[September is Nebraska Archaeology Month! To celebrate, join Fontenelle Forest as it explores Nebraska Phase archaeology and the life of archaeologist Robert Gilder through a series of programs and an archaeological exhibit on display through December 2018!]

People have long been drawn to the Missouri River Bluffs in Nebraska. Access to timber, stone, and arable land, as well as water ways for transportation, makes the area ideal for settlement. As a result, the hills of eastern Nebraska are densely populated with evidence of human occupation, both past and present. From today’s urban development to the stone tools and shallow depressions marking the locations of habitations past, thousands of years of history can be found along this stretch of the Missouri River.

Besides providing life’s necessities, the Missouri River bluffs are also a destination for recreational opportunities such as hiking and birdwatching, and their natural beauty has inspired many writers and artists over time. This is in part what attracted Robert F. Gilder to the area in the late 1880s. With a background in art and journalism, Gilder came to the Omaha area to work in the newspaper industry, but pursued an active hobby in art in his spare time. The work he produced is still featured in museums across the state today.

It was during his frequent trips to paint in the woods along these bluffs that he became interested in the shallow depressions found dotting the bluff tops.

”I turned my attention to locating a large number of saucer-like depressions in the earth, known locally as “buffalo wallows,” in reality sites of aboriginal earth lodges. Almost every circle had been dug into, although in each instance the excavation had been confined to its center…wherever excavation had been recent I found small sherds, and flint chips, ashes, and charcoal.” – Robert Gilder, 1907

“Archeology of the Ponca Creek District, Eastern Nebraska” in American Antiquity, p.702

This interest developed into his second hobby, and a later career in, archaeology. Despite no formal training in the field, his background in writing and art provided him a keen attention to detail and observation which he used to record his findings as he dug into these depressions, first north of Omaha, and later south in Sarpy County. He then would share this information with the public by publishing accounts and illustrations of his finds in the newspaper he worked for, and later in academic journals. This in turn led to more formal archaeological work and collaboration with other researchers.

While some interpretations of the “wallows” have changed over the years since Gilder made his initial observations, his understanding of these house depressions led to the establishment of the “Nebraska Culture,” or the Nebraska Phase, a regional group of the broader Central Plains Tradition (CPT). These village farmers, who occupied the area 700-1,000 years ago, continued to hunt and gather wild plants as they practiced horticulture. Their houses, square to rectangular in shape, were timber-framed and covered with a mixture of branches, grass, and mud, and often contained a number of pits where food and tools were stored below the house floor.

Since the early 1900s, additional surveys and investigations have taken place at Nebraska Phase sites along the Missouri River Bluffs, including within Fontenelle Forest, a 1400 acre forest, where Gilder resided until he passed away in 1940. Listed as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the area is home to approximately 70 probable CPT-related features, in addition to earlier prehistoric occupations, as well as more recent sites – a fur trading post, a ferry crossing, and wagon roads. New technology continues to provide improved methods of documenting these sites, such as with LiDAR and the clearer view it provides of what lies under the forest canopy. However, it is still the early work of avocational archaeologist Robert Gilder that provides the foundation for much of what we know about this area today.

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References:

Blakeslee, Donald J. and Warren W. Caldwell
1979     The Nebraska Phase: An Appraisal. Reprints in Anthropology, Vol. 18: 37.

Gilder, Robert F.
1907    Archeology of the Ponca Creek District, Eastern Nebraska. American Antiquity9(4): 702-719.
n.d.   Catalogue of Objects Used by a Prehistoric People in What is Now Douglas and Sarpy Counties, Nebraska, 1907 to 1912. C. N. Dietz, Omaha Library Board, Omaha: p.10.

Haack, Martha, Arthur H. Wolf, and Harvey L. Gunderson
1975   “Robert Fletcher Gilder: Archeologist for the Museum.” Programs Information: Nebraska State Museum, 55(11).

National Register of Historic Places, Fontenelle Forest Historic District, Bellevue, Sarpy County, Nebraska. National Register #74001139.

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Interest in Robert Gilder’s work and the Nebraska Phase Culture has recently been renewed, as Fontenelle Forest has put together a series of upcoming programs about Gilder’s life and the area’s archeology, funded in part by Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment. An exhibit on Nebraska Phase Archaeology is on display daily at the Nature Center’s Baright Gallery through December. Visitors can also take guided or self-guided hikes along the area’s trails, which follow alongside the house depressions that the Nebraska Phase people left behind, as explored by Gilder. In addition, an archaeology lecture series is planned, with the first presentation planned for this Saturday, September 8 at 2:00 PM – “So….What Became of the Nebraska Phase People?” by State Archeologist Rob Bozell.

For more information on this and upcoming programs, visit fontenelleforest.org/

[The following blog post is the fifth (and final) in a series of posts highlighting archaeological sites that relate to Nebraska’s Statehood or date to the period around 1867! This series will run through September in celebration of Nebraska Archaeology Month and our state’s Sesquicentennial!]

Archaeological investigation of the early African American experience in Nebraska has been overshadowed by exploration of Native American villages and select Euroamerican sites such as forts, fur trade posts, and territorial townsites. Archaeological investigation of slavery and the plantation system in the southeastern United States extends back to the 1960s (Singleton 1985) but archaeological investigation of the African American experience on the Great Plains is more limited. A notable exception is archaeological and archival investigation of Nicodemus, Kansas (Hamilton 1986; Wood et al. 2007). Nicodemus was a town and associated farms established in the late 1870s by black families escaping persecution, racism, and poverty following the close of post-Civil Reconstruction in the South and the withdrawal of federal troops. Another project in southeast Colorado is documenting African American homesteads (https://thedryarchaeology.wordpress.com/).

Although small numbers of African Americans were living and working in Nebraska in the 1850s and 1860s, the population was quite sparse. The numbers of African Americans in Nebraska began to increase following the Kansas Fever Exodus of 1879. The migration was due in part to the encouragement and efforts of Benton Aldrich and other prominent southeast Nebraska settlers who were sympathetic to the plight of black people fleeing the South. Archaeological consideration of early African American settlement in Nebraska is limited to a few projects, none of which have been long term. Two of these, one completed and one proposed, are summarized below.

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The Aldrich Site (Nemaha County):

In the late 1990s, Omaha Benson High School history teacher Pat Kennedy developed a project to engage and immerse his inner-city students into the history of African Americans in Nebraska (Kennedy 2001). His research focused on Nemaha County and Brownville and the students used archival materials (newspaper accounts, public records, maps, and photographs) to identify specific African American sites. In 1997, Kennedy approached the Nebraska State Historical Society Archeology Division about documenting some of these places archaeologically. The project developed and several sites in the town of Brownville were mapped and recorded but primary attention was focused on a rural site associated with Benton Aldrich who is mentioned above. The site became the focus of 1997 test excavations using over 50 volunteers including Kennedy and 16 of his students (Bozell and Boeka 2001).

In 1880, Aldrich invited several former slaves living in Kansas to settle on his farm and work for him until they were able to purchase property. Based on Kennedy’s research and family oral accounts by Aldrich’s great-grandson Robert Stoddard, an ice house was constructed after 1900 at or near the location of the dwelling occupied by black residents. Several surface features were archaeologically investigated and based on recovered artifacts and architectural remnants, the location of the dwelling was confirmed. More than 3000 artifacts were recovered including nails, ceramics, window glass, bottle glass, building hardware, animal bone and personal items such as buttons, bullets, knife handles, pins, and buckles. An abundance of limestone blocks indicates the dwelling was certainly more substantial than a dugout or shack. The location of all the material in a depression suggests a cellar may be present under the structural ruins.

The people living in the structure subsisted on pork and chicken but were also hunting rabbits and canning vegetables. A wide assortment of bottle glass, table ware, and crockery were recovered. While none are ‘high status’ items, the collection’s diversity suggests the occupants enjoyed some measure of material culture choices.

Only a small portion of the structure was excavated. However, clearly it retains significant potential for understanding the subsistence methods, architecture, technology, and material culture of some of Nebraska’s early African American residents.

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DeWitty Community (Cherry County):

            Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in a community of black farmers who homesteaded in Cherry County along the North Loup River. This interest in African American homesteading in Nebraska was demonstrated when a GoFundMe account raised funds to place a Nebraska State Historical Society historical marker about DeWitty on US Highway 83. The unveiling of the marker in 2016 was attended by descendants of DeWitty homesteaders from across the nation as well as by local white ranchers and townfolk.

The story of DeWitty begins as African American homesteaders came west to start a new life and to escape the egregious Jim Crow laws passed throughout the South after 1877 when Reconstruction was ended. Many black colonies on the plains, however, continued to suffer the effects of racism in their new homes. A distinguishing characteristic of DeWitty was a distinct lack of racist attacks from the community’s white neighbors. Historian Joyceann Gray, a descendant of a DeWitty homesteader, has noted that “What is so important about this community is the bond between African American homesteaders of DeWitty and their white counterparts in Brownlee. The two communities were very isolated back then and despite differences of heritage and beginnings, they enjoyed a civil and caring relationship that continues up to this day.”

The trigger for the establishment of DeWitty was passage of the Kinkaid Act in 1904. The act functioned as an amendment to the 1862 Homestead Act. It recognized that arid lands west of the 100th meridian required more than 160 acres to support a family by allowing a homesteader to claim up to 640 acres in western Nebraska. Kinkaid specifically applied to the Sandhills region of Nebraska, with only non-irrigable lands open for entry.

The overwhelming majority of African Americans who came west to homestead were former slaves or children of former slaves from the South and the people in the DeWitty community were no different. However, DeWitty citizens had one characteristic that distinguished it from other black colonies on the plains: many, if not most, of the settlers arrived in western Nebraska via a circuitous route through Buxton, Ontario, Canada. This province was the terminus of the Underground Railroad, with Buxton (1849-1877) having been established by the Elgin Association for resettlement of the black American refugees to give them a new start. Some of the homesteaders took an even more circuitous route to DeWitty; i.e., homesteading in Dawson County, Nebraska, then moving on to DeWitty, or Dawson County to Empire on the Wyoming-Nebraska border then to DeWitty. But African American settlers at Empire and in Dawson County found that the racism they had hoped to escape was waiting for them at these new homes. Only DeWitty offered the freedom from the fear and violence they were seeking.

A new non-profit organization, Descendants of DeWitty LLC, was established about a year ago with the mission of informing the citizens of Nebraska and beyond about the people and history of this unique community. This year, two of its board members, Chair Artes Johnson and Secretary Denise Scales, and blog co-author, William Hunt, were able to undertake a quick tour of a few DeWitty-related sites, guided by Don “Sonny” Hanna, a Cherry County rancher born during the final years of DeWitty’s existence. During the course of this visit, the group visited eleven of the many sites in the area. These included 6 homestead sites, 2 former river crossing sites, and a possible church/cemetery site.

Among its various outreach goals, Descendants of DeWitty is proposing an archaeological project that is hoped to include archaeologists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Nebraska State Historical Society. This project is dependent, of course, on finding a small amount of funding and getting landowner permissions to survey their properties. Project objectives will be:

1. Continue historical research seeking out oral histories and primary documents in Nebraska and elsewhere to broaden our knowledge about the community and its citizens;
2. Conduct an inventory of DeWitty sites, documenting as many of the 53 or more homesteads as possible along with other associated locations such as schools, post offices, bridges, etc.;
3. Undertake geophysical inventories at select sites.;
4. Prepare a nomination of DeWitty for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places as a district of related sites;
5. Since outreach is the ultimate goal of Descendants of DeWitty, will aim to include black and white high school students and teachers in the work; and
6. Inform community descendants, school children around the state, and the general Nebraska citizenry about DeWitty and why it is so important.

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References:

Boeka, Molly
1998    Archeological Investigations at the Aldrich Site, Nemaha County, Nebraska. On file, Nebraska State Historical Society, State Archeology Office. Lincoln.

Bozell, Rob and Molly Boeka
2001    Archeology and the Search for African American Pioneer Sites in Southeastern Nebraska. Nebraska History 82(1): 25.

Hamilton, Kenneth
1986    The Settlement of Nicodemus: Its Origins and Early Promotion in Promised Land on the Solomon: Black Settlement in Nicodemus, Kansas. National Park Service. Washington, DC.

Kennedy, Patrick
2001    Nemaha County’s African American Community. Nebraska History 82(1):11-23.

Singleton, Teresa (editor)
1985    The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life. Academic Press. New York.

Wood, Margaret, Dan Morrow, and Deborah Rumans
2007    Explorations of the Struggles and Promise of African American Settlement on the Great Plains: Archaeological Survey and Testing of Sites Related to the Settlement Period and Early History of Nicodemus, Kansas. National Park Service.

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About the Authors – 

Rob Bozell is the Nebraska State Archeologist at the Nebraska State Historical Society.

Dr. William J. Hunt, Jr. is a historical archaeologist assisting the Descendants of DeWitty LLC with historical research and development of various outreach efforts. This presently includes a photograph exhibit about DeWitty and its citizens this fall and a short documentary video to be completed in 2018 portraying the exodus from Canada to the Sandhills of Nebraska.

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Want to learn more about the Archaeology of African American Pioneers and Homesteaders in Nebraska?

Listen to the NETNebraska Story on “The Exodusters Who Came to Brownville.”

Read Pat Kennedy’s article on “Nemaha County’s African American Community” in Nebraska History Magazine.

Watch “The DeWitty Settlement” Nebraska Stories segment produced by NETNebraska.

Visit the DeWitty Historical Marker in Cherry County!

This post was originally produced for the Nebraska State Historical Society Blog at https://history.nebraska.gov/blog. Content reproduced with permission.

 

[The following blog post is the fourth in a series of posts highlighting archaeological sites that relate to Nebraska’s Statehood or date to the period around 1867! This series will run through September in celebration of Nebraska Archaeology Month and our state’s Sesquicentennial!]

In the spring of 1854, the United States Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act organizing the two future states as territories. The purpose of the act was to open the region for rural agricultural and urban settlement paving the way for a planned transcontinental railway. At about that time, most native lands in eastern Nebraska were ceded to the US government. Prior to the act, Euroamericans in what is now Nebraska included only traders, fur trappers, missionaries, military units, those passing along the emigrant trails, and occasional squatters. With the notable exception of a few fur trading posts, stage stations, and forts, Euroamericans had left a very sparse archaeological record prior to the mid-1850s.

Almost immediately after Territorial designation, fledgling towns, ferries, farms, and small rural businesses such as flour and saw mills began to spring up. These were mostly along the Missouri River and the lower reaches of its tributaries. The only ‘town’ which was already established was Bellevue which began as a fur trade post in the 1820s. Soon other communities sprang up such as Plattsmouth, Omaha, Nebraska City. The first territorial legislature granted charters to seventeen of these would-be cities. Many of these are considered ‘paper towns.’  Paper towns are those which were chartered and platted but other than a few cabins and businesses, they never really materialized. The territorial period lasted for slightly less than thirteen years until Nebraska became a state in March of 1867. After statehood, the archival record of early Nebraska increases dramatically with an abundance of newspapers, journals, photographs, public records, and maps.

Archaeological data can provide a more robust and accurate understanding of the lives of these pre-1867 Nebraskans, enhancing the scant archival record. Beginning in the early 1970s, the Nebraska State Historical Society (State Archeology Office) and the Nebraska Department of Transportation teamed up to investigate the buried ruins of five Territorial-era towns and one rural mill that were discovered buried in the path of planned transportation improvements. Most exist entirely as archaeological sites with no extant architecture.

Solving archaeological problems is a process that often involves evaluating data from a ‘suite’ of related sites studied over a period of years. The Territorial period archaeology program is a wonderful example of that reality. Taken together, the artifacts, bones, and other field observations gathered at these six sites now allow for a productive understanding of material culture, subsistence, technology, socioeconomic levels, and architecture that simply cannot be gleaned from the archival record alone.  The investigations have also resulted in important baseline information for identifying collections of tableware, bottles, window glass, and smoking pipe forms from future Territorial Period and early Statehood excavations. Below is a brief summary of these archaeological investigations.

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Cuming City

In 1855, a town company was formed and plans for Cuming City were drawn up. The original plan called for 180 blocks. It is not known how many blocks were actually developed but within several years there existed several stores, hotels, saloons and over 50 homes (Bell 1876:43). When the railroad was built through neighboring Blair, Cuming City population quickly dwindled. By the 1880s only several buildings remained extant and none remained by 1900.

Widening of US-73/75 in 1974 required archaeological investigations in old Cuming City under the direction of Gayle Carlson and Terry Steinacher (Steinacher and Carlson 1984:87-114). The field work focused on a deep subfloor cellar that had been beneath a house or commercial building. A diverse assortment of glass, metal, and ceramic artifacts suggested a period of occupation in the mid -1860s. The collection was the first of its age to be recovered from a territorial period site in Nebraska and formed a useful comparative basis for subsequent territorial period research.

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De Soto

While Cuming City was being developed north of what would become Blair, the town of De Soto also began to see construction in 1855. Within a few years, De Soto consisted of 30 log buildings including homes, a hotel, two general stores, several banks, a school, and at least a dozen saloons! The town began to decline by 1859, partially in response to the discovery of gold in Colorado. By 1870, it was completely abandoned and all buildings had been removed and many were re-located to prospering Blair (Bell 1876: 37-39).

Archaeological investigations were conducted by Steinacher and Carlson in 1975 in response to relocation of US-73. Even more archaeological features and artifacts were recovered than at Cuming City. Over twenty features were found during mechanical topsoil stripping and eleven became the focus of controlled excavations including: five building cellars, a deep outhouse pit, four refuse trenches, and a large post mold. The recovered collection is extensive and includes a diverse assortment of animal bone, ceramics, glass, metal and other materials (Bozell and Ludwickson 1990:17). The collection has not been formally studied but select samples have been the subject of several University of Nebraska-Lincoln student laboratory projects and papers.

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Brownville

Brownville also known as the ‘City of Seven Hills’ was founded by Richard Brown in 1854. It soon developed into an important center for milling and overland and steamboat traffic. While the town saw some rough economic times, it remained viable due the local fruit industry, steady barge traffic, and construction of a Missouri River bridge in 1930. Today Brownville is a locally vibrant center for art, culture, and history. It is the only territorial-era townsite to be the subject of archaeological investigations that remains occupied and much of the town is a National Register of Historic Places District.

Proposed reconstruction of US-136 and Brownville’s Main Street triggered systematic excavations in 1982 to mitigate adverse effect to the archaeological component of the historic district designation. The work was under the direction of John Ludwickson and Steve Holen (Bozell and Ludwickson 1990:23-25). Highway construction plans were carefully reviewed in relation to historic photographs and maps and it became apparent the construction had the potential to impact up to eleven former structures related to the territorial and early statehood period. Field investigations ultimately focused on excavations at the buried ruins of a hotel, a bakery, two stores, and trash-filled outhouse pits and a cistern. In addition to a very large artifact collection, these investigations resulted in recovering important architectural information.

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Platteford

A former town on the Platte River, Platteford was platted in 1857. Construction began the same year. A hotel was built and Platteford became the location of a ferry across the Platte. Archival records are scant but imply that the town never consisted or more than a few buildings and homes. It was occupied for only several years in the late 1850s.

Highway N-31 east of Louisville was programmed for widening and reconstruction in 1995 and the Nebraska State Historical Society contracted with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to bring an archaeology fieldschool to search for and excavate any remains associated with Platteford (Bleed et al. 2008). A limestone foundation was discovered which clearly related to the 1850s based on the type of ceramics, bottles, and tools recovered. Based on its size and the rather abundant collection of animal bone and domestic refuse recovered, the buried foundation was almost certainly a cellar below a small home and probably one of the very residences actually built in this town.

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Rockport 

            Rockport is located directly on the Douglas – Washington county line and was settled in 1857 but only remained inhabited for a few years. The town never really consisted of much more than a steamboat landing, a hotel, a lime kiln, and some saw and shingle mills. These business provided wood for steamboats and material for rural building construction. According to Missouri River maps, the small town was located on the floodplain, nestled below the bluffs immediately adjacent to the Missouri River. Archaeological survey has failed to locate any remains associated with this floodplain town although any features are probably deeply buried in silt or have been washed away by the shifting river. However, archival accounts do refer to scattered rural settlements in the bluffs above the town during the Territorial period. These were likely small farms or acreages and loosely related to Rockport.

Planned improvement of the county “river road’ above Rockport triggered an archaeological search for several early Euroamerican sites including any evidence of features related to Rockport.  Excavations were completed under the direction of the author in 2001 and 2002 with the assistance of University of Nebraska-Lincoln archaeological field schools (Bozell and Parks 2010). Several deep depressions were tested and proved to be cellars containing 1850s and 1860s trash. They are likely related to some of the rural cabins and farms associated with Rockport. Data collected from this project provides important information on the rural aspect of territorial settlement.

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Cowles Mill

This site is the only Territorial period archaeological resource which is not a townsite. Henry Clinton Cowles, a cabinet maker and miller from Genesee County, New York moved to the Nebraska City area in 1853. He soon built a saw and grist mill operation along Walnut Creek a couple of miles northwest of Nebraska City. By 1860, Cowles had relocated to Colorado. His mill however remained in operation until the 1920s and throughout its history was the subject of various technological improvements. No buildings remain.

A substandard bridge spans Walnut Creek in the immediate vicinity of the Cowles Mill and is in need of replacement. Between 2014 and 2017, archaeological documentation was carried out which discovered the buried ruins of the primary mill buildings and surface and buried remnants of dams, the mill race, ponds and other features (Bozell and Mandel 2017). Limited test excavations and mapping were completed. Ultimately the main portions of the mill were avoided by construction eliminating the need for extensive excavations, but the testing and mapping has provided important baseline data for the understanding the evolution of milling from the Territorial period to the 1920s.

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References:

Bell, John T.
​1876    History of Washington County, Nebraska. Herald Steam Book and Job               Printing House. Omaha.

Bleed, Peter, Amy Koch, John Swigart, and Mary J. Adair
2008    The Archeology of Plattford, Sarpy County, Nebraska. On file, Nebraska State    Historical Society, State Archeology Office. Lincoln.

Bozell, John R. and John Ludwickson
1990    A Summary of the Nebraska Highway Archeology Program for the Years 1976- 1985. On file, Nebraska State Historical Society, State Archeology Office. Lincoln.

Bozell, John R. and Rolfe D. Mandel
2017    Archeological and Geomorphic Investigations at the Cowles Mill Complex        (25OT505/513), Otoe County, Nebraska. On file, Nebraska State Historical Society, State Archeology Office. Lincoln.

Bozell, John R. and Stanley M. Parks
2010    Data Recovery at 25WN50 and 25WN46 in the Vicinity of the Territorial Town of Rockport. On file, Nebraska State Historical Society, State Archeology Office. Lincoln.

Steinacher, Terry L. and Gayle F. Carlson
1984    Nebraska Highway Archeological and Historical Salvage Investigations, 1969-  1975. Nebraska State Historical Society Publications in Anthropology 10. Lincoln.

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About the Author –

Rob Bozell is the Nebraska State Archeologist at the Nebraska State Historical Society – State Archeology Office, and the Manager of the Highway Cultural Resources Program.

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Want to learn more about the Archaeology of Territorial Nebraska?

Read Gayle F. Carlson’s chapter on “Europeans and Americans,” from the Cellars of Time and Nebraska History series, covering how archaeology can fill many of the gaps in historical records from this time period – available online from the Nebraska State Historical Society! 

Visit Neligh Mill State Historic Site and explore the history of milling in Nebraska! Although constructed several decades later than Cowles Mill, this mill is open for tours with its original 1880s equipment still intact!

Learn more about the agreement between the Nebraska Department of Transportation and the Nebraska State Historical Society that has provided the funding for the projects covered above, and much archaeological research and compliance across the state!

This post was originally featured on the Nebraska State Historical Society Blog at https://history.nebraska.gov/blog. Content reproduced with permission.

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[The following blog post is the third in a series of posts highlighting archaeological sites that relate to Nebraska’s Statehood or date to the period around 1867! This series will run through September in celebration of Nebraska Archaeology Month and our state’s Sesquicentennial!]

A number of early Nebraska settlements and townsites were relocated or abandoned over the years as transportation routes changed in response to the construction of new trails, railroads, and highways. The town of Beaver Crossing, located today three miles south of Interstate 80 along the Blue River, is one such town no longer found in its original location.

In 1862, entrepreneurs established a road ranch at the ford of Beaver Creek along the Nebraska City Cut-Off, one of many branches of the Oregon-California Trail. This cut-off, established in 1846, ran from Old Fort Kearny (Nebraska City) to New Fort Kearny (Kearney). Travel on the trail increased after Nebraska became a territory in 1854 and continued on through the early 1870s. Encouraged by the prosperity at the road ranch during the 1860s, several additional businesses, including a post office and general store were established, and the town of Beaver Crossing was born. Within a decade, however, travel along the trail had declined making business no longer economically feasible. The construction of a gristmill on the Blue River roughly four miles to the southeast of town, as well as the placement of a nearby railroad spelled the end of the original Beaver Crossing townsite in 1871.

The original site of Beaver Crossing became the focus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Archaeological Field School in 2005 and 2006. Local informants had contacted the Nebraska State Historical Society and UNL regarding the site, designated archaeological site 25SW49, in 2004. Depressions, low mounds, and trail rut segments, were visible on the present ground surface. Prior to excavations, magnetic, resistance, and ground penetrating radar geophysical surveys were conducted on portions of the site to identify areas likely to yield important archaeological information. Several features related to early Beaver Crossing buildings as well as the original trail ruts were visible in the data. Based on these results, 72 square meters were excavated at the site during the 2005-2006 field school seasons, with over 16,000 artifacts recovered.

During the excavation, it became apparent that the original site of Beaver Crossing had not simply been abandoned and left to decay. Instead, it had been entirely relocated to its current location. The excavation results indicated that the occupants had dismantled the structures at the site and took all usable material with them, including logs and foundation stones. Evidence for this was found in the numerous tiny brick fragments and mortar smears identified at the site, with no larger pieces or complete bricks and stones present. Daub with wood grain impressions was recovered, but there was no indication of logs or boards of any kind left in place. The number of bent and broken nails was also much fewer than was to be expected had the building had been left to decay naturally. In addition, the mortar concentrations in the soil seemed to show the tracks of stones being pulled up and out of the ground. It appears that anything that could be reused at the new town site was taken.

The archaeological record found at the Beaver Creek Trail Crossing Site demonstrates that the idea of making do with what was available was a lesson learned by the inhabitants from years of living a self reliant lifestyle on the open plains.

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About the Author –

Nolan Johnson is an archeologist at the Nebraska State Historical Society – State Archeology Office.

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Interested in learning more about the Beaver Crossing Site or the archaeology of other Nebraska trails sites?

View a recorded presentation on the Archaeology of the Beaver Creek Trail Crossing Site by the author on YouTube!

Read the article “You Can Take It with You: Archaeology at the Beaver Creek Trail Crossing” as published in Nebraska Anthropology Vol. 21 (2006) – available for free via UNL Digital Commons.

Visit Rock Creek Station State Historic Park, another road ranch/trail site in Nebraska, featuring intact Oregon-California Trail Ruts and period buildings reconstructed based on excavations completed by NSHS archaeologists in 1980-81.

Check out the “Digging In: The Historic Trails of Nebraska” website, which highlights archaeological and historical research on Nebraska’s immigrant trails, produced by Dr. Paul Demers in conjunction with the UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities.