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Archaeological Discoveries: What Did We Find?
inspecting the surface for artifacts. They probed the
ground with soil corers and augers looking for buried
items and signs of prehistoric features such as pits
and hearths. Often these visits proved disappointing.
Sites were gone or irreparably disturbed. Fortunately,
others remained intact, holding promise for revealing
their secrets of the past. Despite more than a century
of archaeological work in the area, landowners and
local collectors showed the team several brand new
sites never before recorded.
Test excavations at four Mills County lodge sites—
three on private property north of Glenwood and
one at Pony Creek Park—uncovered intact deposits
containing buried hearths, artifact scatters, house
floors, and the pattern of lodge walls and support
posts. And, mapping the geographical location of all
Glenwood sites revealed an intriguing new pattern.
Auger testing, survey, and remote sensing investi-
gations at the Kimball Village site north of Sioux
City produced tantalizing results. There is now no
Archaeology always begins with questions. The To find out the answers in the time allotted for the
recent Loess Hills study set out both to de- project, the research team conducted a selective
termine the scope of archaeological resources in survey of the region, visiting 34 sites including 13
the seven-county area and to answer a very basic previously recorded ones. These 13 were chosen for
question—do important, intact Late Prehistoric earth a revisit because state records indicated that they
lodge sites still exist? If all of the sites that make Loess might still be intact and because their owners permit-
Hills’ archaeology unique were documented and ted access.
excavated in the early and mid-20th century, what
is left to discover or rediscover? Has development, Working quickly, often with the help of local col-
erosion, looting, plowing, and terracing destroyed or lectors including members of the Iowa Archeologi-
damaged all sites? cal Society, archaeologists visited site locations,
10 University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist
