from charcoal. While comparisons are only approximate due to the many variables involved in the radiocarbon dating of SOM, many of the ages are not corrected for isotopic fractionation, introducing another major source of error in the comparisons. In particular, corrected ages were not available for one age from the Deer Creek site, all from the Pawnee River sites, two of the lower Kansas River sites, and some Loup River sites. Given the range of δ13C values associated with most Holocene ages, the correction would

94

average about +150 radiocarbon years for SOM ages. Further, only those samples collected at or near the top of buried A horizons were considered in an effort to represent the age of a specific stage of soil development, this being the penultimate stage.

Figure 5.40: Study localities with age data for buried alluvial soils. Sites include KNWR (K), Deer Creek (DC), Wolf Creek (WC), Republican River (RR), South Fork Solomon River (SR), Pawnee River (PR), Smoky Hill River (SH), Loup River (LR), and miscellaneous Kansas River and tributaries (KR).

Radiocarbon ages from these studies were grouped by 250-year intervals in a simplistic attempt to identify clusters of ages (Table 5.2). If a given time interval was populated by three or more ages, the mean was computed. The distribution of radiocarbon ages, and thereby periods of alluvial stability, implies that the post-Altithermal Holocene was characterized by a highly variable hydrologic regime (and climate), which is much different than the Altithermal and pre-Altithermal Holocene climatic regime (Chapter 2). Although tenuous, it appears that those soil-forming intervals identified at KNWR fit with those identified regionally: 2925 yrs BP interval correlates with the regional mean of 2925 yrs BP, the 2020 yrs BP interval with 2050 yrs BP, the 1635 yrs BP interval with 1650 yrs BP, the 1330 yrs BP interval with 1350 yrs BP, and the 890-940 yrs BP interval with 930 yrs BP. When plotted in rank order (youngest to oldest), ages cluster, forming step-like discontinuities in the resulting curve (Fig. 5.41). Lines representing the approximate timing of these discontinuities (clusters of ages) indicate a high frequency of soil-forming periods since about 3000 yrs BP, although this may be exaggerated somewhat by the fact that over half of the ages are younger than 3000 yrs BP.

Alluvial fills investigated and radiocarbon dated at KNWR capture the record of regionally-expressed, high-frequency shifts between stability (soil formation) and instability

RR

PR

DC

WC KR

LR

SH

K SR

95

96

Figure 5.41: Radiocarbon ages (Table 5.2) plotted in rank order with horizontal index lines approximating times of extensive soil formation (flood-plain stability). The vertical dashed line indicates the temporal range of Holocene KNWR radiocarbon ages. (frequent over-bank deposition). Many expressions of the early (pre-3000 yrs BP) soil forming periods may have been lost through erosion of associated alluvial fills, particularly during the middle Holocene, but erosion of this magnitude appears to have been confined to valleys smaller than that of the North Fork Solomon River (Johnson and Logan 1990; Bettis and Mandel 2002). Moreover, such wholesale removal of valley fill would likely have removed the relatively large assemblage of early-to-middle Wisconsin fill documented at the Siebert gravel quarry immediately above KNWR (KRG-34). Buried soils dating to the middle and early Holocene probably exist due to the presence of deeper, undated soils encountered within some of the cores (e.g., KRG-29c and -31c). Deeper (>5m) exploration via coring, combined with AMS radiocarbon dating, may document buried surfaces potentially inhabited by early Archaic and perhaps Paleoindian cultures.

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Age Rank

14C

Age

(yrs

BP

)

Altithermal

97

Chapter 6

GIS DATABASE CONSTRUCTION AND VISUALIZATION

Joshua S. Campbell

Introduction

This chapter describes the role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the archaeological and geoarchaeological components of the Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge (KNWR) survey. Specifically, GIS and related geospatial technology facilitated the field collection of data, analysis of spatial patterns in the archaeological and landscape data, and the creation of maps displaying results of the analysis. Global Positioning System (GPS) hardware along with satellite and aerial imagery were also critical components of the research process.

GIS functions primarily as the data organization framework for the project. Existing environmental and administrative datasets were combined with data produced in the archaeological and geoarchaeological surveys to create a comprehensive GIS database for the KNWR. This database was used to generate maps and other graphics designed to visualize the spatial relationship between the location of cultural materials and the landscape of the KNWR. Additionally, GIS and 3-dimensional (3D) modeling software was used to determine how reservoir management practices implemented by the Bureau of Reclamation affect culturally significant landforms. Using multiple data sources as input, the spatial extent of the reservoir pool was modeled for a series of elevation values. Results of the modeled pool elevations, when combined with the landscape and archaeological data, indicate areas and sites potentially affected by reservoir management practices.

GIS Integration into Cultural Resource Management

The use of geographic information systems in archaeological and cultural resource management (CRM) applications began in the early 1980s and has grown in scope as GIS technology has decreased in cost and complexity of operation (Westcott and Brandon 2000). GIS applications in archaeology have followed two main tracks, first, as a data storage system for cataloging existing archaeological sites and materials and, second, for predictive modeling of site locations. Data storage applications utilize the spatial component of GIS to map the extent of each site; details associated with the site and its geographical location are stored as attributes in the database. Predictive modeling applications utilize digital site records to predict additional unknown site locations, specifically the geographic location of sites stored in the GIS are used to generate a quantitative relationship between site locations and predictor variables, typically environmental variables.

The extent of archaeological applications of GIS is beyond the scope of this report,

98

however, it bears referencing some of the significant works. Wheatley and Gillings (2002) provide a general overview of spatial technology and archaeology. Edited volumes by Judge and Sebastian (1988) and Wescott and Brandon (2000) provide technical discussions on GIS and predictive modeling. Edited volumes by Allen and others (1990) and Lock (2000) discuss the application of GIS to archaeology from the perspective of North America and Europe respectively. Several works by Kenneth Kvamme have established the methodological and statistical evaluation of predictive modeling (Kvamme 1990; Kvamme 1992). While the theory and application of predictive models has been widely debated, the majority of the literature indicates the development of archaeological GIS database increases the efficiency and productivity of cultural resource management (Ebert 2000; Hudak et al. 2000)

The ability of GIS to combine data from multiple sources ultimately means that an archaeological GIS database developed for a CRM application can function as more than a storehouse of information. As stated by Verhagen (2000:234), “Most archaeological databases are currently data storage and retrieval engines for archaeologists, whereas in the near future they will be transformed into integrated decision support tools”. When combined with environmental and administrative data, information contained in archaeological databases can be used in support of land management, land development, and additional archaeological research.

For the KNWR project, the integration of geoarchaeological data into the archaeological survey is a step towards using GIS as a CRM decision support tool. Geoarchaeological data, or data about the age and evolution of landforms, provides information about the land sub-surface, specifically the age of buried soils. Soil formation is indicative of landscape stability and therefore buried soils have a higher probability of containing cultural materials. Because most archaeological surveys include limited sub-surface testing, the majority of sites discovered is located on the surface or are shallowly buried, thereby potentially missing a significant amount of buried cultural material.

Geoarchaeological data represent a type of predictive modeling, albeit one difficult to quantitatively model. As most statistically based predictive models do not include sub-surface data they do not predict the potential for buried sites. Two attempts to include geoarchaeological data in a modeling context include the CHILD model, a quantitative landscape evolution model, and the Fort Hood Predictive Model, a synthesis of a surface statistical-based predictive model and a sub-surface geoarchaeological model (Zeidler 2001; Campbell and Johnson 2004). While no quantitative predictive models were developed for the KNWR, the inclusion of geoarchaeological data in the archaeological GIS would facilitate future model production.

The long-term advantage of integrating archaeological data into a GIS is the development of a spatial database that contains relevant administrative, environmental and archaeological information. Databases are expandable, that is, as new sites are discovered, they can be seamlessly integrated into the existing database. Management decisions regarding any aspect of the managed lands can utilize a spatial database. Multiple users from many disciplines can access the relevant spatial data. For example, management of wildlife or biological resources could utilize the environmental components of the database.

99

In the United States, large-scale comprehensive archaeological databases have been created by several states, for example Minnesota, North Carolina, and Arizona. Archaeological database were critical components of predictive model development in Minnesota and North Carolina. The Mn/Model, constructed by the State of Minnesota, is the most comprehensive predictive model that has been developed to date (Hudak et al. 2000). These sophisticated predictive models were developed using information about site location and attributes that are provided by an archaeological GIS database. The geographic size and archaeological complexity of these predictive models require millions of map calculations that can only be accomplished with the use of digital data and computer hardware (Pilgram 1987; Kvamme 1990).

Methods and Results

GIS and related geospatial technology were utilized in the KNWR survey in four areas: field data collection, construction of a comprehensive GIS database, modeling the spatial extent of the reservoir pool for a set of elevations, and graphics production. GIS and GPS were used to map archaeological site locations and record site attributes. GPS data from the geoarchaeological survey was combined with the archaeological data to form the field-collected component of the GIS database. Field data were combined with a series of other environmental and administrative data to create a comprehensive GIS database for the KNWR.

Modeling the spatial extent of Kirwin Reservoir utilized GIS techniques and reservoir pool elevation records obtained from the Bureau of Reclamation. Combining the geoarchaeological data with reservoir elevation data determined the area affected by changes in reservoir elevation. Finally, GIS was used to visualize the results of the archaeological survey and the modeled reservoir estimates using 2D and 3D visualization techniques to generate graphics and full-motion animations.

Field data

Archaeological and geoarchaeological data for the KNWR project were obtained during field surveys. Geographic coordinates for archaeological sites and geoarchaeological survey locations were acquired using precision GPS. The GPS equipment used in the survey was able to locate a position to within 1.5 meters horizontal accuracy. The use of precision GPS benefited the research design in two ways: first, it provided reliable position control and second, software used to run the GPS facilitated an all-digital workflow. Attribute data for a location was collected in an attribute database on the GPS receiver in the field. Coordinate and attribute data were downloaded directly from the GPS receiver and exported to an ESRI shapefile format. The resulting point shapefile contains the field locations for the archaeological and geoarchaeological surveys.

Existing data

Construction of the KNWR GIS database began with the acquisition of publicly available datasets. Many governmental agencies (e.g., Census, United States Geological Survey, and

100

Natural Resource Conservation Service) have created digital spatial datasets, which were developed with established accuracy criteria, and are freely distributed via the Internet. The majority of data used in this project was initially obtained from the Data Access and Support Center (DASC) at minimal or no cost. Imagery sources not available at DASC were obtained from the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program (KARS). Historical aerial photography was obtained from the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) and prints purchased through a third-party vendor. Table 6.1 presents a summary of the data used in the project.

A variety of archaeological, environmental and administrative spatial datasets was required to build a comprehensive GIS database. Archaeological data were collected using differential Global Positioning Systems (GPS) during the field survey process. Previously discovered archaeological sites were provided in a GIS-format by the Kansas State Historical Society (KSHS); the KSHS maintains the official state registry of recorded sites. Environmental datasets include digital elevation models (DEM), soils data, hydrologic networks and surface geology. Additional field mapping of the surficial geology increased the resolution of the publicly available data. Administrative data include road networks, railroad lines, and the boundaries of the KNWR.

Aerial and satellite imagery were used as image backgrounds and to determine the spatial extent of the reservoir pool. Aerial photographs taken in 1949, 1986, and 1991 were used in this project. These dates represent periods prior to the construction of Kirwin Reservoir, a mid-level water elevation, and a record low water elevation respectively. A Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) scene was acquired during August of 1994, a period of record high water elevation in the reservoir. The aerial imagery from 1991 and the satellite image from 2002 were rectified upon delivery; the 1994 satellite image was delivered in digital format and rectified to map coordinates, while the aerial imagery from 1949 and 1986 were delivered in paper format, scanned to digital, and rectified to map coordinates. Topographic quadrangle maps (1:24k scale), in the form of rectified digital raster graphics (DRGs), were also acquired for use as an image background and in the hydrologic modeling.

Hydrologic modeling Ultimately the goal of this project is to provide the Bureau of Reclamation with a thorough review of the archaeological resources of the KNWR. Beyond the data collection and storage methods discussed above, GIS technology provides methods for visualizing how management of the reservoir pool can affect the known distribution of cultural resources. The cycle of raising and lowering the water level elevation in the reservoir pool has physical implications for the spatial distribution of erosion and deposition around the reservoir boundary. Understanding how the action of water level change affects culturally significant sedimentary deposits is important for the cultural resource management of the KNWR. Figure 6.1 displays the maximum and minimum lake elevations for the period of record (1956-2005) for Kirwin Reservoir.

101

Table 6.1: KNWR spatial datasets and sources. KNWR Spatial Data Source Type Administrative US Wildlife and Parks KNWR Boundary US Census Road Network

Kansas Geological Survey PLSS (Township / Range)

US Census Railroad Network Environmental USGS Digital Elevation Models (DEM) 1:24,000 scale

USGS Digital Raster Graphics (DRG) 1:24,000 scale Topographic Maps

NRCS SSURGO (soils) 1:24,000 scale USGS Surficial Geology: 1:500,000 scale

State of Kansas Surface Hydrology: rivers and lakes (SWIMS dataset)

DASC and NARA High Resolution Aerial Photographs (July 1949, March 1986, October 1991)

KARS Landsat TM Satellite Images (8/16/94 and 9/15/02)

Field Collected High Resolution Surficial Geology Sample Locations (cores and exposures)

Archaeological KSHS KSHS official site registry (known recorded sites)

(Requires KSHS permission) Field Collected Field survey for previously unknown sites

102

Figure 6.1: Maximum and minimum lake elevation values for Kirwin Reservoir

Several data sources are required to determine how reservoir management practices affect the cultural resources of the KNWR, specifically: the location of sites, information about the age of landform surfaces and buried surfaces, and the extent of the reservoir pool for a given water elevation. Two of these variables have already been discussed; the archaeological survey provided information about the location of sites around the KNWR, the geoarchaeological survey provided information about the surface geology and subsurface of landforms around the KNWR. The remaining piece of information is to measure the spatial extent of the reservoir pool for a given water elevation.

Optimally, determining the spatial extent of the reservoir pool for any given elevation would involve a digital elevation model (DEM) of the lake area that could be ‘filled’ to a given water elevation. However the USGS DEM of the area does not contain the land surface elevations for the area inundated by Kirwin Reservoir, instead the reservoir pool is displayed at a constant elevation of 1730 feet (the top of the active conservation pool elevation) (Figs. 6.2, 6.4). In order to accurately model pool elevations below 1730ft, a DEM containing the elevation information of the original valley surface is required.

103

Figure 6.2: USGS DEM (30m2 pixels) and the KNWR boundary

Generating a DEM for the land surface beneath the reservoir pool was accomplished through a multi-step GIS process. First, elevation contours from the area under the reservoir pool were digitized. Second, these contours were interpolated to create a new DEM surface. Third, the new surface was inset into the original USGS DEM of the area to fill in elevations below 1730ft. Fourth, estimates of the spatial extent of the water surface for a given elevation were created. Fifth, the modeled estimates were compared against aerial and satellite imagery sources with known water levels. In the final step, the elevation contours were refined using the aerial and satellite imagery and a new DEM was generated. The final DEM generates water surface estimates that closely resemble imagery-derived water extents. Each of these steps is discussed in greater detail below and summarized in graphical form in Figure 6.3.

104

Figure 6.3: Flowchart of the DEM creation process

Creating a useable DEM begins with the initial extraction of elevation information from digital, geo-referenced digital raster graphics (DRGs) of USGS 1:24k topographic quadrangles maps. Elevation contour information of the original valley surface, prior to dam construction, was maintained on the current USGS topographic quadrangles of the area. These elevation contours were digitized and form the basis for constructing a DEM of the current valley surface (Step 1), see Figure 6.5. Once digitized, the contours were used in an interpolation algorithm to generate an elevation surface of the area below the reservoir pool; the interpolation was constrained to the area with the 1730ft contour elevation line. Specifically, two interpolation methods were used, first a Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) was created from the contours, and subsequently the TIN was rasterized to create the DEM (Step 2). Two additional modifications were made; the dam (1773ft) and the spillway gates (1757ft) were inset into the interpolated DEM. Data about the elevation specifics were obtained from the Bureau of Reclamation websites about Kirwin Reservoir (www.usbr.gov/gp/aop/resaloc/kwksra.htm and www.usbr.gov/dataweb/dams/ks00022.htm). The interpolated DEM, with the dam and spillway data, was inset into the original USGS DEM to create a new elevation surface termed the ‘Post-Dam DEM’ (Step 3) (Fig. 6.6). This DEM was used to generate the first set of water extent estimates.

105

Figure 6.4: USGS DEM with the 1730ft elevation contour, which served as the interpolation boundary

Figure 6.5: USGS topographic quadrangle (1:24,000 scale) showing the location of the original elevation contours. Note the inset map that shows the digitized contours in more detail.

106

Figure 6.6: ‘Post-Dam DEM’ and the 1730ft elevation contour (interpolation boundary). Note the inclusion of data values within the interpolation boundary.

Step 4 of the DEM creation process involves testing the accuracy of the Post-Dam DEM. Estimates of the spatial extent for a given reservoir pool elevation were created using raster GIS algorithms; essentially these algorithms used the Post-Dam DEM to determine all the locations that would be underwater for a given elevation. In Step 5, the derived water extent estimates were compared with the imagery datasets. Comparisons indicated that the DEM did not accurately model the reservoir extent at low water elevations, below 1715ft. Figure 6.7 displays the estimated extent of lake elevation 1697ft in comparison with the image-derived extent of 1697ft. Error in the DEM was attributed to poor accuracy of the original quadrangle elevation contours, interpolation effects of the contour data, and natural processes, that is, siltation, which could have significantly changed the topography of the reservoir bottom since the topographic quadrangle map was created. As a result of any or all of these three reasons, the model estimates for low water elevations did not correlate well with the imagery derived data.

107

Figure 6.7: Actual extent and modeled estimate of extent for lake elevation 1697ft. Note the poor lateral correspondence between the two extents near the dam.

In order to refine the Post-Dam DEM, additional information about reservoir pool extents was extracted from remotely sensed images; specifically, two Landsat scenes and two sets of high-resolution aerial photography were used. Acquisition dates for the imagery sources were known and the water level for each image date was obtained from the Bureau of Reclamation website (see Table 6.2). A satellite image of the area acquired on August 16, 1994 displays the true spatial extent of the reservoir with a forebay elevation of 1729ft. An example of the reservoir at low water conditions is found on the aerial imagery from early October 1991. Water levels in the fall of 1991 were historic lows for the Kirwin reservoir and the forebay elevations ranged around 1697ft. High-resolution aerial photography collected on March 26, 1986 was used to determine the true extent of the water surface for an elevation of 1707ft. A second Landsat scene, acquired September 15, 2002 displays the true spatial extent for a forebay elevation of 1715ft. Spatial extents for lake elevations 1697ft, 1707ft, and 1729ft were digitized from the imagery and stored in separate shapefiles; these shapefiles provide vector versions of lake extents for low, mid, and high water levels. Figures 6.8, 6.9, 6.10 display the digitized water levels on the 1991 imagery.

108

Table 6.2: Imagery sources and associated reservoir elevations

Imagery Type Resolution Date Water Level Aerial 2 meter July 1949 Pre-Dam Aerial 1 meter March 11, 1986 1707ft Aerial 1 meter October 1991 1697ft Aerial 2-3 meter July 2004 N/A Satellite 30 meter August 16, 1994 1729ft Satellite 30 meter September 15, 2002 1715ft

Figure 6.8: Digitized version of low lake elevation (1697ft) overlain the 1991 aerial imagery

109

Figure 6.9: Digitized version of mid lake elevation (1707ft) overlain the 1991 aerial imagery

Figure 6.10: Digitized version of high lake elevation (1729ft) overlain the 1991 aerial imagery

110

In order to refine the Post-Dam DEM the original contours were modified using image-derived estimates of lake extent for a given elevation. Because each image-derived water extent was associated with a known elevation, each one in effect added an additional contour to the original quadrangle-derived set. They were also used to modify the location of the quadrangle-derived contours. This method proved very helpful in the refinement process. Figure 6.11 displays the revised set of contour elevation lines; note how the location of contour lines changed from the originals printed on the map. DEM creation methods described above were implemented on the revised set of contour lines to create the final Post-Dam DEM. The final Post-Dam DEM represents the current topography, or bathymetry, of the alluvial valley and provides the basis for modeling the spatial extent of the reservoir pool surface for any given elevation.

Figure 6.11: Revised elevation contour lines overlain the original contours from the 1:24k quadrangle map

111

Figure 6.12: Revised contour lines and the raster interpolation used to generate the basin elevations

Figure 6.13: Revised Post-Dam DEM and the interpolation boundary (1730 ft contour)

112

Elevation data for the reservoir pool at Kirwin Reservoir were obtained through the Bureau of Reclamation website (www.usbr.gov/gp/hydromet/res070.cfm). Specifically, the End-Of-Month Forebay Elevation (FB.EOM) data were obtained for the period of record (1956-2005), along with the mean, maximum and minimum elevations for each year. The elevation of the reservoir pool is measured at the dam and reported as feet above sea level. Using the Post-Dam DEM as a base, the Spatial Analyst extension of ArcGIS 8.3 was used to determine the spatial extent for a given pool elevation.

Testing of the revised Post-Dam DEM again consisted of comparing modeled pool elevations with water level extents extracted from satellite and aerial imagery. Modeled estimates, using the modified Post-Dam DEM, correlate well with image-derived reservoir pool extents. Figures 6.14, 6.15, and 6.16 display the results of the revised surface extent estimates in comparison with the image-derived extents. Using the revised Post-Dam DEM it is possible to generate reliable surface extents for any reservoir pool elevation.

Figure 6.14: Actual and revised estimates of surface water extent for lake elevation 1697ft

113

Figure 6.15: Actual and revised estimates of surface water extent for lake elevation 1707ft

Figure 6.16: Actual and revised estimates of surface water extent for lake elevation 1729ft

114

A second set of elevation contours was also created; these were designed to reflect the alluvial surface prior to dam construction. The methodology used to generate the Post-Dam DEM was also used for the ‘Pre-Dam DEM’; these steps include contour generation, raster interpolation (the interpolation area is slightly larger than the 1730ft contour due to the extension downstream), inset into the USGS DEM, and revision using imagery from 1949 (prior to dam construction). The quadrangle-derived contours were modified to reflect the position of the river channel and other fluvial landforms that were visible in the 1949 imagery. These contour lines extend downstream as if the dam were not there and connect with existing topography below the dam (Figure 6.17). The Pre-Dam DEM (Figure 6.18) is used in conjunction with the 1949 aerial photography to generate 3D graphics of the landscape prior to the construction of Kirwin dam, see Figure 6.19. Figure 6.20 displays the same perspective as Figure 6.19 but uses the 1991 imagery and the Post-Dam DEM.

Figure 6.17: Set of elevation contours used to create the Pre-Dam DEM. Note on the inset map how the contour lines extend past the dam and connect with existing topography downstream.

115

Figure 6.18: Revised ‘Pre-Dam DEM’, note the lack of a dam structure in the elevation data

Figure 6.19: 3D oblique perspective of 1949 imagery overlain Pre-Dam DEM with revised elevation contours.

116

Figure 6.20: 3D oblique perspective of the 1991 imagery overlain the Post-Dam DEM and the revised elevation contours used to construct the Post-Dam DEM.

Visualization of results

One of the primary functions of a GIS is to display information in a graphical format. To that end, many of the results of this project are summarized in map form. Both standard 2-dimensional (2D) maps and more advanced 3D, or more specifically 2.5D, maps were created. Most of the maps display the spatial extent of various water levels in regards to sample locations, known archaeological sites, and landforms. All the 2D maps are from a plan view perspective and were generated using ESRI ArcMap 8.3 software. Both static and dynamic 3D maps were created for the project. Adding elevation information as a third dimension to the maps provides a powerful visual component for interpreting the various spatial relationships. Static 3D/2.5D maps were created using ESRI ArcScene 8.3 software. Two dynamic 3D animations were also created for the area; one is a fly-through of the KNWR and the second animates the yearly maximum lake elevation for the years 1956-2005. The animations were created using Visual Nature Studio (VNS), a powerful 3D modeling software package. The animations are static in that they do not provide interactivity to the user. To complement the animations, the ArcScene project documents can be reconstructed using the data in the GIS database; the interactivity of the ArcScene documents allows users to explore the database as they choose.

117

With reliable hydrologic estimates completed, it is possible to combine all aspects of the KNWR survey into a series of graphics that demonstrates the location of known archaeological sites in reference to both the landforms in which they occur and the potential impact of fluctuating water levels. Figure 6.21 displays the spatial extent of a low (1697ft) and a high (1729ft) water level and the location of all sites within the KNWR; these levels were chosen because they represent actual spatial extents for water elevations at or near historic high and low levels. This figure indicates the geographic extent affected by standard reservoir management practices; only a few sites are in the area impacted by fluctuating water levels. Figure 6.22 displays the same distribution of sites overlain the 1949 imagery, this provides a better idea of the natural context of the site locations. The most famous site in the area is West Island (14PH10) and is specifically displayed in Figure 6.23 using a 3D oblique perspective. The figure also includes two water levels, a high (1729ft) and an average (1707ft) water level.

Figure 6.21: Site locations and cultural affiliations along with historic or near-historic high and low water levels

118

Figure 6.22: Site locations and cultural affiliations overlain the 1949 aerial imagery

Figure 6.23: 3D oblique view of the West Island site and two water levels (high: 1729ft and mid: 1707ft)

119

In terms of surface geology, the majority of the KNWR is classified as Quaternary Terrace (Qt) deposits, with alluvial deposits (Qal) in the river channels and a small area of sand dunes (Qd) along the upper reaches of the North Fork of Solomon River. Note that only the alluvial areas (constrained to the valley walls) were mapped at high resolution. The impact of fluctuating water levels on the cultural resources of the KNWR requires the evaluation of the impact on known sites as well as the sediment matrix underlying the surface that may contain additional unknown sites.

Geoarchaeological analysis indicates the presence of buried soils beneath the Qt surface. Estimates indicate the presence of three general soils that correspond with three general time frames. Specifically, for the Qt deposits in the Solomon River valley, buried soils and their associated radiocarbon dates occur at a depth of 1-2m (1350BP), 3-4m (3000BP), and 6-8m (4000-5000BP, estimates from regional trends). Soil formation is correlated with landscape stability, therefore, soils inherently have a higher probability of containing cultural material. Of particular management interest are locations in which buried soils are expressed close to the surface and where the affects of reservoir change intersect. Potential exposure or burying of sites may occur in areas where buried soil zones are affected by the dynamic nature of fluctuating water levels.

Figure 6.24: Site locations and cultural affiliation along with high-resolution surface geology.

120

Two animated 3D visualizations were also created for the project. These were produced to familiarize readers with the study area and increase understanding of the impact of changing water levels on the landscape. Both animations use the 1991 imagery overlaid on the Post-Dam DEM. In the first animation (Kirwin Fly-by /kFlyby) the camera essentially rotates completely around the study area at an oblique angle; water levels in the reservoir are also animated and fluctuate from the top of the conservation pool (1730ft) to the historic low (1695ft) to the historic high (1737ft) and back to a standard conservation pool elevation (1725ft). This animation is 40 seconds long and is composed of 1000 rendered frames. In the second animation (Kirwin Water Level/kWater) the camera is in a stationary oblique perspective located just left of the center of the dam; only the water level is animated. In this 60-second (1200 frame) animation the water levels in the reservoir follow the yearly maximum elevation values that are displayed in Figure 6.1. At five seconds the reservoir is filled to the 1953 level and each subsequent second of the animation represents one year’s maximum value. While this animation does not account for within-year variations in water level, it does provide a reliable perspective on the changes in spatial extent of the reservoir over time. Additional information about the specific timing and water level elevations in the animations is included in Appendix 2. Figures 6.25 - 6.28 display a few frames from the animations. The animations are formatted in a Windows Media Audio/Video (.wmv) format and should play on almost all computers running a Windows operating system and Windows Media Player.

Figure 6.25: Individual frame taken from the ‘Kirwin Fly-by’ visualization. View is northeast with a reservoir pool elevation of 1730ft.

121

Figure 6.26: Individual frame taken from the ‘Kirwin Fly-by’ visualization. View is southwest with a reservoir pool elevation of 1710ft.

Figure 6.27: Individual frame taken from the ‘Kirwin Water Level’ visualization. View is west with a reservoir pool elevation of 1697ft.

122

Figure 6.28: Individual frame taken from the ‘Kirwin Water Level’ visualization. View is west with a reservoir pool elevation of 1735ft.

Conclusions

Due to the long-term trends in GIS development (decreasing software and hardware costs and increased ease of use), the application of GIS technology to archaeology and cultural resource management will continue to grow into the future. The KNWR survey demonstrates that GIS can be used as the organizing framework for data collection, processing and presentation. More significantly, GIS was used to integrate the various types of field collection and data sources required to adequately address the management of cultural resources at the KNWR.

GPS use for field data collection facilitates the rapid collection and conversion of field locations to accurate, usable digital products. The development of a comprehensive, scalable GIS database for the KNWR will aid in CRM and potentially other management applications. Any spatial analysis applications (hydrologic or archaeological predictive modeling) require the GIS database assembled for this project. Visual outputs and graphics produced using the GIS database can be designed to aid in communicating the nature of the problem to an intended audience of experts, decision-makers, or the general public. Additional customization of the ArcGIS software platform could implement easy-to-use interfaces for interacting with the database that would allow non-experts or decision-makers to interact with the database.

123

Chapter 7

CONCLUSIONS

Brad Logan

Despite systematic pedestrian survey of all but the southwestern corner of the KNWR, only 32 sites were encountered, including two that had been recorded previously. Twenty-two sites are of historic age (one of these includes a prehistoric component) and none retains any integrity; all are remains of farmstead structures, agricultural features (e.g., water tanks), or dumping grounds that date to the 20th century. The 11 sites with prehistoric components consist primarily of a few pieces of lithic debitage, often just an isolated flake. Additional inspection of one, 14PH44, is suggested. This site, a short distance from the dam, has been damaged by road construction. Though no diagnostic artifacts were found, more intensive investigation may discover them. Two sites, West Island (14PH10) and 14PH17, are recommended for National Register of Historic Places evaluation. The latter was the only prehistoric site to yield temporally diagnostic material, an alternately beveled knife fragment that may be evidence of Late Prehistoric activity. While no cultural material was found at West Island, NRHP evaluation is recommended. Geoarchaeological investigation there found the buried soil that in 1963 contained a horizon of Plains Woodland (Keith variant) age. Because that horizon yielded a varied assemblage, including lithic tools, pottery, and human remains from an as yet poorly known adaptation, more intensive exploration of the endangered site is needed to insure that significant information is not lost.

West Island exemplifies two aspects of cultural resources at the KNWR: 1) even sites of

relatively recent age (500-1000 yrs) on lowland surfaces (terraces) are buried beyond the reach of conventional archaeological reconnaissance, and 2) the erosive affects of fluctuating lake levels have adversely impacted them. Thus, the critical part of our approach to the project area was the application of geoarchaeological and GIS methods. In concert, both demonstrate not only the potential for a buried record of human activity that could date to at least the past 3,000 years or, very likely, longer but its vulnerability to the reservoir’s erosive affects over the past 50 years.

Johnson (chapter 5) describes in detail a number of buried surfaces, indicative of periods of

relative stability, that date to the past 3,000 years. Their presence, and greater probability for containing evidence of past human occupation, explains why conventional archaeological reconnaissance of the federal property encountered very few prehistoric sites. The low number of sites cannot be attributed to shovel-testing of areas with low surface visibility, an enterprise known to have a low probability of success in this region. The fact that most of the human populations of the prehistoric period were characterized by relatively mobile settlement adaptations is not sufficient to explain the dearth of surface (i.e., upper 30cm) sites at KNWR. The same or related cultures were present in other areas not far from the refuge where conventional archaeological methods of investigation succeeded in finding more sites per acre (see chapter 1). Moreover, KNWR included several cultivated tracts with ideal “gestalt” for containing prehistoric sites. Indeed, it was only after all of these had been surveyed during the first two seasons (1999-2000) with little reward that it became apparent a geoarchaeological approach was needed.

124

This approach is valuable for predicting the location and context of buried sites. Paleosols at KNWR range in depth from 1m to more than 4m and date from 3060+70 to 550+70 rcybp, ages that correlate with the Late Archaic, Woodland and Late Prehistoric periods. The depths of the soils preclude site discovery through traditional survey methods (e.g., shovel testing). Johnson’s research is significant not only because of the insight it provides to the archaeological potential of the project area but because he interprets the information obtained within a broader, regional context. Thus, the periods of alluvial stability point to a late Holocene (i.e, post-Altithermal) regime characterized by considerable hydrologic variation and, by inference, climate compared to the rest of the Holocene. He tentatively suggests that intervals of soil formation at KNWR are compatible with the ages of others in the region, which include mean periods of stability at 2925 yrs BP, 2050 yrs BP, 1650 yrs BP, 1350 yrs BP, and 930 yrs BP. This 2,000 year period spans the Late Archaic and Woodland periods, which are poorly understood throughout the western Central Plains (Blackmar and Hofman 2006; Bozell 2006).

Johnson also cautions that interpretation of the alluvial record at KNWR is restricted to information from buried surfaces that were accessible during our investigation. He notes that while the buried soils sampled during the project “capture the record of regionally-expressed, high-frequency shifts between stability…and instability”, evidence of previous periods of soil formation may have been removed during the Altithermal. However, such extensive erosion occurred in smaller valleys and the presence of the early-to-middle Wisconsin fill at Siebert gravel quarry above the federal property argues against “such wholesale removal of valley fill”. He suggests exploration beyond depths we sampled with cores (i.e., >5m) would find middle to early Holocene surfaces that might contain evidence of early Archaic or Paleoindian activity.

What the shoreline exposures we sampled during the geoarchaeological fieldwork indicate is that surfaces with the potential to contain evidence of cultural activity from late Holocene sites have been exposed by the erosive affects of Kirwin reservoir. In chapter 6, Campbell utilizes an array of GIS and historical (i.e., lake level) data to create visual, three-dimensional images of the reservoir as it has changed over the past 50 years. Through a sophisticated synthesis of GIS, geoarchaeological, and archaeological information he produced a striking fly-by animation that makes it possible to see how periodic variations in lake levels can result in the exposure or burial or sites or surfaces that might contain them. Using this GIS dataset, any potential reservoir water level can be modeled and compared with stratigraphic and site location data.

As Campbell notes, cultural resource managers will be particularly interested in areas of

near-surface buried soils that are more vulnerable to the affects of reservoir change. Thus, we recommend periodic monitoring of the alluvial fills, with particular attention to buried soils described herein (Chapter 5), to find evidence of prehistoric activity and of terraces generally inundated where sites may have been exposed by scouring or wave action. The paucity of prehistoric sites at KNWR is misleading. It does not accurately reflect the likelihood that prehistoric groups were attracted to the varied resources that must have been available at the confluence of the North Fork Solomon River and Bow Creek since the Altithermal, and perhaps earlier. Our research indicates the potential for a buried record of human activity. The information we have provided will guide those who want to explore it.

125

References Adair, Mary J. 1988 Prehistoric Agriculture in the Central Plains. University of Kansas Publications in

Anthropology, 16. 1996 Woodland Complexes in the Central Great Plains. In, Archeology and Paleoecology

of the Central Great Plains, edited by Jack L. Hofman, pp. 100-122. Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 48.

Adair, Mary J., Kenneth L. Brown, Marie E. Brown, Daniel C. Fitzgerald, and Kevin J. Cornwell 1987 Site Descriptions and Recovered Artifacts. In, Prehistoric and Historic Cultural

Resources of Selected Sites at Harlan County Lake, Harlan County, Nebraska: Test Excavations and Determination of Significance for 28 Sites, edited by Mary J. Adair and Kenneth L. Brown, pp. 76-297. Report submitted to the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Kaw Valley Engineering and Development, Inc. Junction City, Kansas.

Albertson, Fred W. 1937 Ecology of Mixed Prairie in West Central Kansas. Ecological Monographs 7:481-

547. Allen, Kathleen M. S., Stanton W. Green, Ezra B. W. Zubrow, Eds. 1990 Interpreting Space: GIS and Archaeology. Applications of Geographic

Information Systems. Taylor and Francis. London Alley, Richard B., D.A. Meese, C.A. Shuman, A.J. Gow, K.C. Taylor, P.M. Grootes, J.C. White, M. Ram, E.D. Waddington, P.A. Mayewski, and G.A. Zielinski 1993 Abrupt Increase in Greenland Snow Accumulation at the End of the Younger

Dryas Event. Nature 362: 527-529. Antevs, Ernst 1955 Geologic-Climatic Dating in the West. American Antiquity 20: 317-335. Arbogast, Alan F. 1996 Late-Quaternary Evolution of a Lunette in the Central Great Plains: Wilson

Ridge, Kansas. Physical Geography 17: 354-370. 1998 Late Quaternary Paleoenvironments and Landscape Evolution on the Great Bend

Sand Prairie. Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 242. Arbogast, Alan F. and William C. Johnson 1994 Climatic Implications of the Late Quaternary Alluvial Record of a Small Drainage

Basin in the Central Great Plains. Quaternary Research 41: 298-305.

126

1998 Late Quaternary Landscape Response to Environmental Change in South Central Kansas. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 88:126-145.

Bark, L. Dean 1982 Climate. In, Soil Survey of Rooks County, Kansas, by Cecil D. Palmer, pp. 1-2. Soil

Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Bass, William M. and Patricia A. Grubbs 1966 Human Skeletal Material from a Keith Focus Plains Woodland Site, 14PH10, Kirwin

Reservoir, Phillips County, Kansas. Plains Anthropologist 11(32):135-143. Berger, A. and M.F. Loutre 1991 Insolation Values for the Climate of the Last 10 Million years. Quaternary

Science Reviews 17: 549-585. Bettis, E.Arthur, III and Rolfe D. Mandel 2002 The Effects of Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Holocene Erosion and

Alluviation on the Archaeological Record of the Central and Eastern Great Plains, U.S.A. Geoarchaeology 17: 141-154.

Binford, Lewis R. 1979 Organization and Formation Processes: Looking at Curated Technologies. Journal

of Anthropological Research 35(3):255-273. Blackman, E. E. 1903 Report of the Department of Archeology. Annual Report of the Nebraska State

Board of Agriculture for 1902, pp. 294-326. 1905 Report of the Department of Archeology for 1903 and 1904. Annual Report of the

Nebraska State Board for Agriculture for 1905, pp. 207-229. 1907 Prehistoric Man in Nebraska. Records of the Past 6(3):76-79.

Blackmar, Jeannette M. and Jack L. Hofman 2006 The Paleoarchaic of Kansas. In, Kansas Archaeology, edited by Robert J. Hoard and William E. Banks, pp. 46-75. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence.

Blakeslee, Donald J. 1994 Reassessment of Some Radiocarbon Dates from the Central Plains. Plains

Anthropologist 39(148):203-210. 1999 Waconda Lake: Prehistoric Swidden-Foragers in the Central Plains. Central Plains

Archeology 7 (whole volume).

127

Blasingham, Emily 1963 Appraisal of the Archaeological Resources of the Norton Reservoir, Norton County,

Kansas. Report submitted to the Inter-Agency Archeological and Paleontological Salvage Program, National Park Service (on file, Midwest Research Center, Lincoln, Nebraska).

Boutton, Thomas W. 1991 Stable Carbon Isotope Ratios of Natural Materials, I. Sample Preparation and

Mass Spectrometric Analysis. In, Carbon Isotope Techniques, edited by D.C. Coleman and B. Fry, pp. 155-171. Academic Press, New York.

1996 Stable Carbon Isotope Ratios of Soil Organic Matter and Their Use as Indicators of Vegetation and Climate Change. In, Mass Spectrometry of Soils, edited by Thomas W. Boutton and W. Yamasaki, pp. 47-82. Marcel Dekker, New York.

Bozell, John R. 1991 Fauna from the Hulme Site and Comments on Central Plains Tradition Subsistence Variability. Plains Anthropologist 36(136):229-253. 2006 Plains Woodland Complexes of Western Kansas and Adjacent Portions of Nebraska

and Colorado. In, Kansas Archaeology, edited by Robert J. Hoard and William E. Banks, pp. 93-104. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence.

Brown, Kenneth L. and Alan H. Simmons (editors) 1987 Kansas Prehistoric Archaeological Preservation Plan. Office of Archaeological

Research, Museum of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. Bryson, Reid A., David A. Baerreis, and Wayne M. Wendland 1970 The Character of Late-Glacial and Post-Glacial Climatic Changes. In, Pleistocene

and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains, edited by Wakefield Dort, Jr. and J. Knox Jones, Jr., pp. 53-74. University of Kansas, Department of Geology, Special Publication 3. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence.

Byrne, F.E., H.V. Beck, and M.S. Houston 1948 Construction Materials in Phillips County, Kansas. U.S. Geological Survey

Circular 21. Calabrese, Francis A. 1969 Mowry Bluff and Nuzum Artifacts: Ground Stone. In, Two House Sites in the

Central Plains: An Experiment in Archaeology, edited by W. Raymond Wood, pp. 34-39, 77-78. Plains Anthropologist Memoir 6.

128

Campbell, Joshua S. and William C. Johnson 2004 Temporal Predictive Model for Fort Hood, Texas: A Pilot Study in the Cowhouse

Creek Drainage. Archaeological Resource Management Series Research Report 54. United States Army, Fort Hood, Texas.

Carlson, Gayle F. 1971 A Local Sequence for Upper Republican Sites in the Glen Elder Reservoir Locality,

Kansas. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Nebraska.

Cerling, Thure E., J. Quade, Y. Wang, and J. R. Bowman 1989 Carbon Isotopes in Soils and Paleosols as Ecology and Paleoecology Indicators.

Nature 341:138-139. Champe, John L. 1936 The Sweetwater Culture Complex. In, Chapters in Nebraska Archaeology, vol. 1,

edited by Earl H. Bell, pp. 249-300. University of Nebraska, Lincoln. COHMAP Members 1988 Climatic Changes of the Last 18,000 Years: Observations and Model Simulations.

Science 241: 1043-1052. Cooper, Paul L. 1936 Archaeology of Certain Sites in Cedar County, Nebraska. In, Chapters in Nebraska

Archaeology, vol. 1, edited by Earl H. Bell, pp. 11-145. University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Cummings, Thomas S. 1953 A Preliminary Report on the Blue Stone Focus, White Rock Aspect. Abstract, in

Proceedings of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, May 1. Davis, E. Mott 1953 Recent Data from Two Paleo-Indian Sites on Medicine Creek, Nebraska. American

Antiquity 18(4):380-386. 1962 Archeology of the Lime Creek Site in Southwestern Nebraska. Special Publication

No. 3. University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska. Dunlevy, Marion L. 1936 A Comparison of the Cultural Manifestations of the Burkett (Nance County) and the

Gray-Wolfe (Colfax County) Sites. In, Chapters in Nebraska Archaeology, vol. 1, edited by Earl H. Bell, pp. 147-247. University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

129

Ebert, James I 2000 The State of the Art in "Inductive" Predictive Modeling: Seven Big Mistakes (and

Lots of Smaller Ones). Practical Applications of GIS for Archaeologists: A Predictive Modeling Kit, edited by K. L. Wescott and R. J. Brandon, pp. 129-134. Taylor & Francis, London.

Evans, Michael E. and Friedrich Heller 2003 Environmental Magnetism: Principles and Applications of Enviromagnetics.

Academic Press, Amsterdam. Ehleringer, James R. and Thure E. Cerling 2002 Stable Isotopes: Vol. 2, The Earth System: Biological and Ecological Dimensions

of Global Environmental Change. In, Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change, edited by H. A. Mooney and J.G. Canadell, pp. 544-550. John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., Chichester, UK.

Falk, Carl R. 1969 Faunal Remains. In, Two House Sites in the Central Plains, edited by W. Raymond

Wood, pp. 44-51. Plains Anthropologist Memoir 6. Farquhar, Graham D., James R. Ehleringer and K.T. Hubrick 1989 Carbon Isotope Discrimination and Photosynthesis. Annual Review of Plant

Physiology: Plant Molecular Biology 40: 503-537. Feggestad, Aaron J., Peter M. Jacobs, Xaiodong Miao, and Joseph A. Mason 2005 Stable Isotope Record of Holocene Environmental Change in the Central Great

Plains. Physical Geography 25: 170-190. Ferring, C. Reid 1986 Rates of Fluvial Sedimentation: Implications for Archaeological Variability.

Geoarchaeology 1: 259-274. Flower, B.P., and James P. Kennett 1990 The Younger Dryas Cool Episode in the Gulf of Mexico. Paleoceanography 5:

949-961. Forman, Steven L., Robert Oglesby, Vera Markgraf, and Thomas Stafford 1995 Paleoclimatic Significance of Late Quaternary Eolian Deposition on the Piedmont

and High Plains, Central United States. Global and Planetary Change 11: 35-55. Forman, Steven L., Robert Oglesby, and Robert S. Webb 2001 Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Holocene Dune Activity on the Great Plains of

North America: Megadroughts and Climate links. Global and Planetary Change 29: 1-29.

130

Fredlund, Glen G. 1989 Paleovegetational Reconstruction at the North Cove Site. In, Archaeological

Investigations at the North Cove Site, Harlan County Lake, Harlan County, Nebraska, pp. 53-62. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District.

1995 Late Quaternary Pollen Record from Cheyenne Bottoms, Kansas. Quaternary

Research 43: 67-79. Fredlund, Glen G., William C. Johnson, and Wakefield Dort, Jr. 1985 A Preliminary Analysis of Opal Phytoliths from the Eustis Ash Pit, Frontier

County, Nebraska. Institute for Tertiary-Quaternary Studies Symposium Series 1: 147-162.

Fredlund, Glen G., and Larry L. Tieszen 1997 Phytolith and Carbon Isotope Evidence for Late Quaternary Vegetation and

Climate Change in the Southern Black Hills, South Dakota. Quaternary Research 47: 206-217.

Frye, John C. and Alvin R. Leonard 1949 Geology and Groundwater Resources of Norton County and Northwestern

Phillips County, Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 81. Frye, John C. and A. Byron Leonard 1954 Significant New Exposures of Pleistocene Deposits at Kirwin, Phillips County,

Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 109. Frye, John C. and A. Byron Leonard 1952 Pleistocene Geology of Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 99. Frye, John C. and Ada Swineford 1946 Silicified Rock in the Ogallala Formation. Kansas Geological survey Bulletin 64. Gale, Steven J., and Peter G. Hoare 1991 Quaternary Sediments. Halstead Press, New York. Geologic Names Committee 1984 Stratigraphic Notes, 1983: Geologic time chart. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin

1537-A. Grange, Roger T., Jr. 1968 Pawnee and Lower Loup Pottery. Nebraska State Historical Society, Publications in

Anthropology No. 3.

131

1974 Pawnee Potsherds Revisited: Formula Dating of a Non-European Ceramic Tradition. The Conference on Historic Site Archaeology Papers, 1972 7(4). Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.

1979 An Archaeological View of Pawnee Origins. Nebraska History 60(2):134-160. 1980 Archeological Investigations in the Red Willow Reservoir. Nebraska State

Historical Society, Publications in Anthropology 9. 1984 Dating Pawnee Sites by the Ceramic Formula Method. World Archaeology

15(3):274-293. Grosser, Roger D. 1973 A Tentative Culture Sequence for the Snyder Site, Kansas. Plains Anthropologist

18(63):228-238. 1977 Late Archaic Subsistence Patterns from the Great Plains: A Systemic Model.

Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Grüger, Johanna 1973 Studies on the Late Quaternary Vegetation History of Northeastern Kansas.

Geological Society of America Bulletin 84: 239-250. Gunnerson, Dolores A. 1974 The Jicarilla Apaches: A Study in Survival. Northern Illinois University Press,

DeKalb. Gunnerson, James H. 1960 An Introduction to Plains Apache Archeology: The Dismal River Aspect.

Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology, Bulletin 173. 1968 Plains Apache Archeology: A Review. Plains Anthropologist 13(41):167-189. 1987 Archaeology of the High Plains. Bureau of Land Management, Colorado, Cultural

Resource Series 19. Gunnerson, James H. and Dolores A. Gunnerson 1971 Apachean Culture: A Study in Unity and Diversity. In, Apachean Culture History

and Ethnology, edited by Keith H. Basso and Morris E. Opler, pp. 7-27. University of Arizona Anthropological Papers 21.

132

Harrison, Sandy P., John E. Kutzbach, Z. Liu, Patrick J. Bartlein, B. Otto-Bliesner, Daniel Muhs, I.C. Prentice, and Robert S. Thompson 2003 Mid-Holocene Climates of the Americas: A Dynamical Response to Changes

Seasonality. Climate Dynamics 20: 663-688. Hattin, Donald E. 1982 Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments of Smoky Hill Chalk Member,

Niobrara Chalk (Upper Cretaceous) of the Type Area, Western Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 225.

Henning, Dale R. 1970 Development and Interrelationships of Oneota Culture in the Lower Missouri River

Valley. Missouri Archaeologist 32 (whole volume). Hofman, Jack L. 1996 Early Hunter-Gatherers of the Central Great Plains: Paleoindian and Mesoindian

(Archaic) Cultures. In, Archeology and Paleoecology of the Central Great Plains, edited by Jack L. Hofman, pp. 41-100. Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 48.

Holder, Preston and Joyce Wike 1949 The Frontier Culture Complex: A Preliminary Report on a Prehistoric Hunter's

Camp in Southwestern Nebraska. American Antiquity 14(4):260-266. Holen, Steven R. 1983 Lower Loup Lithic Procurement Strategy at the Gray Site (25CX1). Unpublished

Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. 1991 Bison Hunting Territories and Lithic Acquisition among the Pawnee: An

Ethnohistoric and Archaeological Study. In, Raw Material Economics among Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers, edited by Anta Montet-White and Steven R. Holen, pp. 399-411. Publications in Anthropology No. 19. University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Holen, Steven R., Mark P. Muniz, and David W. May 2005 The 2004 Excavation at the Lovewell Mammoth Site (14JW306), Lovewell Reservoir, Jewell County, Kansas. Denver Museum of Nature and Science Technical Report 2005-09. Holen, Steven and David W. May 1994 Sites Without Lithics: Mammoth Bone Processing Sites in Late Wisconsinan Loess

in Nebraska. Paper presented at the 27th Canadian Archaeological Association Meeting, Edmonton.

133

Holliday, Vance T. 1995 Stratigraphy and Paleoenvironments of Late Quaternary Valley Fills on the

Southern High Plains. Geological Society of America Memoir 186. Hudak, Gary J., Elizabeth Hobbs, Allyson Brooks, Carol A. Sersland, and Crystal Phillips 2000 A Predictive Model of Precontact Archaeological Site Location for the State of

Minnesota. Minnesota Department of Transportation, St. Paul. Hudson, LuAnn 1982 Changes in Pawnee Lithic Economy in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.

Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa. Hunt, Charles B. 1967 Physiography of the United States. W.H. Freeman, San Francisco. Irwin, Cynthia and H. Irwin 1957 The Archaeology of the Agate Bluff Area, Colorado. Plains Anthropologist 8:15-38. Jantz, Richard L. 1977 Craniometric Relationships of Plains Populations: Historical and Evolutionary

Implications. In, Trends in Middle Missouri Prehistory: A Festschrift Honoring the Contributions of Donald J. Lehmer, edited by W. Raymond Wood, pp. 162-176. Plains Anthropologist Memoir 13.

Jaumann, Peter J. 1991 Evidence for Late Quaternary Boreal Environments in the Arkansas River Valley,

South-Central Kansas: Theoretical Aspects of Paleoecology and Climatic Inferences. Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Johnson, Alfred E. 2001 Plains Woodland. In, Plains, edited by R. J. DeMaillie. Vol 13 of Handbook of

North American Indians, W. C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Johnson, Ann M. and Alfred E. Johnson 1998 The Plains Woodland. In, Archaeology on the Great Plains, edited by W. Raymond

Wood, pp. 201-234. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence. Johnson, William C. 1989 Stratigraphy and Late-Quaternary Landscape Evolution. In, Archaeological

Investigations at the North Cove Site, Harlan County Lake, Harlan County, Nebraska, edited by Mary J. Adair, pp. 22-52. Report submitted to the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Kaw Valley Engineering and Development, Inc., Junction City, Kansas.

134

1993 Surficial Geology and Stratigraphy of Phillips County, Kansas, with Emphasis on the Quaternary Period. Technical Series 1. Kansas Geological Survey, Lawrence.

Johnson, William C. and Alan Arbogast 1993 Geologic Map of Phillips County, Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Map Series

29. Johnson, William C. and Brad Logan 1990 Geoarchaeology of the Kansas River Basin, Central Great Plains. In, Archaeological

Geology of North America, edited by N. P. Lasca and J. Donahue, pp. 267-299. Geological Society of America, Decade of North American Geology, Centennial Special Volume 4:267-299.

Johnson, William C. and Charles W. Martin 1987 Holocene Alluvial-Stratigraphic Studies from Kansas and Adjoining States of the

East-Central Plains. In, Quaternary Environments of Kansas, edited by W.C. Johnson, pp. 109-122. Kansas Geological Survey Guidebook Series 5.

Johnson, William C. and Kyeong Park 1996 Late Wisconsinan and Holocene Environmental History. In, Archeology and

Paleoecology of the Central Great Plains, edited by Jack L. Hofman, pp. 3-28. Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 48.

Johnson, William C. and Karen L. Willey 2000 Isotopic and Rock Magnetic Expression of Environmental Change at the

Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in the Central Great Plains. Quaternary International 67: 89-106.

Judge, W. James and Lynne Sebastian, eds. 1988 Quantifying the Present and Predicting the Past: Theory, Method, and

Application of Archaeological Predictive Modeling. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior. Denver.

Kansas Geological Survey n.d. Generalized Physiographic Map of Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey, University

of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 1991 Geologic Map of Kansas. Compiled by Jorgina A. Ross, et al. Kansas Geological

Survey Map M-23, scale 1:500,000. University of Kansas, Lawrence. Kivett, Marvin F. 1947a Preliminary Appraisal of the Archeological and Paleontological Resources of Kirwin

Reservoir, Phillips County, Kansas. Smithsonian Institution, River Basin Survey, Missouri Basin Project.

135

1947b Preliminary Appraisal of the Archeological and Paleontological Resources of the Harlan County Reservoir, Nebraska. Smithsonian Institution, River Basin Survey, Missouri Basin Project.

1949 Archaeological Investigations in Medicine Creek Reservoir, Nebraska. American

Antiquity 14(4):278-284. 1953 The Woodruff Ossuary, A Prehistoric Burial Site in Phillips County, Kansas.

Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 154, River Basin Surveys Papers No. 3. Washington, D.C.

1959 Logan Creek Complex: Site 25BT3. Ms. on file, Nebraska State Historical Society,

Lincoln. Kivett, Marvin F. and George Metcalf 1997 The Prehistoric People of the Medicine Creek Reservoir, Frontier County, Nebraska:

An Experiment in Mechanized Archaeology (1946-1948). Plains Anthropologist Memoir 30.

Klippel, Walter E. 1969 Mowry Bluff and Nuzum Artifacts: Chipped Stone. In, Two House Sites in the

Central Plains: An Experiment in Archaeology, edited by W. Raymond Wood, pp. 23-33, 73-76. Plains Anthropologist Memoir 6.

Krause, Richard A. 1969 Correlation of Phases in Central Plains Prehistory. In, Two House Sites in the

Central Plains Tradition, edited by W. Raymond Wood, pp. 82-96. Plains Anthropologist Memoir 6.

1970 Aspects of Adaptation among Upper Republican Subsistence Cultivators. In,

Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains, edited by Wakefield Dort, Jr. and J. Knox Jones, Jr., pp. 103-115. University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Küchler, A.William 1972 The Oscillations of the Mixed Prairie in Kansas. Erdkunde 26:120-129. 1974 The Potential Natural Vegetation of Kansas. Ecology 55: 586-604. Kutzbach, John E. 1987 Model Simulation of the Climatic Patterns During the Deglaciation of North

America. In, North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation, edited by W.F. Ruddiman and H.E. Wright, Jr., pp. 425-446.

136

Kutzbach, John E. and P.J. Guetter 1986 The Influence of Changing Orbital Parameters and Surface Boundary Conditions

on Climatic Simulations for the Past 18,000 Years. Journal of Atmospheric Science 43: 1726-1759.

Kvamme, Kenneth L. 1990 The Fundamental Principles and Practice of Predictive Archaeological Modeling.

Mathematics and Information Science in Archaeology: A Flexible Framework, edited by A. Voorrips,. Studies in Modern Archaeology 3:257-295. Holos, Bonn.

1992 A Predictive Site Location Model on the High Plains: An Example with an

Independent Test. Plains Anthropologist 37:19-40 Laird, K.R., Sherilyn C. Fritz, Eric C. Grimm, and Pietra G. Mueller 1996 Century-Scale Paleoclimatic Reconstruction from Moon Lake, a Closed-Basin

Lake in the Northern Great Plains. Limnology and Oceanography 4: 890-902. Landes, Kenneth K., and Raymond P. Keroher 1942 Mineral Resources of Phillips County. Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 41. Lehmer, Donald A. 1954 Archeological Investigations in the Oahe Dam Area, South Dakota, 1950-1951.

Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 158. 1971 Introduction to Middle Missouri Archeology. Anthropological Papers 1, National

Park Service, Washington, D.C. Leonard, Alvin R. 1952 Geology and Ground-Water Resources of the North Fork Solomon River in

Mitchell, Osborne, Smith, and Phillips Counties, Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 98.

Lesser, Alexander 1979 Caddoan Kinship Systems. Nebraska History 60(2):260-271. Lesser, Alexander and Gene Weltfish 1932 Composition of the Caddoan Linguistic Stock. Smithsonian Miscellaneous

Collections 87(6). Washington, D.C. Lippincott, Kerry A. 1976 Settlement Ecology of Solomon River Upper Republican Sites in North Central

Kansas. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia.

137

1978 Solomon River Upper Republican Settlement Ecology. In, The Central Plains Tradition: Internal Development and Relationships, edited by Donald J. Blakeslee, pp. 81-93. Office of the State Archaeologist, The University of Iowa, Report 11.

Lock, Gary, editor 2000 Beyond the Map: Archaeology and Spatial Technologies. NATO Science Series,

Series A: Life Sciences. IOS Press, Amsterdam. Logan, Brad 1989 Lithic Artifacts from the North Cove Site: The Pre-Clovis Problem in the Central

Plains. In, Archaeological Investigations at the North Cove Site, Harlan County Lake, Harlan County, Nebraska, edited by Mary J. Adair, pp. 81-91. Report submitted to the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Kaw Valley Engineering and Development, Inc. Junction City, Kansas.

1993 Archaeological Investigations in Lovewell Reservoir, Jewell County, Kansas-1992.

University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series No. 79. 1995 Phasing in White Rock: Archaeological Investigation of the Warne and White Rock

Sites, Lovewell Reservoir, Jewell County, Kansas, 1994-1995. University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series, 90.

1996a Archaic Period Research. In, The Archaeology of Kansas: A Guide to Future

Research, edited by Brad Logan, pp. 14-54. University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series No 86. Lawrence, Kansas.

1996b The Plains Village Period on the Central Plains. In, Archeology and Paleoecology of

the Central Great Plains, edited by Jack L. Hofman, pp. 123-133. Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 48.

1996c Protohistoric Period Research. In, The Archaeology of Kansas: A Guide to Future

Research, edited by Brad Logan, pp. 164-208. University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series No 86. Lawrence, Kansas.

1996d The Protohistoric Period on the Central Plains. In, Archeology and Paleoecology of

the Central Great Plains, edited by Jack L. Hofman, pp. 134-139. Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 48.

1998a Oneota Far West: The White Rock Phase. The Wisconsin Archeologist 79(2):248-

267. 1998b The Fat of the Land: White Rock Phase Bison Hunting and Grease Production.

Plains Anthropologist 43(166):349-366.

138

2006a Woodland Adaptations in Eastern Kansas. In, Kansas Archaeology, edited by Robert J. Hoard and William E. Banks, pp. 76-92. University Press of Kansas.

2006b Archaeological Investigations at the Johns Creek and Warne Sites, Lovewell

Reservoir, Jewell County, Kansas-2003. Report submitted to the Nebraska-Kansas Area Office, Bureau of Reclamation. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Kansas State University, Manhattan.

Logan, Brad and William E. Banks 1994 White Rock Revised: Archaeological Investigations at the Warne and White Rock

Sites, Jewell County, Kansas, 1993. University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series, No. 85.

Logan, Brad and Margaret E. Beck 1996a Woodland Period Research. In, The Archaeology of Kansas: A Guide to Future

Research, edited by Brad Logan, pp. 55-94. University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series No 86. Lawrence, Kansas.

1996b Plains Village (Late Prehistoric) Period Research. In, The Archaeology of Kansas: A

Guide to Future Research, edited by Brad Logan, pp. 95-163. University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series No. 86.

Logan, Brad and John G. Hedden 1992 Archaeological Survey of Lovewell Reservoir, Jewell County, Kansas, 1991.

University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series, No. 77. Logan, Brad, Richard E. Hughes, and Dale R. Henning 2001a Western Oneota Obsidian: Sources and Implications. Plains Anthropologist

46(175):55-64. Logan, Brad and Georges A. Pearson 2001 Archaeological Survey of Webster Reservoir, Rooks County, Kansas-1999. University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series No. 103. Logan, Brad, Daniel C. Pugh, and Scott V. Bossell 2001b Archaeological Survey of Norton Reservoir, Norton County, Kansas-1998.

University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series, No. 102. Logan, Brad and Lauren W. Ritterbush 1994 Late Prehistoric Cultural Dynamics in the Lower Kansas River Basin. Central

Plains Archaeology 4:1-26.

139

Mandel, Rolfe D. 1987 The Environment of Kansas. In, Kansas Prehistoric Archaeological Preservation

Plan, edited by Kenneth L. Brown and Alan H. Simmons. Office of Archaeological Research, Museum of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.

1992 Soils and Holocene Landscape Evolution in Central and Southwestern Kansas:

Implications for Archaeological Research. In, Soils in Archaeology: Landscape Evolution and Human Occupation, edited by V.T. Holliday, pp. 41-100. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

1994 Holocene Landscape Evolution in the Pawnee River Valley, Southwestern

Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 236, Lawrence. 2002 Geomorphology of the North Shore of Lovewell Reservoir, North-Central

Kansas: Implication for Archaeological and Paleontological Research. Nebraska Archaeological Survey Technical Report 2002-01. University of Nebraska State Museum, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Marshall, James O. 1969 The Glen Elder Focus: The Cultural Affiliations of Archeological Material from the

Glen Elder Site, 14ML1. Report submitted to the National Park Service, Midwest Region, U.S. Department of the Interior. Department of Anthropology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Martin, Charles W. 1992 The Response of Fluvial Systems to Climate Change: An Example from the

Central Great Plains. Physical Geography 13: 101-114. Martin, Charles W. and William C. Johnson 1995 Variation in Radiocarbon Ages of Soil Organic Matter Fractions from Late

Quaternary Buried Soils. Quaternary Research 43: 232-237. Mason, Joseph A., Peter M. Jacobs, Paul R. Hanson, Xiaodong Miao, and Ronald J. Goble 2003 Sources and Paleoclimatic Significance of Holocene Bignell Loess, Central Great

Plains, USA. Quaternary Research 60: 330-339. May, David W. 1989 Holocene Alluvial Fills in the South Loup Valley, Nebraska. Quaternary

Research 32: 117-120. 1991 Holocene Fluvial Landforms and Alluvial Stratigraphy in the Solomon River

Valleys, Lake Waconda, Kansas. Report submitted to the Nebraska-Kansas Area Office, Bureau of Reclamation. Department of Anthropology, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas.

140

1992 Late-Holocene Valley-Bottom Aggradation and Erosion in the South Loup River Valley, Nebraska. Physical Geography 13: 115-132.

2003 Properties of a 5500-Year-Old Flood-Plain in the Loup River Basin, Nebraska.

Geomorphology 56: 243-254. McDonald, Jerry N. 1981 The North American Bison: Their Classification and Evolution. University of California Press.

McLean, Janice A. 1998 Lithic Raw Material Use at the DB Site. In, Prehistoric Settlement of the Lower

Missouri Uplands: The View from DB Ridge, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, edited by Brad Logan, pp. 167-197. University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series 98. Lawrence, Kansas.

McCoy, Patricia and Karl G. Lorenz 1982 Class III Cultural Resource Survey of Proposed Recreational Development at

Waconda Lake, Kansas; Keith Sebelius Lake, Kansas; Harry Strunk Lake, Nebraska; Swanson Lake, Nebraska, and; Hugh Butler Lake, Nebraska. Report submitted to the Nebraska-Kansas Area Office, Great Plains Region, Bureau of Reclamation. Grand Island, Nebraska.

Meltzer, David J., Donald K. Grayson, Gerardo Ardila, Alex W. Barker, Dena F. Dincauze, C. Vance Haynes, Francisco Mena, Lautaro Nunez, and Dennis J. Stanford 1997 On the Pleistocene Antiquity of Monte Verde, Southern Chile. American Antiquity

62(4):659-663. Mick, Linda 1983 An Ecological Evaluation of Faunal Diversity in the Central Plains Tradition.

Unpublished MA thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Muhs, Daniel R., Thomas W. Stafford, Jr., Scott D. Cowherd, Shannon A. Mahan, Rolf Kihl, Paula B. Maat, Charles A. Bush, and Jennifer Nehring 1996 Origin of the Late Quaternary Dune Fields of Northeastern Colorado.

Geomorphology 17: 129-149. Neuman, Robert W. 1963 Archeological Salvage Investigations in the Lovewell Reservoir Area, Kansas.

Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 185, River Basin Surveys Papers No. 32.

Nordt, Lee C., Thomas W. Boutton, John S. Jacobs and Rolfe D. Mandel 2002 C4 plant Productivity and Climate-CO2 Variations in South-Central Texas During

the Late Quaternary. Quaternary Research 58: 182-188.

141

O'Brien, Patricia J. 1984 The Tim Adrian Site (14NT604): A Hell Gap Quarry Site in Norton County,

Kansas. Plains Anthropologist 29(103):41-56. Ode, David J., Larry L. Tieszen and Juan C. Lerman 1980 The Seasonal Contribution of C3 and C4 Plant Species Primary Production in a

Mixed Prairie. Ecology 61: 1304-1311. O'Leary, Marion H.

1981 Carbon Isotope Fractionation in Plants. Phytochemistry 20: 553-567. 1988 Carbon Isotopes in Photosynthesis. Bioscience 38: 328-336. O'Shea, John M. 1984 Mortuary Variability: An Archaeological Investigation. Academic Press, New

York. 1989 Pawnee Archaeology. Central Plains Archaeology 1(1):49-107. Palmer, Allison R. 1983 The Decade of North American Geology: 1983 Geologic Time Scale. Geology

11: 503-504. Palmer, Cecil D. 1982 Soil Survey of Rooks County, Kansas. Soil Conservation Service, United States

Department of Agriculture. Palmer, Cecil D. and Vernon L. Hamilton 1987 Soil Survey of Phillips County, Kansas. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil

Conservation Service, Washington. Parks, Douglas R. 1979 The Northern Caddoan Languages: Their Subgrouping and Time Depth. Nebraska

History 60(2):197-213. Peterson, John and Danial Watson 1993 Dating the Skidi: Ceramic Seriation and Euro-american Trade Goods from

25HW16. Paper presented at the 15th Flint Hills Archaeological Conference, Wichita, Kansas.

Pilgram, Tom 1987 Predicting Archaeological Sites from Environmental Variables: A Mathematical

Model for the Sierra Nevada Foothills, California. BAR International Series 320. Oxford.

142

Reed, Eugene C. and Vincent H. Dreeszen 1965 Revision of the Classification of the Pleistocene Deposits of Nebraska. Bulletin

23. Nebraska Geological Survey, Lincoln. Reineck, Hans-Erich and Indra B. Singh 1975 Depositional Sedimentary Environments. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. Reher, Charles A. 1973 A Survey of Ceramic Sites in Southeastern Wyoming. The Wyoming Archaeologist

16(1&2). Reynolds, John D. 1978 Archeological Resources of the Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge, Phillips County,

Kansas. Order No. 63530-0072. Report on file, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas.

Ritterbush, Lauren W. 2006 Late Prehistoric Oneota in the Central Plains. In, Kansas Archaeology, edited by Robert J. Hoard and William E. Banks, pp. 151-164. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence. Ritterbush, Lauren W. and Brad Logan 1991 The Schultz Archaeological Project, Phase I: A Survey of Selected Prehistoric Sites

in North-Central Kansas. University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series 73.

2000 Late Prehistoric Oneota Population Movement into the Central Plains. Plains

Anthropologist 45(173):257-272. Roberts, Helen M., Daniel R. Muhs, Ann G. Wintle, G.A.T. Duller and E. Arthur Bettis, III 2003 Unprecedented Last-Glacial Mass Accumulation Rates Determined by

Luminescence Dating of Loess from Western Nebraska. Quaternary Research 59: 411-419.

Roper, Donna C. 1988 A Site Catchment Analysis of a Single Upper Republican House, Medicine Creek,

Kansas. Paper presented, 10th Flint Hills Archaeological Conference, Topeka, Kansas. 1989 Protohistoric Pawnee Hunting in the Nebraska Sand Hills: Archeological

Investigations at Two Sites in the Calamus Reservoir. Report submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Great Plains Region. Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group, Jackson, Michigan.

143

1990 Artifact Assemblage Composition and the Hunting Camp Interpretation of High Plains Upper Republican Sites. Southwestern Lore 56(4):1-19.

1991 Archaeological Testing of Four Sites, Harry Strunk Lake, Frontier County,

Nebraska. Report submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Great Plains Region, Grand Island, Nebraska. Commonwealth Resources Group, Jackson, Michigan.

1993 Historical Processes and the Development of Social Identity. Ms. on file,

Repatriation Office, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. 1994 The Material Culture of 25DS21: A Lower Loup Hunting Camp in the Platte River

Valley. Central Plains Prehistory 4:55-95. 2006 The Central Plains Tradition. In, Kansas Archaeology, edited by Robert J. Hoard

and William E. Banks, pp. 105-132. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence. Rusco, Mary K. 1960 The White Rock Aspect. Note Book No. 4, Laboratory of Anthropology. University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Schmits, Larry J. 1978 The Coffey Site: Environment and Cultural Adaptation at a Prairie-Plains Archaic Site. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 3:69-185. Schoewe, Walter H. 1949 The Geography of Kansas, Part II. Physical Geography. Transactions of the Kansas

Academy of Science 52(3):261-333. Schultz, C. Bertrand and T. Milan Stout 1945 Pleistocene Loess Deposits of Nebraska. American Journal of Science 243: 231-

244. Scott, Susan L. 1993 Faunal Remains. In, Archaeological Investigations at the Marvin Colson Site,

25FT158, Frontier County, Nebraska, by Donna C. Roper. Report submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Great Plains Region.

Sigstad, J. S. 1969 Mowry Bluff and Nuzum Artifacts: Pottery. In, Two House Sites in the Central

Plains, edited by W. Raymond Wood, pp. 17-23, 69-73. Plains Anthropologist Memoir 6.

144

Smith, Bruce N. and Samuel Epstein 1971 Two Categories of 13C/12C Ratios for Higher Plants. Plant Physiology 47: 380-

384. Solecki, Ralph 1952 Appraisal of the Archeological Resources of the Kirwin Reservoir, Phillips County,

Kansas, Supplement. Smithsonian Institution, River Basin Survey, Missouri Basin Project. Report on file, Museum of Anthropology, University of Kansas.

Sridhar, Venkataramana, David B. Loope, James B. Swinehart, Joseph A. Mason, Robert J. Oglesby, and Clinton M. Rowe 2006 Large Wind Shift on the Great Plains during the Warm Period. Science 313:345- 347. Stanford, Dennis J. 1974 Preliminary Report of the Excavation of the Jones-Miller Hell Gap Site, Yuma

County, Colorado. Southwestern Lore 40(3-4):29-36. 1975 The 1975 Excavations at the Jones-Miller Site, Yuma County, Colorado.

Southwestern Lore 41:34-43. 1978 The Jones-Miller Site: An Example of Hell Gap Bison Procurement Strategy. In,

Bison Procurement and Utilization: A Symposium, edited by Leslie B. Davis and Michael Wilson, pp. 90-97. Plains Anthropologist Memoir 14.

Stein, Martin 2005 Sources of Smoky Hill Silicified Chalk in Northwest Kansas. Anthropological

Series 17, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Steinacher, Terry L., John Ludwickson, Gayle Carlson and Rob Bozell 1991 An Evaluation of the Central Plains Tradition-Pawnee Ancestry. Paper presented at

the 49th Plains Anthropological Conference, Lawrence, Kansas. Stewart, J. D. 1989 Paleontology and Paleoecology of the 1987 Excavation of the North Cove Site,

25HN164. In, Archaeological Investigations at the North Cove Site, Harlan County Lake, Harlan County, Nebraska, edited by Mary J. Adair, pp. 63-80. Report submitted to the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Kaw Valley Engineering and Development, Inc., Junction City, Kansas.

Stokes, Stephen and James B. Swinehart 1997 Middle and Late Holocene Dune Reactivation in the Nebraska Sand Hills: Rapid

Aeolian Responses to Short-Term Climatic Fluctuations. The Holocene 7: 263-272.

145

Strahler, Alan and Arthur Strahler 2006 Introducing Physical Geography. 4th ed. John Wiley and Sons, New York. Strong, William D. 1933 The Plains Culture Area in the Light of Archaeology. American Anthropologist

35:271-287. 1935 An Introduction to Nebraska Archeology. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections

93(10). Washington, D.C. Tobin, Robert J. 2004 Taphonomy of Ground Squirrel Remains in a Late Pleistocene Ichnofabric,

Nebraska, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology 214: 125-134.

Ubelaker, Douglas H. and Richard L. Jantz 1979 Plains Caddoan Relationships: The View from Craniometry and Mortuary Analysis.

Nebraska History 60(2):249-259. Verhagen, Philip 2000 Session 4 discussion: Archaeology, GIS and Cultural Resource Management. In,

Beyond the Map: Archaeology and Spatial Technologies, edited by G. Lock, pp. 229-235. Amsterdam, IOS Press, Amsterdam.

Wang, Yang, Ronald Amundson, and Susan Trumbore 1996 Radiocarbon Dating of Soil Organic Matter. Quaternary Research 45: 282-288. Watson, Danial R. and Steven R. Holen 1994 Dating the Skidi, Part II: Further Thoughts on Euroamerican Trade Goods at Site

25HW16. Paper presented at the 16th Annual Flint Hills Archaeological Conference, Topeka, Kansas.

Weaver, John E. 1943 North American Prairie. The American Scholar 13:329-339. Wedel, Waldo R. 1933 Preliminary Notes on the Archaeology of Medicine Valley in Southwestern

Nebraska. Nebraska History Magazine 14(3):144-166. 1934 Contributions to the Archaeology of the Upper Republican Valley, Nebraska.

Nebraska History Magazine 15(3):132-209. 1936 An Introduction to Pawnee Archeology. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of

American Ethnology, Bulletin 112. Washington, D.C.

146

1938 The Direct-Historical Approach in Pawnee Archeology. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 97(7):1-21. Washington, D.C. 1940 Cultural Sequence in the Central Great Plains. Smithsonian Miscellaneous

Collections 100:291-352. Washington, D.C. 1959 An Introduction to Kansas Archaeology. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of

American Ethnology Bulletin 174. Washington, D.C. 1970 Some Observations on "Two House Sites in the Central Plains: An Experiment in

Archaeology". Nebraska History 51(2):225-252. 1986 Central Plains Prehistory: Holocene Environments and Culture Change in the

Republican River Basin. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln. Wedel, Waldo R. and Marvin F. Kivett 1956 Additional Data on the Woodruff Ossuary, Kansas. American Antiquity 21(4):414-

416. Wells, Philip V., and J. D. Stewart 1987 Cordilleran-Boreal Taiga and Fauna on the Central Great Plains of North

America, 14,000-18,000 Years Ago. American Midland Naturalist 118: 94-106. Westcott, Konnie L. and R. J. Brandon, eds. 2000 Practical Applications of GIS for Archaeologists: A Predictive Modeling Kit.

Taylor and Francis. London. Wheatley, David and Mark Gillings 2002 Spatial Technology and Archaeology: The Archaeological Applications of GIS.

Taylor and Francis. London. Whitlock, Cathy, Patrick J. Bartlein, and William A. Watts 1993 Vegetation History of Elk Lake. In, Elk Lake, Minnesota: Evidence for Rapid

Climate Change in the North-Central United States, edited by J.P. Bradbury and W.E. Dean, pp. 251-274. Geological Society of America Special Paper 276.

Winfrey, Jim 1989 Class III Cultural Resource Survey for a Beach Enhancement Project at Norton

Reservoir, Norton County, Kansas. Report submitted to the Nebraska-Kansas Area Office, Great Plains Region, Bureau of Reclamation. Grand Island, Nebraska.

147

Wininger, Derek C. and Brad Logan 1995 Ceramic Assemblage. In, Phasing in White Rock: Archaeological Investigation of

the Warne and White Rock Sites, Lovewell Reservoir, Jewell County, Kansas, 1994- 1995, by Brad Logan, pp. 56-64. University of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology, Project Report Series, 90.

Witty, Thomas A., Jr. 1966 The West Island Site, 14PH10: A Keith Focus Plains Woodland Site in Kirwin

Reservoir, Phillips County, Kansas. Plains Anthropologist 11(32):127-135. 1974 Project No. 69-7017(5), Norton County, Prairie Dog State Park. Report submitted to

the Kansas State Highway Commission. Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas.

Wood, W. Raymond 1971 Pottery Sites near Limon, Colorado. Southwestern Lore 37(3):53-85. 1990 A Query on Upper Republican Archaeology in Colorado. Southwestern Lore 56(3):3-7.

Wood, W. Raymond (editor) 1969 Two House Sites in the Central Plains: An Experiment in Archaeology. Plains

Anthropologist Memoir 6. Zeidler, James A. (editor) 2001 Dynamic Modeling of Landscape Evolution and Archaeological Site Distributions: a Three-Dimensional Approach. Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands. Fort Collins, Colorado.

148

149

Appendix 1 Summary of GIS Data

Data listed below form the GIS database created and used for the KNWR archaeological

survey project. Included are the two modified DEMs used in hydrologic modeling. Projection: UTM Zone 14 Datum: North American Datum 1927 (NAD27); *some exceptions, usually NAD83 Extent: Same as kwclip.shp; *some data are clipped to the extent of Phillips County.

KNWR Spatial Data Source Type

File Name

Administrative US Wildlife and Parks KNWR Boundary

knwr_boundary.shp

US Census Road Network roads (coverage)

Kansas Geological Survey PLSS (Township / Range)

plss (coverage)

US Census Railroad Network kwrr (coverage)

Environmental USGS Digital Elevation Models (DEM) 1:24,000 scale

kwdem_usgs (grid)

Modified Pre-Dam DEM kwdem_pre (grid) Modified Post-Dam DEM kwdem_post (grid) USGS Topographic Map 1:24,000 scale pl_drg_u1483.tif NRCS SSURGO (soils) 1:24,000 scale soils (coverage) USGS Surficial Geology: 1:24,000 scale pl_geology; pl_contacts; pl_beds

DASC Surface Hydrology: 1:100,000 scale

hydrology (coverage)

DASC Aerial Photographs October 1991 kwdoqq.img KARS Aerial Photographs March 1986 air86mosaic.img NARA Aerial Photographs July 1949 knwr_1949.img

KARS Landsat TM Satellite Image (8/16/94)

kwsat.img

KARS Landsat TM Satellite Image (9/15/02)

pl_091502mult.tif (geotiff)

Imagery-Derived Water Levels water1986.shp ; water1991.shp ; water1994.shp

KARS Landcover (GAP project) kw_gap (grid); kwgap_table.dbf

Field Collected High Resolution Surficial Geology

kwgeology.shp

Field Collected

Sample Locations (cores and exposures)

kirwin_sites.shp

Archaeological KSHS

KSHS official site registry (known recorded sites) (Requires KSHS permission)

kshs_knwr.shp

Field Collected

Field survey for previously unknown sites

kirwin_sites.shp

150

151

Appendix 2 3D Visualizations

This summarizes the visual dynamics of the two 3D visualizations (kFlyby_5mbs.wmv

and kWater_5mbs.wmv). In both visualizations the water level within Kirwin Reservoir is animated; water levels were selected from known water levels and reflect the full extent of recorded water levels. In kFlyby, water levels begin at the active conservation pool elevation of 1730ft, lower to the historic low of 1695ft (time = 15s), raise to the historic high of 1737ft (time = 30s) and then recede back to 1730ft at the end; in this visualization the camera begins in the southwest corner of the study area (view looking northeast) and moves around the reservoir in a counter-clockwise rotation. As water levels are determined by a smooth interpolation between the four data values described above, it is not possible to accurately determine the water level at any time in the animation other than those four times. Total animation time is 40 seconds.

In contrast, kWater uses a static camera position, but animates the water levels within the reservoir using the highest recorded water level for each year. The figure below graphically illustrates the data used to animate the water level and the table below displays the data in a tabular form and the timing of the animation. Water level data begins with dam completion in 1956 and continues to 2005. In kWater, the reservoir is ‘filled’ during the first 5 seconds (reaching the high water mark for 1957 at time equal 5 seconds), each subsequent second of the animation represents the data for one year, until 2003-2005 where each year is two seconds long. Using the table below it is possible to relate the timing of the animation with the water level data used to build it. Total animation time is 60 seconds.

Kirwin Reservoir (1956-2005)Maximum and Minimum Lake Elevations

1690

1695

1700

1705

1710

1715

1720

1725

1730

1735

1740

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Water Years

Elev

atio

n (ft

)

Maximum Elevation Minimum Elevation

Figure A.2.1 Annual high and low water levels for Kirwin Reservoir, see Figure 6.1 for larger version.

152

Table A.2.1. Water level data used to create the kWater animation and the times within the animation that each water level appears.

Visual Nature Studio rendering software was used to create the visualizations (www.3dnature.com); all data used in the visualizations are found in the GIS Database. The animations were exported in a Windows Media Audio/Video (.wmv) format and can be played in Windows Media Player.

Year Max Seconds Year Max Seconds

1956 1697.60 0 1981 1697.33 291957 1727.30 5 1982 1701.95 301958 1728.02 6 1983 1705.46 311959 1727.80 7 1984 1706.10 321960 1730.56 8 1985 1705.31 331961 1729.31 9 1986 1711.49 341962 1728.99 10 1987 1714.47 351963 1728.63 11 1988 1714.16 361964 1726.95 12 1989 1706.04 371965 1725.87 13 1990 1701.22 381966 1726.35 14 1991 1697.84 391967 1726.20 15 1992 1704.37 401968 1727.39 16 1993 1733.62 411969 1730.86 17 1994 1732.67 431970 1729.63 18 1995 1737.07 441971 1725.65 19 1996 1731.48 451972 1719.36 20 1997 1731.32 461973 1717.81 21 1998 1730.66 471974 1718.18 22 1999 1730.68 481975 1722.35 23 2000 1730.55 491976 1719.80 24 2001 1730.40 501977 1711.43 25 2002 1722.54 511978 1706.70 26 2003 1715.55 521979 1708.27 27 2004 1708.66 541980 1706.94 28 2005 1704.67 56