Salvage Archaeology at a Site Near Fort Thompson, South Dakota

This report concerns the 1953 investigations conducted by a field party of the Missouri Basin Project, Smithsonian Institution, at the Farm School Site (39BF220), which is situated on an extensive floodplain along the left side of the Missouri River in Buffalo County, South Dakota. The site was first recognized in 1956 by a survey team of the Missouri Basin Project under the direction of Harold A. Huscher. The 1958 investigations, from July 7 to July 11, were supervised by Robert W. Neuman; James J. Stanek acted as field assistant. The site and the surrounding area has been intensively cultivated for at least the last eighty years by the Indian Farm School of the Crow Creek Indian Reservation. In the spring of 1960, a major portion of the site was destroyed by activities incident to the construction of the Big Bend Dam. The investigations at the Farm School Site were made possible through funds provided for the Inter-Agency Archaeological Salvage Program of the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service and various cooperating federal, state, and local institutions.