NEBRASKA
Frontier County
MOWRY BLUFF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
Cambridge
vicinity
National Register 7/12/1974
Mowry Bluff is a small Upper Republican Phase hamlet occupied during the twelfth century A.D. The site is an outstanding example of one of the cultural manifestations of the Central Plains village tradition. Archaeological work at Mowry Bluff and a companion site on the Missouri River provided a framework to re-evaluate late prehistoric cultural history in the Central Plains.
Howard County, Merrick County
PALMER ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
Palmer vicinity
National Historic Landmark 7/19/1964
The Palmer Archaeological site, also known as 25-HW-1, is the location of a Skidi Pawnee village located on a terrace along the Loup River. It is archaeological remnants of the earliest and one of the largest of known Skidi villages in Nebraska; the Skidi were one of four bands of Pawnee residents there in the first decade of the 19th century. This village was visited by Lewis and Clark in 1804, and various other Americans between 1811 and 1839. A military party passing through the area in 1844 noted the village had been abandoned. Historical records left by these visitors indicate the village included a council circle and as many as 145 lodges. Archaeologists rediscovered the village site in the 1930s, noting lodge depressions, midden materials, many scattered artifacts, and a burial ground. Much of the site was under cultivation, but one area contained 10 undisturbed lodge depressions that were 25 to 50 feet in diameter, cache pit depressions, and a deep midden layer. Farmed areas revealed an array of cultural material and stains marking additional lodge locations. Archaeologists believe investigations at the site could provide significant information on the Skidi society and their cultural relationship with earlier proto-historic Lower Loup culture and the Arikara Tribe. The Bureau of Reclamation owns approximately 10 percent of the site, with the remainder under private ownership.
Return to National Register Properties Map
Last Updated: 7/24/15
