Document Type
Report
Publication Date
1982
Archaeological Report Number
13
Abstract
During the five year Kalamazoo Basin Survey project (1976-1980), survey teams, under the direction of Dr. William M. Cremin of the Department of Anthropology, Western Michigan University, investigated by means of surface reconnaissance nine survey transects placed across the Kalamazoo River in Allegan, Kalamazoo, Calhoun and Jackson Counties, Michigan. Surveyor coverage in the nine transects aggregated 135 km 2 , or 18% of the land area delimited by their boundaries, and resulted in the recording of 328 prehistoric sites. In addition, interviews with area landowners and collectors ~aving knowledge of local prehistory and the whereabouts of archaeological sites resulted in the discovery of 24 sites located outside of the survey transects (Cremin 1981).
Last year the WMU archaeological field school, under the direction of Dr. Cremin, traveled to western Jackson County to conduct limited test excavations at several sites located by KBS surveyors during the previous year and to expand upon the results of that program of research by undertaking some additional site location survey along the South Branch Kalamazoo River both within and outside of the boundaries established for KBS Transect l980C. On this occasion, surveyors evaluated about 2.1 km2 and recorded 24 more prehistoric sites occurring in western Jackson and eastern Calhoun Counties (Cremin and Clark 1981).
In total, WMU's program of systematic site location survey in this universe between 1976 and 1981 has resulted in the recovery of data representing 376 prehistoric sites in the four counties investigated. However, the various annual reports and the recently published overview of the Kalamazoo Basin Survey project do not reference a potentially important data set consisting of 47 sites that postdate Euro-American settlement of southern Lower Michigan and reflect in part the activities of both Euro-American and Native American residents of the Kalamazoo River Basin during the 19th and 20th centuries.