Huntington Reservoir Area Appraisal 1963-1964

The report entitled Appraisal of the Archeological Resource of the Huntington Reservoir Area, Wabash River Indiana, written by James H. Kellar 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. Immediately prior to the establishment of Indiana as a state in 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. 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 (Kellar 1964: 1-3).

The area’s “unfavorable environmental conditions” were observed including the deeply trenched lower portion of the reservoir area and the slight stream gradient. This resulted in “rapid run-off and slow dissipation of moisture in the bottoms.” These conditions were combined with what Kellar describes as “the absence of population pressures in the eastern United States during most prehistoric periods” (Kellar 1964: 11). Kellar followed this observation by indicating that large settlements were not introduced into the upper Wabash. Kellar mentions that Late Woodland sites in the area exhibited the heaviest occupation and the greatest range of occupation debris and artifacts from private collections were representative of the Woodland period (Kellar 1964). Huntington Reservoir was considered to be lacking culturally significant materials that would indicate long-term human habitation. For example, evidence of long term settlement such as burial sites was noticeably absent. The evidence found, however, including stone tools, chert debris, and small amounts of pottery debris indicated notable use patterns. The readily available chert was utilized for manufacturing of stone tools and was indicated by the large amount of chert debris described by Kellar (1964), and by the high volume of projectile points found in the materials received by the VCP.

The digital materials in this collection were processed by the Veterans Curation Program (VCP), and include the appraisal investigation report, artifact database, select artifact photographs, artifact report, finding aid, and scanned asset key. Additional digital materials held by the VCP include additional artifact photographs, box inventory, card stock inserts, document folder listing, GBL artifact inventory, GBL catalog, and initial data collection. For additional information on these materials, refer to the Finding Aid.