Appraisal of the Archaeological Resources of the Huntington Reservoir Area, Wabash River, Indiana

The proposed report by James H. Kellar, the Appraisal of the Archeological Resource of the Huntington Reservoir Area, Wabash River Indiana, was submitted to the United States Department of Interior, National Park Service, under the terms of Purchase Order No. 29-737. The following reports the results of an archaeological surface survey in the area to be inundated by the construction of the Huntington reservoir in the upper Wabash River Valley, Indiana. Much of the work was accomplished by John T. Dorwin, a graduate student in anthropology at Indiana University, during August and September of 1963. Additional trips were made to the area by Dorwin and Kellar during the winter of 1963-64. The objective of the activity was to locate and evaluate for possible salvage all prehistoric site resources in a thirteen square mile area. Though this objective was unattainable because of varying degrees of land use, much of the land is maintained in pasture and other grass crops, Kellar and Dorwin believed that an accurate assessment of the area’s potential was possible from the data accumulated (Kellar 1964).
Immediately prior to the establishment of Indiana as a state in the 1816, the region, including the reservoir, was occupied by the Miami Indians. The land was formally ceded to the United States by the Treaty of St. Mary on October 6, 1818. No historic villages are in the area was recorded to be flooded, and no historic materials were documented by the survey. The test excavation undertaken in the Salamonie and Mississinewa Reservoirs during 1663 was particularly useful in recommending salvage operations in the Huntington Reservoir at the following sites, 12HU17 , 12HU18 , 12HU19, 12HU20,12HU21, 12 HU22,12HU23, 12HU24, 12HU25, 12HU26, 12HU27, 12HU28, 12WE1, 12WE2, 12W3, 12WE4, 12WE5, 12WE6, 12WE7, 12WE8, 12WE9, 12WE10, 12WE11, 12WE17. County symbols employed refer to the following: HU=Huntington County, WE=Wells County.
The reservoir areas are within the Tipton Till Plain physiographic region. The topography is best described as being monotonously and continuously flat. There was found to be many sites. The site 12HU17 is situated on a flat terrace of the northern margin, of which is sharply defined by an old channel of the Wabash. The site is evidenced by an extremely heavy concentration of chart scrap. The other sites pose difficult evaluative problems. Given normal preservation circumstances, no excavation program would be contemplated. However, the impending flood of the region suggests that limited testing is appropriate at 12HU17. John T. Dorwin stated, “the Tipton Till Plain is the richest agricultural area in Indiana, though the river valley relatively on the other hand, least desirable.” James H. Kellar stated within his report that the Huntington is presently under construction on the upper Wabash in the northeast Indiana. It is a major element in a flood control plan that includes the near-by Mississinewa and Salamonie reservoirs (Kellar 1964).