History and Archives

An informal interim report on the progress of the archaeologic-anthropological "diggings" on the NAL site was made to the Village Crier by Miss Ann Early, of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Miss Early, studying for her doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, after graduating from Beloit College (BA) and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (MA), led a survey of the grounds to locate, analyze and store remains of pre-historic Indian settlements in the NAL area.

So far, 18 or 19 sites of Indian occupation have been uncovered on the NAL's 6,800-acre site. Miss Early reported. "We are about two-thirds completed in our survey," she said, "and we are hopeful of locating even more settlement areas."

Miss Early completed her area-by-area investigation of the NAL site July 15. By September 15 she hopes to have completed a report for Robert R. Wilson, NAL director, and Professor Stuart Struever, of Northwestern University's department of anthropology. It will cover what has been found and offer suggestions on whether further investigations should be conducted by qualified scholars on the NAL site.

"I am pleased by what we have found," said Miss Early. "Actually, we have discovered more than we expected to locate on this site. All of the artifacts have been washed and are being catalogued and stored in the Mensing farmhouse on the site. A number of our discoveries are quite old and require further analysis," she said

Miss Early's colleague at the beginning of the study was Miss Susan Howser, of Salem, Oregon, a junior in anthropology at Northwestern. Miss Howser left her assignment to join Professor Struever and other students in a similar expedition on the Illinois River area near St. Louis.

In the last fortnight, some of the many artifacts collected by Miss Early were stolen by a thief or thieves who entered a building on the site in which they had been stored. Several bags and boxes of specimens were taken. An electric typewriter also was stolen. The FBI has been called in to investigate the theft.

It is understood, however, that Miss Early had taken precautions against such an event by photographing some of her more Important finds as well as putting the major portion of her archaeological specimens that she had been unearthing on the NAL site, in another place for safe-keeping. Rudy Dorner, NAL Site Manager, said that most of the artifacts taken in the burglary appeared to be of relatively little value in the context of the scholarly work being done by Miss Early under the direction of Professor Struever.