95. Evaluative Testing at the Fountain Cistern, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas
Bruce A. Jones

Midwest Archeological Center personnel undertook evaluative test excavations at the site of a subterranean cistern at the Spring Hill Ranch Headquarters complex, 14CS106, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. The cistern dates to the Stephen F. Jones period of ownership, was probably constructed in the early 1880s, and it stored water to operate a fountain that stood in front of the main ranch house. It is known that the fountain superstructure was removed from the front of the ranch house in the mid-1930s, although it is unclear whether the cistern and fountain itself actually operated that long.

The cistern was inadvertently rediscovered in the 1970s and remained essentially intact until some time post-1989, when it was intentionally collapsed and backfilled for safety reasons. The structure itself was rectangular in shape, built of limestone masonry, and had a vaulted stone roof. Intended to hold an estimated 4,800 gallons of water, it apparently filled via a small diameter iron pipe, although the actual source of the supply water is not clear.
After its roof was intentionally collapsed, the cistern was backfilled with clean soil that was probably obtained from the bottomlands along Fox Creek a short distance to the east. Artifactual material intermixed in the fill dated from as early as the mid-1800s until the early- to mid-1900s. The considerable time span of the artifacts, together with fragments of decorative ironwork specific to the main house at the Spring Hill Ranch, indicate that the soil fill and the trash/artifact deposits in the cistern reflect separate episodes. The soil is from the bottomlands, while the artifacts derive from around the structures at the Spring Hill Ranch Headquarters complex.