Excerpt from Introduction to Middle Missouri Archeology

In 1950 the Park Service's part in the salvage program in the Missouri Basin was placed under the general supervision of the Regional Historian. Merrill J. Mattes servedin that capacity until 1966, and he was in immediate charge of Park Service salvage activities at various times. When the re organization of the Park Service became effective in 1966, the responsibility for the Service's participation at the regional level was assigned to Wilfred Logan, a member of the Chief Archeologist's staff.

The amount of work anticipated in the Missouri Basin made it advisable for the Smithsonian Institution to establish some sort of regional headquarters. The Missouri Basin Project was created as a subdivision of the River Basin Surveys in 1946. The project's offices were housed initially in the Laboratory of Anthropology of the University of Nebraska at the invitation of John L. Champe, then Director of the Lab oratory. By 195-1 the laboratory's facilities had become so crowded that first part and then all of the operations of the Missouri Basin Project were transferred to space rented at 1517 O Street in downtown Lincoln. In 1963 headquarters of the proj ect was shifted to 1835 P Street in Lincoln.

Waldo R. Wedel was one of the pioneers in Plains archeology, and was a logical choice as the first head of the Missouri Basin Project. He was given part-time leave of absence from his post as Associate Curator at the us. National Museum, and went to Lincoln in 1946 to begin laying the ground work for the Smithsonian's salvage program in the Missouri Basin. For the next 3 years Wedel spent his summers in the West and returned to his regular duties in Washington during the winter. Paul L. Cooper served as Wedel's deputy during his absences.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.