Lake Monroe 1976

This collection is referred to as "Lake Monroe 1976.” This name is consistent throughout the finding aid, the file folders, and the box labels. The extent of this collection is ten (10) linear inches.

The associated documentation for Lake Monroe 1976 was stored in thirty acidic folders in one acidic cardboard box with several other document collections. Because the archaeological investigations at Lake Monroe were so extensive, it took longer than the time originally allotted by the Army Corps. At first, the VCP staff thought that the archaeological investigations at Lake Monroe occurred from 1976 to 1979, but upon further examination, it was realized that work occurred in that area continuously from 1976 to 1986 under the same contract and by the same principal investigator, Patrick Munson. Based on the initial archaeological investigations, Munson produced a report entitled An Assessment of the Impact of Monroe Reservoir on Prehistoric Cultural Resources, Monroe Lake, Indiana. Munson produced a second report, which was generated in January 1986. The second report continued reporting on the archaeological test excavations being done in Lake Monroe area. This report was entitled Shoreline Erosion at Monroe Reservoir and its Impact on Significant Archaeological Sites, and it gives detailed information on the Monroe site surveys and the impact of the shorelines by wavewash erosion.

There were seventeen slides and thirty-two photographs that were removed from this collection and placed into a curation-grade photography storage notebook. Present within the photographic materials were four negatives of historic houses and eleven negatives of unknown sites. No information pertaining to the historic houses or unknown sites could be found throughout the collection or through online research.

The Lake Monroe 1976 collection contained ten oversized documents. These materials, which included oversized site maps, were humidified, flattened, and placed in oversized storage. Catalog cards, which were found in the artifact boxes, were removed from the artifact collection and integrated into the document collection. The catalog cards were wiped clean to remove any possible contaminants from being stored in the same bags as the artifacts. The cards were then stored in acid free plastic bags.

Most of the collection was in good condition. Some field notes were written in ink and illegible, but a majority of the documents required only minor mending and cleaning. Dirt, adhesive, and stains were removed. The Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology (GBL) artifact catalog for this investigation was sent to the VCP electronically, printed on acid free paper, and housed with the associated documentation. Scanned asset numbers were not assigned, because the file was uploaded into the digital imaging database directly from the file sent by GBL.

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