In case you missed it (I know I did), a great article on the Big Eddy site in
Cedar County, Missouri, aired on National Public Radio's nation-wide program,
Morning Edition, last Friday, August 26. You can read more about the Big Eddy
site and other Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) projects at
http://www.missouristate.edu/car/projects.html .

For those of you who have the bandwidth and the proper software, you can listen
to the article by going to NPR's web site at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4816985 . It's a little
less than four minutes long.

For those of you who don't have audio capabilities on your PC, here's a
transcript:
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National Public Radio, Morning Edition, August 26, 2005

Analysis: Volunteers Help with Missouri Dig

Edition: 11:00 AM-12:00 Noon

Index Terms: 4816985

Estimated printed pages: 3

Article Text:

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Archaeologists have flocked to an area in rural southwest Missouri for years.
There, a site known as Big Eddy has yielded boxes and boxes full of early human
artifacts going back 15,000 years. Now the race is on to dig out as many
artifacts as possible before the site goes completely underwater. Missy Shelton
of member station KSMU reports.

MISSY SHELTON reporting:

In temperatures that flirt with the 100-degree mark, archaeologists Jack Ray and
Neal Lopinot and their crew are spending even the hottest parts of the day
scraping away layers of clay.

(Soundbite of excavation)

SHELTON: This site is larger than a football field covering an area next to the
Sac River on the edge of the Plains with wooded Ozark hills nearby. It's here
that they've discovered non-local raw materials and evidence of interaction
between early cultures. Scientists believe the Sac River and abundant wildlife
made this an attractive meeting place. Neal Lopinot says the artifacts at Big
Eddy tell stories of ancient civilizations.

Mr. NEAL LOPINOT (Archaeologist): We are basically writing or refining some of
the knowledge about pre-history in the midcontinent of North America. So we've
had a lot of exciting discoveries, these sort of firsts in finding things in
place in the ground and able to date those things.

SHELTON: In hopes of finding more firsts, the crew is excavating an area where
the sediment is preserved in an unusual way, in tiers like a layer cake. It's
about 10 feet below ground level and just over the hill from the dig the Sac
River is rising. About half the site is already underwater. Almost every summer
afternoon water pours through Stockton Dam to produce hydroelectric power. Then
the water rushes into the Sac River, an event that Jack Ray has observed many
times.

Mr. JACK RAY (Archaeologist): When they release large volumes of water to
generate hydroelectric power, it comes down the river channel as much as 5,000
cubic feet per second and we're losing approximately one meter or three feet a
year. And so eventually this site will be destroyed and our goal is to excavate
all the archaeological deposits out before they're gone forever.

SHELTON: To help reach his goal, Ray has asked the public for help. And today,
Leann Anderson is one of seven volunteers standing over clumps of mud spread
over screens.

Ms. LEANN ANDERSON (Volunteer): We soak the buckets of dirt that they're taking
out of the pit and then we pour it in this screen and then the water helps to
wash away the loose dirt and what is left is artifacts.

SHELTON: So far today, the volunteers haven't made any major discoveries, but
Terrence O'Brien isn't disappointed. Donning a safari-style hat, he says he
enjoys running his hands through the mud, quite different than his day job as
director of Heartland Opera Theatre in Joplin.

Mr. TERRENCE O'BRIEN (Director, Heartland Opera Theatre): We're not expecting to
find finished arrowheads. We're looking for the pieces that didn't work or the
chips that they chipped off of them.

SHELTON: Volunteers like O'Brien and paid crew members are disappointed that the
site will soon be underwater and they're trying to squeeze every minute out of
every day they have left.

Unidentified Man: It's not time to clean up. There's two minutes left, two
minutes.

SHELTON: And when it's time to clean up for good in a few weeks, archaeologist
Jack Ray says the Big Eddy dig and its treasures will live on through exhibits
at Southwest Missouri State University, but for now, archaeologists continue to
work near a river that attracted humans here thousands of years ago and that
will soon be driving them away.

For NPR News, I'm Missy Shelton.

MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.

Copyright ©2005 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved.
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