Document Type
Report
Publication Date
1993
Report of Investigations Number
103
Abstract
In the Fall of 1992, Mr. Mark Horn contacted the Anthropology Department at Western Michigan University regarding property he owns in Allegan County, Michigan. In his assessment, this property exhibited a significant amount of prehistoric cultural material on the surface, and he felt that it might warrant formalized archaeological investigation. Additionally, Mr. Horn, a school teacher in Allegan, asked about the possibility of including his stndents in any future fieldwork that might be conducted on his property. This information was recieved by Dr. William Cremin of the Anthropology Department, who took the matter under consideration as a potential undertaking for the future.
During the latter part of February 1993, Dr. Cremin and the author discussed the possibility of undertaking this activity during the 1993 WMU Archaeological Field School. It was decided that a preliminary examination and documentation of the site, itself, would therefore be neccessary. Shortly thereafter, I contacted Mr. Horn to discuss this matter further and to make plans for a site visit sometime during the month of April. This report describes the results of the site survey, along with preliminary assessment of the information recovered and recommendations for further investigations.
Based on information provided by Mr. Horn, preliminary mapping of the site area was accomplished prior to site visitation. The actual site survey was conducted on 9 April 1993 by student researchers from Western Michigan University, under my direction. Processing and initial analysis of recovered cultural materials was completed the following day. Throughout the course of the investigation, efforts were made to collect all pertinent information related to the site area. As a result, it was discovered that this site had already been registered with the Michigan Bureau of History during an earlier Western Michigan University archaeological survey of the Kalamazoo River Basin (Cremin and Merek 1978). At that time, information regarding the presence of a prehistoric site at this location was obtained from a local informant. A survey party then proceeded with documenting the site location and determining the extent of cultural materials on the surface. However, to the best of my knowledge, a thorough archaeological investigation of the Little John site has never been conducted.