These are sites at Chippewa Nature Center where excavations have been conducted. Pages will be added to our website for each of these sites in the future.
The Barnes Paleo-Indian site is located in southern Midland County (not on CNC's grounds). CNC members participated in these excavations and CNC curates the collection from this important Paleo-Indian site. Photos of all the artifacts in this collection can be found on the webpages below.
Pages on this site:
Excavations were conducted at this site in 1971 and 1972. Late Archaic to Late Woodland artifacts were recovered from the site (ca. 2500 B.C.-1600 A.D.). CNC's Visitor Center was originally going to be located here but was latter moved to the Naugle site. The results of the excavations were published by Doreen Ozker, "Sumac Bluff (20MD25), A Site on the Chippewa River in Midland," The Michigan Archaeologist 22/4 (Dec. 1976), pp. 283-313.
Salvage excavations were conducted at this site in 1973, 1974, and 2007. Middle Archaic to Late Woodland artifacts were recovered from this site (ca. 5000 B.C.-1600 A.D.). The results of the 1970's excavations were published by Doreen Ozker, "The Naugle Site, 20MD30, Midland County, Michigan, Early Late Woodland and Late Archaic Components on a Pine River Site," The Michigan Archaeologist 22/4 (Dec. 1976), pp. 315-355.
Excavations were conducted at this site in 1975 and 1976 and again from 1994 to 1999. This site was the location of a historic period Native American "wigwam" and (ca. 1820) and a settler cabin (Charles Cater, ca. 1840). Preliminary reports on this site were published in Volume 48, Numbers 1 and 2 of the Michigan Archaeologist (2002).
Pages on this site:
Excavations were conducted at this site in 2000 and 2001. This site was the location of a historic period Native American "wigwam" and midden (ca. 1820).
Excavations were conducted at this site from 2002 to 2004 and again from 2013 to 2019. This site was the location of a settler cabin in the mid-1830's (Thomas and James Ponton).
Pages on this site:
Excavations were conducted at this site from 2005 to 2013. The main occupation of this site dates to late Middle Woodland period (ca. 400-600 A.D.) with minor Late Woodland and Late Prehistoric occupations. Two buried soil horizons were noted during testing that presumably date to the Middle Archaic and Late Archaic/Early Woodland periods respectively. These layers contained very little cultural material (mainly fire-cracked rock).
In 2021 we began investigating CNC's "Riverpoint" property. Riverpoint #1 is a prehistoric occupation. At present we have not recovered diagnostic artifacts.
This site is located on a low dune along a former channel of the Chippewa river near the entrance to CNC. This site was discovered in 1992 during a shovel test survey. In 2022 we returned to the site to conduct excavations along the paleo-channel and determine the age of the occupation.