Stranger Creek drains 550 square miles of Leavenworth, Jefferson, and Atchison Counties, Kansas. This area was home to ancestral Native Americans during what archaeologists refer to as the Archaic, Woodland (Kansas City Hopewell), and Late Prehistoric (Steed-Kisker phase and Pomona variant) periods between roughly 10,000 and 700 years ago. This has been determined through many decades of archaeological survey, excavation, and careful study. Much of this was led by Dr. Brad Logan who started his research in Stranger Creek valley as a graduate student at the University of Kansas (KU) in the 1980s. By 2003, he and KU students had identified and recorded over 160 archaeological sites in the valley. Each of these specific locations provides archaeological evidence of the lives of early Native families and communities (that is, how they built their homes, gathered wild foods, farmed, and collected other resources for their daily living). Many more archaeological sites remain hidden, having been buried, or lost through erosion, undocumented artifact collecting by non-professionals, and urban expansion.
After coming to K-State as Research Associate Professor, Dr. Logan returned to Stranger Creek based on information provided by a local resident. This led him to several clusters of archaeological sites. The first is the Evans locality, where flooding made investigations critical before irreplaceable archaeological evidence was washed away. K-State students participated in a volunteer salvage excavation there in 2001. They continued investigations of adjacent sites as part of the summer 2003 and 2004 Kansas Archaeological Field Schools (KAFS). Three veterans of the latter field school and participants of the 2006 KAFS extended archaeological survey up the valley of Little Stranger Creek, a tributary of Stranger Creek, and conducted excavations at the New-McGraw site. Finally, in 2008 Dr. Logan trained students in archaeological field methods at yet two other sites in the valley referred to here as the Kramer sites.
The Scott site is named after the local informant who discovered and brought to Dr. Logan's attention remains of an ancient Steed-Kisker structure in June 2001. Flooding along Stranger Creek had exposed artifacts and remnants of burned wooden beams of an ancient house that had previously laid buried under a modern farm field.
In July and October Dr. Logan assembled a volunteer crew to excavate what remained before the next year's agricultural activities would destroy the site. Several K-State students assisted with this excavation, which revealed the most complete Steed-Kisker structure known in Kansas. This added information to what Dr. O'Brien and others had learned about the Steed-Kisker archaeological culture based on investigations in nearby present-day Missouri. Radiocarbon dating revealed that an ancestral Native American family lived here sometime around 1250-1300 CE.
Students enrolled in the 2003 KAFS revisited the site to complete an intensive ground survey looking for any artifacts that become exposed in the surrounding area since the excavation. The location of each was mapped before being collected for further study. The students also spent five days conducting small-scale test excavations in the area to search for additional buried remains.
When not applying their newly learned skills in the field, the students lived and studied at the Tonganoxie Historic Site. This was thanks to the generosity of the Tonganoxie Community Historical Society. The male students slept in the barn while the women made their home in the basement of the Reno Methodist Church building, which had been moved to this historic site. A former K-State archaeology student served as a cook for the student crew and often joined them in the field during the day.
Study of the archaeological remains of the Scott site was completed by Dr. Logan with the assistance of K-State students.
One of those, Sarah Trabert, was introduced to the ceramic (pottery) artifacts from the Scott site during an Archaeological Laboratory Methods course taught by Dr. Lauren Ritterbush. She went on to complete analysis of the ceramic artifacts as part of a McNair Scholars Program at K-State under Dr. Logan's mentorship. Sarah presented her research at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Plains Anthropological Society (PAS) in 2007 and won the undergraduate student award for that research. She continued her studies in archaeology at the University of Iowa, following which Dr. Trabert became professor of archaeology at the University of Oklahoma.
Students in the 2003 KAFS gained additional training in field archaeology at the nearby Evans site (named after the landowners). The primary objective of the work they contributed to was to identify the site's research value and determine if it was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
Among the many skills learned by students in the field school was how to use a total station and electronic distance measuring device. This modern tool is used to map the shape of the land's surface and precise location of each find within the site. A total station measures distance and horizontal and vertical angles from a datum (or fixed starting point) through the reflection of a laser beam off a prism held at the exact location of a find. This allows for very accurate mapping of discoveries.
The students excavated six test units to define the extent of the scatter of archaeological remains not just on the surface, but below it. They utilized techniques like dry-screening and flotation to find small artifacts and preserved plant remains that may not have been visible to the naked eye during excavation.
Students also learned how to extract sediment samples from the walls of their excavation units and soil cores with a truck-mounted Giddings machine. These were analyzed by the team's geomorphologist to provide leads to what may lie below the surface of the site and environmental factors that may have influenced human decisions to live in this area at different times in the past.
In a steep, eroding cutbank, the students found a pile of debitage or debris produced in the making of stone tools. They covered this with a plaster cast to hold the objects in place, then moved that to the lab for micro-excavation. This method helped students precisely record the location of each stone flake relative to one another. As a result, future archaeologists will be able to interpret how stone tools were made at this location.
While erosion led to the discovery of the Scott and Evans sites, it also damaged part of these and other sites in Stranger Creek valley. Luckily in these cases, the erosion had not removed all of the site matrix (geological layers in which the archaeological remains were buried). This means that the relationship between artifacts and features accurately reflects the activities of the people who made and used these objects. Because of this, the Evans and the adjacent Scott site, where the remnants of a Steed-Kisker lodge were excavated, were nominated to and approved for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
The Caenen site is also located in the Evan locality not far from the previous two sites. It was first discovered, surveyed, and tested during the 2003 KAFS with broader excavations conducted by the next class of students-in-training a year later. These were designed to provide hands-on training for students, but also to determine if archaeological deposits remained undisturbed below the ground's surface.
To start the Caenen site investigation Dr. Logan invited Dr. Steven Gao from K-State’s Geology Department and his graduate students to conduct a near-surface remote sensing survey. This investigation utilized three different geophysical techniques to detect and map possible disturbances caused by previous human use of the area, but since buried. Their team used electrical conductivity, proton magnetometry, and ground penetrating radar. Although their investigations did not reveal any major buried features, this activity provided K-State geology graduate students with experience in the application of geophysical survey in archaeological research.
The archaeological field school students followed to learn other techniques for exploring the Caenen site. Led by Dr. Logan and assisted by undergraduate anthropology major Trever Murawski, who had participated in the previous KAFS, the 2004 students excavated a set or block of 30 adjacent 1-meter square units. First, the upper 20-30cm (plowzone) of each square was dug carefully by skimming away one thin layer of soil after another. The students always watched for changes in soil color and texture as they exposed a smooth, flat surface. They then excavated in smaller increments with a sharpened mason's trowel, again looking for evidence of how earlier people had disturbed the earth (for example, by putting wooden posts or digging a fire pit into the ground). The excavated dirt was washed through fine-mesh screens to find small artifacts that may not have been seen during excavation.
Among the artifacts recovered were small flakes of stone made during the later stages of stone tool production and potsherds. The latter were from broken ceramic vessels that were of a different style than those recovered from the Scott site. They also found daub or hardened remnants of clay mixed with grasses and other plant fibers that was used like a plaster for house walls. The distribution of the daub indicated that a large oval house built with wattle (stakes interwoven with flexible branches) and daub once stood here. It was likely built between about AD 1433 to 1495. Archaeologists classify the remains found here as part of the Pomona variant. These represent the remnants of a culture in what is now eastern Kansas. Pomona folk were fairly mobile and built less substantial houses than that at the earlier Scott site. They depended on hunting and gathering wild foods supplemented by farming.
The Paul site was originally identified after flooding of Stranger Creek in 1982. Very few artifacts were found on the surface over the years, but a survey by the 2003 KAFS students revealed stone artifacts eroding out of a nearby eroded wash. This suggested that people may have lived at this location at different times in the past. The 2004 KAFS students revisited the site and surveyed the wash and adjacent field. They mapped the precise location of each discovered artifact relative to the topographic setting of the site.
After a long day of learning in the field, the students retreated to the Camp of Mount Herman. The local Church of the Brethren graciously hosted the 2004 KAFS students there providing them with temporary housing in communal cabins and a place to wash and sort their daily finds.
Among the discoveries they made were sherds of Pomona pottery and other artifacts. These were found in the field where they were exposed on the surface or turned up by the plow. They suggest that those who lived at the adjacent Caenen site may have also used this area for some of their daily activities.
The artifacts found eroding out of the wash were buried more deeply suggesting they may reflect much earlier use of this location. One stone projectile point or knife found is of a style that was used during the Late Archaic period perhaps as many as 4000-2000 years ago. Study of the data recovered by the 2004 KAFS students shows that there is still much to be learned from this site. This qualified it for inclusion on the NRHP along with the Caenen site, which holds similar archaeological remains.
Due to rapid expansion in Leavenworth and Tonganoxie, the KAFS returned to the Stranger Creek valley for additional archaeological surveys and site evaluation. Intensive fieldwork took place around Little Stranger Creek, a tributary steam that joins Stranger Creek near the Evans locality, in 2005 and 2006. Dr. Logan and former KAFS students Dan Keating, Toby Blake, and Jesse Montgomery conduct much of the survey. This experience allowed them to expand their professional experience in archaeological survey. The project identified and surveyed ten sites. This type of work comes with several challenges, including securing landowner permissions and dealing with variable ground visibility. For some of the area covered in this project, it was the first time landowners granted access to the land. This enabled the professional exploration of Little Stranger Creek valley that guided future research.
After a contract farmer reported the discovery of this site in June 2005, Dr. Logan led a brief survey of the area as part of the Little Stranger Creek Survey Project. Excavations were completed by the 2006 KAFS. Former KAFS student Dan Keating served as an assistant in 2006. He helped instruct students in archaeological techniques and with the logistics of working and living in the field. The entire crew made their home at Muncie Elementary School in Leavenworth. In addition to providing housing, the school served as their lab for processing their finds and as a classroom for lectures by Dr. Logan and visiting archaeologists.
In the field, the sixteen enrolled students identified and mapped the location of artifacts found on the surface and excavated an area of 21 square meters. As with all the KAFS projects during the 2000s, Dr. William Johnson from the Geography Department at the University of Kansas provided instruction in the basics of soil identification and what this can reveal about the local environment when ancestral Native Americans lived there. He demonstrated how to use a truck-mounted Giddings coring machine and how to interpret changes in the subsurface sediments extracted with the core. Artifacts found on the surface and during excavation indicated a Plains Woodland component that was occupied for a short time, likely as a camp. There is evidence of food production and the use of hearths (fireplaces) for cooking.
After the summer field school, the artifacts and numerous records (field notes, field forms, maps) and photographs were taken to the K-State Archaeology Lab in Manhattan. There, archaeology students Eric Skov, Mitchell Frye, and Brian Sutton assisted Dr. Logan with analysis of these data. Although additional information about the culture history of the area was interpreted, the researchers found that the context (or original location and association) of the artifacts was too damaged from erosion and modern cultivation that it did not hold sufficient undisturbed remains to provide new insight into past human use of this region. Thus, this site was not found eligible for the NRHP.
The Kansas Archaeological Field School - 2006
Nine Mile Creek is a tributary of Stranger Creek. Its valley was also a popular place for living by ancestral Native Americans. In Spring 2008, Dr. Logan taught an applied archaeology course that included archaeological survey in part of this valley. The nine students in the course revisited eight known and identified five previously unrecorded sites.
For the 2008 KAFS, Dr. Logan was drawn to two sites in this area. The owners of the land on which these sites were located had a extensive collection of ancient stone tools and pottery that they shared with Dr. Logan. This collection held evidence of human occupation of that part of Nine Mile Creek valley over many millennia. With the consent of the landowners, the KAFS students were able to learn archaeological survey and excavation techniques through investigation of what remained of these sites. The local Quaker community was also helpful in allowing the KAFS crew to make their summer home in the Stanwood Church near Tonganoxie.
Various artifacts, including chipped stone projectile points or knives and a ground stone ax, were found by the students during surface surveys. Test excavations, however, did not uncover sufficient undisturbed archaeological evidence to justify nomination to the NRHP. Despite the few discoveries, the project provided quality instruction in a variety of essential archaeological field methods and taught the students a valuable lesson in archaeology, that not every excavation results in new discoveries.
Student training related to this project continued in the KSU archaeology lab back in Manhattan some years later. Students enrolled in the Fall 2016 Archaeological Laboratory Methods class were able to gain experience in analysis of ancestral Native American artifacts using the collection held by the landowners that original drew Dr. Logan to the Kramer sites.
The students learned how to describe, document, identify, and estimate the age of the diagnostic artifacts in this collection. Their analyses provided insight into the technology and uses of different tools made by people who called this area home over the millennia. The artifacts were made at different times over more than 9000 years. This information was integrated into the exhibits of the Tonganoxie Community Historical Society Museum to which the landowners had donated their collection.
K-State Archaeology Through the Decades: 2000s
