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There are 736 archaeological sites recorded In addition to the sites previously mentioned,
in the Byway corridor. This site count many of the historic components include
reflects areas that have received a formal remnants of farmsteads, schoolhouses, refuse
archaeological survey, mostly locations that dumps, roads, or trails. Prehistoric sites
coincide with road or utility improvement span the continuum of possible occupation
projects. Only 4.6 percent of the entire Byway periods, from Paleo-Indian through the Archaic
corridor has been subjected to archaeological and Woodland eras to the Late Prehistoric.
survey, suggesting there may be hundreds, or There are mounds, villages, chert quarries,
more likely, thousands of yet-unrecorded sites lithic workshops, and open habitation sites,
within the Corridor. along with a host of sites whose function is
not understood. Oehl’s Biface Cache was a
Many of these archaeological sites are spectacular find of 30 prehistoric stone tools
multicomponent, having evidence of from a single spot—in a garden plot in the
occupations spanning more than one village of Amana!
period. These include 138 sites with historic
components, 466 with prehistoric components, Many pioneer-era Byway communities failed
and nine sites where the forms have not yet to obtain a railroad connection in the 1860s,
been submitted to the Iowa Site File. Several and quickly faded into Midwestern farm
sites have been recommended eligible to the fields. Today, several ghost towns remain;
National Register of Historic Places, but most some are completely gone from the visual
have not been assessed for NRHP-eligibility. landscape, existing only as archaeological
