Page 9 - RAGBRAI2010

CHARLES CITY TO
WATERLOO

ARCHAEOLOGY ON THE ROUTE

As you leave Clarks-

ville today and travel south

across the bridge over the

Shell Rock River, you will be

passing over an archaeologi-

cal site that has experienced

at least 5000 years worth

of occupation. The site

(13BT13) was located

in 1991 during archae-

ological investigations

related to a bridge re- Two projectile points
placement and gravel road recovered from the site.
relocation. The historic

aspect of the site dates

Did you know... the from the middle of the nineteenth century into the 1940s and
first major cement
highway in Iowa included an entire domesticated horse burial. The prehistoric
was poured between
component of the site consisted of stone tools, pottery, and cul-
Clear Lake and
Mason City in 1917? tural features such as cooking pits. Examination of the thousands

of artifacts recovered indicated that prehistoric occupation the

site began in the Late Archaic period (3,000–800 B.C.) and con-

tinued through to the Late Woodland period (500–1,600 A.D.).

Multicomponent sites like this one, where both historic and pre-

historic artifacts are present, can be common throughout Iowa.

Lower Left: Woodbury Excavation of horse burial at Site 13BT13.
County court house,
Sioux City
Upper Left: Eagle Point
Park shelter, Dubuque
Upper Right: Mason City
postcard
Lower Right: Romey
House, Mason City