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In the course of excavating House Pit 15, we unearthed a deadman footing for anchoring a barge or ferry along the riverbank, confirming the reports of "Booth's ferry." The deadman still had the metal hawser attached, which had been cut off above ground level after the 1948 flood. ![]() ![]() Cultural Component VII is directly overlain by sand and silt from the flood of 1894, followed by finer sediments deposited as the flood subsided and from material washed in shortly after the flood. The trench containing the deadman was excavated after this surface became stable. Thereafter, a thick layer of fine, gray silt was laid down in the house depression. This deposit contains very little in the way of prehistoric remains and may mostly be wind blown silt from a stock pen that appears to have been present on the eastern margin of the site. Flood sand and silt from the 1948 flood cap this deposit. If you study the vegetation in the photo above, you will observe a degraded area and some possible fence lines. The photo below traces two possible stock yards (or one yard in two segments). The position of the deadman is noted as is a road that runs from Booth's ranch yard and terminates near the barge tie-up. The road is quite clear on the ground; we routinely used it get to the site. |