Excavating the Bones

Excavating the Bones. A Journey Back Through Time. , Dr. Albert C. Koch , (1839) , Originally known as "Sulphur Springs," Kimmswick was first investigated by Dr. Albert C. Koch in May 1839. The painting, "Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley," painted in 1850 by John J. Egan, depicts Koch's excavations at Kimmswick. Koch amassed a large collection of bones from Kimmswick, and, with other bones from southwestern Missouri, he inaccurately reconstructed a Mastodon he called Missourium kochii or Missouri Leviathan. Koch toured the United States and parts of Europe with the skeleton. It was later sold to the British Museum of Natural History and was correctly remounted as a mastodon., C.W. Beehler , (1900-1905) , In 1897, an amateur paleontologist, C.W. Beehler, began publicizing the Kimmswick site From 1897 to 1899, Beehler lectured and wrote about the site, and eventually gained the support of a group of St. Louis citizens. In March 1900, Beehler began excavating at Kimmswick. A 60-foot by 40-foot museum was built to store the fossil specimens and drew tourists and professionals from all over the United States. Beehler appears to have excavated on the site until about 1904 or 1905. What happened to the materials is unknown., Robert McCormick Adams , (1940-1942) , Robert McCormick Adams, an archaeologist with the St. Louis Museum of Science, excavated on the Kimmswick site in the early 1940s. His work was supported by the Works Progress Administration. Adams was the first to keep good notes of where he excavated on the site. While he recovered many bones from the site, the only projectile point recovered by Adams came from the Early Archaic levels above the Clovis, levels., Illinois State Museum , (1979, 1980, 1984) , After the acquisition of the site by the Department of Natural Resources, the agency wanted to know how much of the deposits had been excavated and how much remained of the site. In order to do this, the department contracted with the Illinois State Museum. These excavations produced the first undisputed evidence of the association of man and mastodon in North America. A large Clovis spear point was recovered in 1979. Other artifacts were recovered the following year, including (illegible) Clovis point and a point in the (illegible) manufacture as well as waste chert flakes, all associated with late Pleistocene animals.