Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska — John Shaqi
Scotts Bluff National Monument, NebraskaMattes, Merrill J.
History
Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska
Mattes, Merrill J.
Overland journeys to the Pacific; Scotts Bluff County (Neb.) -- History; Scotts Bluff National Monument (Neb.)
At the western terminus of Wildcat Hills, about 12 miles southwest of
Scotts Bluff, archeologists of Nebraska University, in 1932, probed the
top of an isolated bluff which is now famous as a key archeological
site. A 13-foot vertical cross section revealed three separate levels,
each bearing cultural material. The lowest level is believed to
represent a hunting complex (Early Lithic Period), perhaps 5,000 years
old. The second level (Intermediate Lithic Period), described as
Pre-Woodland, is given a tentative age of 1,500 years. The uppermost
level (Ceramic Period) contains artifacts of the Dismal River and Upper
Republican cultures, including pottery. The primitive farmers
representing the Upper Republican culture occupied Signal Butte when
Columbus discovered America, while the Dismal River people are believed
to have been an Apache group of about A. D. 1700.
_Scotts Bluff Bison Quarry._
In 1933 archeologists of the University of Nebraska State Museum, while
excavating in the bank of Kiowa Creek, near Signal Butte, found stone
projectile points in association with an extinct form of giant bison.
This remarkable find, which established Scottsbluff points as a classic
type, was among the earliest of a series of discoveries in the Great
Plains which have furnished unmistakable evidence of mysterious big game
hunters who inhabited the Plains some 10,000 years ago.
_Spanish Diggings._
About 60 miles northwest of Scotts Bluff, in Wyoming, lies an extensive
area of flinty hills and wastes which have large numbers of ancient
quarries. Thousands of artifacts of primitive manufacture suggest the
Intermediate Lithic Period preceding the dawn of the Christian era.
_Scotts Bluff Potato Cellar Site._
Near the east Slope of Scotts Bluff, in 1934, a farmer reported the
occurrence of several skeletons and associated stone and bone artifacts
while excavating for a potato storage bin. This appears to have been a
burial ground of early Nebraska hunters, or foragers, possibly
contemporary with the Intermediate Lithic level at Signal Butte.
[Illustration: _Yucca in bloom at the summit of Scotts Bluff._]
_Ash Hollow Cave._
About 100 miles downstream from Scotts Bluff, near a famous Oregon Trail
campsite, is a rock shelter, excavated by the Nebraska State Historical
Society in 1939, which contained evidence of 7 occupations over a period
of 2,000 years. These range from the Intermediate Lithic, or second
level at Signal Butte, through the Woodland, Upper Republican, and
Dismal River complexes of the Ceramic Period.
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