Back to MWAC Publications

During the summer of 1991 archeologists from the Midwest Archeological Center were requested by Yellowstone National Park to inventory areas proposed for Housing Unit Design Assistance Team construction projects and for the Fishing Bridge campground relocation, as well as the site of the proposed Yellowstone Park Service Station project at Lake. All areas inventoried are in currently developed areas, and the expectation of finding intact cultural deposits was low. Two previously unrecorded sites were documented during the inventory (48YE58 and 48YE59), and two previously documented sites (48YE14 and 48YE744) were tested. Site 48YE59 was also tested.

Testing was conducted within the current Norris campground at 48YE14. This large, possibly multicomponent site yielded many artifacts and evidence of primary lithic reduction activities tentatively identified as part of the Obsidian Cliff extractive complex. One Late Paleoindian lanceolate projectile point was recovered from the surface. Additional dating of the site was attempted using obsidian hydration, which indicated an age range from 8100 to 2300 B.P. Twenty-one obsidian artifacts were geochemically analyzed by Dr. Richard Hughes. The results indicate that all artifacts but one were manufactured from Obsidian Cliff obsidian. The anomalous artifact is the lanceolate projectile point, sourced to Teton Pass. The site at the current Norris campground has been recommended as eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, and plans to mitigate damage from use of the existing campground should be developed.

Testing was also conducted at site 48YE59, the Old Faithful Dump. This large, multicomponent, Euroamerican dump was discovered during excavation (supervised by the Denver Service Center) of the emergency services building prior to our inventory. The excavation was not halted when the dump was discovered, even though Denver Service Center project supervisors were aware the dump had been discovered and also that resident employees in the area were collecting artifacts out of the exposed dump. Several days passed before the appropriate officials were notified. This situation was not only a violation of the Archeological Resource Protection Act and the Antiquities Act, but it was also a potential safety hazard.

Testing at this site was confined to a one-meter-square unit. Artifacts were collected and their stratigraphic associations were recorded in order to assess the deposit. Discrete dumping episodes were documented in the building trench, but it could not be discerned whether the deposits represented primary or secondary dumping episodes. Datable artifacts, mostly bottles, range from the early part of the twentieth century into the 1940s. Based upon the limited documentation, the site has been recommended as potentially eligible for nomination to the National Register. The site has the potential to address a number of anthropological research topics dealing with the early tourist industry, including but not confined to: (1) the availability of resources to the tourist industry; (2) the changing availability of resources to the tourists; and(3) the history of refuse disposal.

The third site to be tested was 48YE744, a multicomponent prehistoric and Euroamerican site that has evidence of the Lake CCC camp and of dump deposits that probably came from the Lake Hotel. Testing was conducted in 1990, when evidence of disturbed Euroamerican dumps and prehistoric materials was identified. The 1991 fieldwork was oriented toward further assessing the prehistoric component. No evidence of intact prehistoric deposits was found, but three additional Euroamerican features were recorded. These included two dump deposits that date to the early part of this century and a dynamite bunker. Based on this new evidence the site has been recommended as potentially eligible for nomination to the National Register, since it can provide information on the development of early tourism in Yellowstone.

Due to the sensitive nature of this subject this report is available to professional archeologists only. If you order this manuscript we may contact you for verification of your profession.