NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGIST VOLUME 15 1997 NEV ADA ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION NEVADA Nevada and has no paid employees. The purpose of ARCHAEOLOGICAL NAA is to preserve Nevada's antiquities, encourage the ASSOCIATION study of archaeology, and to educate the public to the aims of archaeological research. Membership is open to any person signing the NAA Code of Ethics who is The design for the NAA logo was interested in archaeology and its allied sciences, and in adapted by Robert Elston from a the conservation of archaeological resources, Garfield Flat petroglyph. particularly in Nevada. Requests for membership and dues should be sent to the Executive Secretary at the address provided below. Make all checks and/or NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS money orders payable to the Nevada Archaeological Association. Membership cards will be issued on the PRESIDENT BILL JOHNSON ................. 566-4390 payment of dues and the receipt of a signed Code of HENDERSON, NEVADA Ethics. Active members receive issues of the Association's newsletter, In Situ, and one copy of the SECRETARY PAT HICKS ....................... 565-1709 annual publication, Nevada Archaeologist. Members HENDERSON, NEVADA also meet once a year for paper presentations and the annual banquet at various locations throughout Nevada. TREASURER QYVIND FROCK ............... 826-8779 RENO,NEVADA DUES EDITOR, VOLUME 15 WILLIAM WHITE STUDENT ................................ $5.00 HENDERSON,NEVADA ACTIVE .................................. $12.00 ACTIVE FAMILY ..................... $15.00 1997 BOARD OF DIRECTORS SUPPORTING .......................... $25.00 SPONSOR ............................... $50.00 The Board of Directors of the Nevada Archaeological PATRON ................................ $100.00 Association is elected annually by the membership. Board members serve one year terms. Directors elect FuTURE ISSUES OF THE NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGIST the Association's officers from those members elected to the Board. The Board also appoints the Editor of the Manuscripts submitted for publication in the Nevada Nevada Archaeologist for a term not to exceed three Archaeologist should follow the style guide of years. Board of Directors meet five times a year, once American Antiquity, January, 1979 issue. Manuscripts in the fall, winter, summer, and twice in the spring should be typed and double spaced throughout, immediately prior to, and immediately following, the including notes and bibliography, and illustrations annual meeting. Board meetings are held at various should be camera-ready with a caption typed on a locations throughout Nevada. separate sheet of paper, also double spaced. Submissions from avocational as well as professionals MEMBER GRETCHIN BURRIS ....................... ELY, NV. are encouraged. Manuscripts for the 1998 issue should MEMBER ANNE DuBARTON ............ LAS VEGAS, NV. be submitted to: % Bill Johnson, 622 St. Andrews Rd., MEMBER MARK HENDERSON ...................... ELY, NV. Henderson, NV., 89015. MEMBER PEGGY MCGUCKIAN .... WINNEMUCCA, NV. MEMBER SUSAN MURPHY ................ LAS VEGAS, NV. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE MEMBER SKIP SCROGGINS ............... LAS VEGAS, NV. EX-OFFICIO ALICE BALDRICA ................... RENO, NV. Inquiries and general correspondence with the Nevada EX-OFFICIO COLLEEN BECK ............ LAS VEGAS, NV. Archaeological Association should be directed as EX-OFFICIO WALLYCUCHINE ............... EUREKA, NV. follows: MEMBERSHIP NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIA nON % SUSAN MURPHY, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Nevada Archaeological Association is an incorporated, 9785 TROPICAL PARKWAY non-profit organization registered in the State of LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 89129 © COPYRIGHT, NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, NOVEMBER 1997 NEV ADA ARCHAEOLOGIST VOLUME 15 1997 EDITOR'S CORNER Featured within are four of fourteen papers delivered at the 26th Annual Conference of the Nevada Archaeological Association held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on March 14-15, 1997. The thematic context for the conference was Seventy Something, Archaeology ofSouthern Nevada: Past, Present, and Future in recognition of the role that archaeology has played over the last seventy years in the understanding of cultural development and history of southern Nevada. Although all of the conference papers dealt with either past history or current research projects, no presenter ventured to advocate the future course of archaeology in southern Nevada. Over the past seventy years, particularly the last thirty, much has been accomplished. Enormous quantities of data have been accumulated, much of it fragmented in isolation from a larger game plan. Much, however, remains to be accomplished and comprehended. As we prepare to bid farewell to this century and welcome the 21 st century, it is time that we take stock of the past and present to address future archaeological interests in Nevada. Perhaps the new century will bring a synthesis of what we do know so that we as avocationalists, professionals, cultural resource managers, and interested parties can focus on what remains to be learned about our common cultural heritage. Far from addressing the future or representing a synthesis, the following papers do, however, discuss the past as well as present research, taking stock as noted above. As much as some of us may disdain the topic, archaeopolitics has certainly played and continues to playa manifest role in archaeology in general. Our first paper discusses the political career of a Nevada politician, James Scrugham, who promoted and encouraged Raymond Harrington's "efforts to recover the past" in the 1920s. Also reviewing the history of Nevada archaeology, much has recently been compiled about the career of Sidney Wheeler, which is communicated in the second paper. This is followed by a current analysis of the formation and use of the Buena Vista # 1 site, a Moapa Valley lithic-source site utilized over a long period of time. Finally, insight into the poorly understood Fremont frontier, specifically "fringe" Fremont settlements, in eastern Nevada is advanced in the concluding contribution. I would like to thank the authors who shared their works in this volume. As always, the final responsibility of compiling and editing of the volume rests with the editor and not with the authors. So with this as an introduction to Volume 15, please enjoy and support Nevada archaeology. William G. White Senior Historical Archaeologist Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Cover: "Hallelujah Man" - a petroglyph at Ash Springs Archaeological Complex (26LN215), Nevada, illustrated by David Smee, 1997 NEV ADA ARCHAEOLOGIST VOLUME 15 1997 CONTENTS Editor's Corner William G. White A Forgotten Forefather: A Political Biography of James G. Scrugham Michael S. Green Who Came First, Harrington or Wheeler: Moapa Valley Revisted 8 Jeffrey R. Wedding and Diane Lynne Winslow Formation and Use of the Buena Vista #1 Site, Clark County, Nevada 22 Moody F. Smith and William A. Pond "Connections" and "Meaning" of the Swallow Fremont Site (Eastern Nevada) Artifact Assemblage 31 Shela A. McFarlin and John K. Zancanella 11 NEVADA ARCHAEOLOGIST VOLUME 15 1997 A Forgotten Forefather: A Political Biography of James G. Scrugham Michael S. Green Community College of Southern Nevada Abstract irrigation and dams that have helped make possible the Sunbelt's growth. From 1913 to A study of the role of archaeology in southern 1940, Key Pittman fought for silver, while Nevada over the past 70 years cannot be completed wielding influence chairing the Senate Foreign without attention to James G. Scrugham. Mark Relations Committee late in his tenure. From Harrington is deservedly considered the father of Nevada archaeology, but he had a little help from his the 1930s to the 1950s, Pat McCarran built a boss, the governor - Scrugham. dominant political machine by pumping In Nevada's history, Scrugham was much federal money into Nevada while pursuing more than a governor - as if that were not a big enough political enemies at home and alleged role. He served as state engineer, a newspaper communists in Washington. In recent publisher, a five-term member of the House of Representative, and a United States senator. He also decades, Alan Bible fathered the Southern edited a three-volume history of Nevada that is still Nevada Water Project, making water available useful to historians. Had he done no more than support and modem Las Vegas possible; Howard Harrington's effort to recover the past from "Lost Cannon passed numerous bills in behalf of City," he would be important to Nevada's history. defense and tourism; and Harry Reid pushed However, he is important in other ways, and deserves attention for them. This paper attempts to survey the through the creation of the state's only life of an important politician of twentieth-century national park, helped negotiate the settlement Nevada. of controversial water issues in northern Nevada, and moved into the U.S. Senate Presentation Democratic leadership. All were senators, who figured: for a Since becoming a state in 1864, small state like Nevada, accumulated seniority Nevada has produced and profited from a in the upper house is its most likely route to series of political figures whose primary national influence. Few of its representatives contribution, at home or in Washington, was gained power, given the size ofthe House and to aid Nevada's economic development by Nevada's small populace. Some of its enhancing their power or that of the bosses governors have enjoyed