The Fort Clark Archeology Project, 2000-2001 Historical Archeological Investigations.

Description

Historical archeological work during the summers of 2000 and 2001 has been directed toward development and installation of a series of interpretive panels relating to the history, archeology, and peoples living at Fort Clark. In anticipation of this, investigations in 2000 included small scale testing and large scale geophysical surveys at the village and both trading posts. Fieldwork in 2001 was more focused and utilized geophysical survey data from both years to guide a multi-university field school excavation at Fort Clark. Excavation goals were to clarify the structural history and evolution of the post, discern functional change in one portion of the post through time, recover artifacts for analysis and interpretive exhibition, and generally develop visual and other information sources for visitors and future interpretive panels. Excavations concentrated on a fort-era midden immediately behind the post, the west bastion and palisades, and courtyard. Although artifact recovery was much smaller than expected, the project produced an abundance of feature data which will allow the project excavation goals to be addressed.