Excavation of Big Bangs and Little Bags Mounds, 1964 Huntington Reservoir Project, Huntington, Indiana

The excavation of three mounds in Huntington County, Indiana, on the Upper Wabash River was accomplished in 1964 under auspices of the National Park Service through a grant administered by Indiana University. The mounds, three of the twenty-four sites located in 1963 by John Dorwin during the preliminary archaeological survey of the Huntington Reservoir, were located on the property of Mrs. C.W.H. Bangs, resident of Huntington, Indiana. Permission was obtained for the necessary excavation from the owner and her husband, Charles Bangs, and helpful cooperation was extended by the landowner’s son, Mr. C.E. Bangs, and tenants of the farm which the mounds were located, Mr. and Mrs. Max Arnold.
Three sites (12HU25, 12HU26 and 12HU27) were excavated by field crews directed by Virginia Gould Gerald. Subsurface tests were part of the summer training program in field archeology conducted by the University of Indiana. Assistance in the field during the last month of excavation was given by Mr. John Dorwin, who participated in the excavation of Little Bangs Mound (12HU26), tested the mound remnant (12HU27) and a flood-plain workshop site (12HU17).
In summary, three mounds were excavated in the Huntington Reservoir on the Upper Wabash River, Huntington, Indiana in1964. One was a small remnant (12HU27); the other two were semi-conical mounds (12HU25 and 12HU26) which contained no burials and no fragments of burned or unburned human bone. Of the three mounds located in the initial survey, only two (12HU25 and 12HU26) were of archaeological significance. The third and smallest mound (12HU27) had evidently been removed almost entirely at an earlier date by parties unknown. Cultural affiliation can only be suggested as being Late Woodland with some Middle Mississippian influence. The two prehistoric sites tested yielded adequate data for site evaluation and provided information suitable for further evaluation (Gerald 1964).