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Years in 40 Minutes: The
Black Hills
National
Forest
Williams
Spring
Archaeological Research and Education Project.
Dave
McKee
Forest
Archaeologist,
Black Hills
National Forest. Custer,
South Dakota
The
Williams
Spring
archaeological site contains artifacts spanning 8,000 years of human
occupation in the northern
Black Hills
ranging from early big game hunters to historic homesteaders.
Artifact densities are high with some locations yielding over 1,500
artifacts per cubic meter. Diagnostic
artifacts recovered from the site include a variety of paleo-indian,
archaic, and late prehistoric projectile points (spear points, atlalt
dart points and arrow points). The variety and number of projectile
points make Williams
Spring
a unique and important site for piecing together the archaeological
record of the
Black Hills
.
The
Williams
Spring
project is a long term archaeological research and education
partnership between the Black Hills
National Forest, Crook County Resource Advisory Committee, and the
University
of
Wyoming. Excavations in 2000,
2004, and 2005 were conducted with the help of Forest Service Passport
in Time volunteers who came from all parts of the country and from
all walks of life. To
learn more about volunteer opportunities in historic preservation on
National Forests please visit the Passport In Time web site at http://www.passportintime.com
In the summer of 2000 test excavations and
geological studies were conducted at the site by the university and a
volunteer crew. In 2004
and 2005 an intensive block excavation was conducted in order to learn
about prehistoric adaptations to the
Black Hills
over time at this unique site.
Unique finds at the site included a Lovel
Constricted spear point over 8,000 years in age. Several pieces of
Knife River
flint, used to make stone tools were also recovered.
Knife river flint occurs at one location in North Dakota and
it’s presence at Williams Spring is evidence of complex long
distance trade networks during time periods prior to the introduction
of horses in North America. Several pieces of obsidian possibly from the Yellowstone
Wyoming area were also recovered.
As part of the project, educational materials
including, an archaeology activity trunk, classroom archaeology dig
boxes, a traveling interpretive display, and a Williams
Spring
web site are under development by the
Forest
for use in Crook County Wyoming schools and surrounding communities.
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