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 Mill Iron Site

"Interest in the Goshen Cultural complex was immediately revived as the result of the discovery and investigation of the Mill Iron site 24CT30 in southeast Montana (Figure 1.1). The site was found during the summer of 1979 as the result of an archaeological survey of a small, isolated block of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property a short distance from the common meeting point of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Reservoir construction on this piece of land required archaeological monitoring because of the discovery of late Paleoindian projectile points on the surface of an area destined to supply fill material for the dam (Figure 1.3). The earthmoving equipment was a day late in getting to the location, so the two BLM archaeologists assigned to monitor the area used the time to investigate the talus slope of a nearby butte, which yielded two Paleoindian projectile points of an entirely different type from the ones from the fill dirt area. The talus of the butte yielded a number of chipped stone items and bison bone over the next two years. Ironically, geological study of the nearby area used as a source of fill material that produced the late-Paleoindian projectile points found earlier proved to be a landform of post-Paleoindian age, and the artifacts that led to the discovery of the Mill Iron site, through unknown causes, were out of place...." "The projectile points (Figure 1.8) and tools recovered from the steep talus slope of the butte were shown at professional meetings for the two years following their discovery and were generally regarded as being similar to the Plainview site specimens. There is no doubt that they closely resemble the projectile points from the Plainview site in Texas (see Sellards et al. 1947). However, I suggested that they might also represent Goshen, the nearly forgotten cultural complex suggested earlier at the Hell gap site. This ultimately led to an invitation by BLM archaeologists to visit the site in 1983. A first-hand look at the site indicated it was probably one with good integrity and I expressed an immediate interest in pursuing test excavations. The Montana BLM agreed to support limited test excavations in 1984 with field help and food and travel expenses, along with some help in the field by BLM archaeologists. The remainder of the field crew consisted of volunteer help by University of Wyoming and University of New Mexico students and other part-time volunteers, including members of the Wyoming and Montana archaeological societies. The BLM archaeologists had excavated a small test trench in the camp area shortly after the discovery of the site (Figure 1.9) and gathered soil samples for analysis. The results were inconclusive and they were aware that better field and laboratory facilities and a wider range of specialist consultants were needed for further work...." "The Tool assemblage, although small, was adequate for limited site activity interpretations. Enough charcoal was recovered for four more accelerator dates (Table 1.1). Two of these dates bracketed the first date and two other averaged just under 11,000 years B.P. Whichever of these two groups of dates Paleoindian archaeologists consider acceptable, they present several possible interpretations: (1) Goshen was contemporaneous with early Folsom; (2) it was the same age as Clovis; (3) it was a cultural group present of the High Plains between the two. Something to consider concerning radiocarbon dates from the Mill Iron site is that if pine logs of considerable age were there, they could have been used for fuel, and the older dates could reflect charcoal from trees that had been dead for some time." cited from The Mill Iron Site, edited by George C. Frison. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1996.

Artifacts from the Mill Iron Site