Case Study
Garden Coulee (32WI119)
19th Century Hidatsa Settlement, North Dakota
See also: Midwest Archaeological Center Garden Coulee
website
The Garden Coulee Site is the location of a village
occupied by the Crow-Flies-High band of Hidatsa in the mid 1800’s,
near the site of the then-abandoned Fort Union trading post. Archaeo-Physics
surveyed the site in November 2002, as a part of a multi-disciplinary
investigation performed by the Midwest Archaeological Center, National
Park Service.
Download
image as *.PDF file (zipped)
The image above is a detail from
a larger (roughly 6 hectare) survey area.The image map displays
electrical resistance data; the colored contours represent magnetic
field gradient data. A number of large, high-amplitude magnetic
anomalies are associated with distinct highs in the resistance data.
Previous research at the site suggests that these are due to large
storage/refuse pit features, although they are also consistent with
hearth features. The linear low-resistance feature in the southwest
corner of the data plot is caused by a modern road.
The Geophysical survey results are
treated in greater depth on the Midwest Archaeological Center’s
Garden
Coulee website, along with the history of the Crow-Flies-High
Band and the archaeology of the Garden Coulee Site.
