Old Newspapers and Letters - Process of Archaeology | UW-La Crosse

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Process of Archaeology / Pre-field Investigations

Old Newspapers and Letters

Newspapers may carry stories about interesting finds. Sometimes these old stories suggest places to look for new sites, or at least indicate where a site might have been located. Historical societies may have correspondence about sites or artifacts.

Charles E. Brown was the Director of the State Historical Museum in 1939 when he received the following letter from a farmer in Buffalo County. The letter tells of the find of buffalo remains in a peat deposit. Archaeologists in 1992 used this letter to relocate the farm and recover bones of an extinct bison.

The parts of at least 6 individual bison (including this skullcap at left) have been found in one bone bed in Buffalo County. There is no clear evidence that humans killed these particular specimens, but people are known to have hunted buffalo here. For comparison, in the center is a modern bison skull, and on the right is a deer skull.