Archaeological Report
Harney County Oregon, Range Seeding Projects

The Venator seeding project encompasses about 930 acres or 372 hectares of flat to gently rolling land a kilometer northeast of the town of Venator. The seeding area lies on the west side of the broad floodplain of the South Fork of the Malheur River. The river itself is deeply entrenched, forming vertical rock walls along the sides of its gorge in places, and these cliff faces form the eastern boundary of the survey area for about one kilometer near the northern boundary of the seeding. Vegetation is predominantly sagebrush and elevations range from about 3600 to 3700 feet.

The survey of Venator seeding project was conducted by a four-man crew: Thomas, Grunbaum, Morrison and Harning, on August 28, September 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 and 16, 1980. Twenty-seven flake scatters, six rockshelters and 13 isolated finds were recorded in the course of the survey. Twenty-three of the flake scatters were less than one hectare in extent.

The 23 small sites ranged from .001 to .5 hectares in size, with a mean of .073 hectare. Small sites were well-spread throughout the survey area. Many were found along ephemeral drainages but some occur in the middle of large flat areas or on small knolls. A total of 35 tools were observed at these 23 sites, 12 projectile points, 20 bifaces and three unifaces. Twenty-one of the small sites were rated S-3 in significance and two were rated S-2.

Of the four large sites, three are located adjacent to the South Fork of the Malheur River and the fourth is about one-half kilometer from the river. The smallest of these four sites covers about 1.55 hectares and included three projectile points, two bifaces and one groundstone fragment. The next larger site presumably covers 1.89 hectares, though it is shown much larger on the site location map. This site contained three projectile points, eight bifaces, two unifaces and an unspecified number of groundstone artifacts. The third of the large sites is the one furthest from the river anp covers about 2.3 hectares in area. One projectile point, four bifaces and two unifaces were observed at the site. The remaining large site was not only the biggest by far but also contained numerous tools. Covering approximately 31 hectares in area, this site included 37 projectile points, 21 bifaces and four unifaces. Despite its large size and numerous other tools, no ground- stone was noted at this site.