Magnetic investigations of nomadic group encampments at Fort Clark State Historic Site, North Dakota

Abstract Extensive geophysical investigations were performed at Fort Clark State Historic Site, North Dakota, in 2011 and 2012. One objective of this project was to investigate potential nomadic group camping locations associated with the Mandan-Arikara village and the Fort Clark trading post that are only briefly mentioned in historic accounts. We anticipated that over time nomadic group camp activities at Fort Clark would leave characteristic signatures of magnetic anomaly clusters and increased magnetism isolated from the village and the trading post itself. To evaluate this assertion, a series of magnetic susceptibility and magnetometry surveys were undertaken in the open spaces south of the village and west of the trading post, in the area referred to by Prince Maximilian when he visited the site in 1833. Although our results are not conclusive, magnetic findings indicate the village periphery, and even areas closer to Chardon Creek, were actively used as evidenced by enhanced susceptibility and gradiometry anomalies.

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