The earliest professional archaeological investigations in the Manhattan area were conducted by staff of the Smithsonian Institution in 1937. Sixteen years later, archaeologists with the Missouri Basin Project returned to learn more about the past peoples of this region through salvaging archaeological remains threatened by construction of Tuttle Creek Dam and Reservoir.
This project was part of the River Basin Surveys (RBS) overseen by the Smithsonian Institution in collaboration with the National Park Service. The RBS developed in response to the construction of numerous dams and reservoirs along major rivers in the Plains-Midwest region following World War II. The need for Tuttle Creek Dam on the Blue River outside of Manhattan was accentuated by the devastating flood of 1951.
As construction of Tuttle Creek Dam began in 1952, RBS teams were sent to salvage archaeological remains from threatened sites. K-State professor, Dr. Linwood L. Hodgdon assisted the RBS crew in 1953. When they had to move to another project, work remained to be done at one of the targeted archaeological sites. Dr. Hodgdon collaborated with Dr. John Champe of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to finish the excavation in the fall of 1953. Aided by student volunteers from UNL they were able to complete their work - even with a short break one weekend to attend the Wildcat-Cornhusker football game in Manhattan!
This multi-institutional team uncovered the remnants of the floor of a house that was occupied by ancestral Native Americans between 700 to 900 years ago or ca. 1100-1300 CE. Evidence of this ancient structure included circular discolorations in the soil that marked the previous location where posts had been set in the ground. These created a wooden superstructure over which vegetation was placed, then plastered with clay or dirt. The house was roughly circular and more than 20 feet in diameter.
Making a plaster cast of an artifact, 1953
A basin-shaped pit was used as a fireplace near the center of the lodge. A sharpened wooden post had been inserted into the ground nearby and may have served as a mortar for pounding corn, seeds, or nuts. Elsewhere in the lodge floor was evidence of a former pit once used as a kind of cellar for storing food or tools. Remnants of the latter were found associated with the house. These include broken pieces of pottery and tools shaped from stone. Sharp-edged implements, such as knives, arrow points, scrapers, and drills, were formed by chipping the hard flint stone into the desired shape. Other kinds of rock were used as grinding stones, abraders to smooth wooden arrow shafts or sharpen bone awls (needles), and pigment grinders. Although poorly preserved, remnants of a corn cob, bean, and deer and bison bones were reported from the excavation.
The cooperative efforts of staff of the Smithsonian Institution, University of Nebraska, and Kansas State University set an example for future archaeological work by K-State faculty and students. Together they did the important work of recovering, accurately documenting, interpreting, and carefully preserving clues to the history of of this region that would otherwise be lost.
Back Through the Decades: 1950s
