1. The Prehistory of Salt Creek in
Cook and Du Page Counties of
Northern Illinois
Brian G Bardy
Fullersburg Historic Foundation
September 13, 2014

2. Salt Creek Valley
• Largest tributary of the Des Plaines
River; drainage area covers 150
square miles
• Constructional valley formed by
glacial melt water in a sag between
the Valparaiso and Tinley Moraines
ca. 14,000 years B.P.
• Salt Creek transects Chicago Lake
Plain, former lake bed of glacial
Lake Chicago – 12,500 B.P.
• Valley possesses a low gradient
stream aided in forming wetlands
with aquatic/riparian resources
• Salt Creek’s mouth lies north of
Chicago Portage area; continental
divide between Great Lakes and
Mississippi Valley watershedsArchaeological sites recorded in the IAS
database at the Illinois State Museum

3. Salt Creek Environment
• Pollen profiles at Volo Bog, Lake County, IL show variations in floral
composition over time directly related to climate change (King 1981)
• Zone I (11,070 to 10,900 B.P.) dominated by spruce, fir, larch, pine &
herbs;
characterizes open spruce woodland – at end of Pleistocene (cooler &
wetter)
• Zone II (10,900 to 10,300 B.P.) decline in open spruce woodland
replaced by
pine, fur, birch & ash that peak then decline; elm & oak increase;
walnut,
dogwood & hackberry first appear
• Zone III (10,300 to 7,900 B.P.) shows mix of both upland & wet
(mesic)
lowland deciduous components with scattered pine; oak dominates with
increase in grasses; pine & fir disappear – onset of Holocene epoch

4. Prairie Peninsula
•Prairie Peninsula formed
as a result of warmer &
dryer climate conditions
•Expanse of prairie grass
with xeric oak, hickory,
& walnut trees
•Floral composition
resembles a mosaic
pattern; forests line
major rivers & streams,
prairie occupies uplands
with oak savannah
•Edible plants & animals
are found near wetlands
(marshes, rivers, lakes
& streams) & ecotone
settings; border lines
between zones
• Archaeology sites are found adjacent to areas that
provide abundant/diverse resources (i.e. forest edges,
wetland locales); but bias may exist due to
development

5. Spring Valley Site 11CK919
•Site located on a knoll between the WGN Marsh at the mouth of the west
branch of Salt Creek with the main channel
•Artifact assemblage indicates continual occupation spanning 10,000 + years
•Assemblage indicates a base camp; disposal of chert debris & cached preforms
Dalton Horizon 10,500 – 10,000 BP
Hi-Lo Cluster
Early Archaic 10,000 – 8,000 BP
Lanceolate form, concave bases,
basal & lateral stem grinding,
resharpened/beveled edges
Variety of regional types: Kirk horizon, Mid-continent, Great
Plains
Top Row: Fox Valley, St. Albans, Kirk Corner Notched, 2 Kirk like
Bottom Row: Hardin Barb, Thebes, St. Charles, Stilwell, Rice Lobed

6. 11CK919 Archaic Components
Middle Archaic 8,000 to 5,000
B.P.
Late Archaic 5,000 to 3,000 B.P.
Top Row: Kirk, 2 Helton, Big Sandy, Matanzas points
Bottom Row: Table Rock, Matanzas, 3 Raddatz side notched
points
Side notched and Stemmed points
•High frequency of resharpening & heat treatment
•Spear Points made from exotic cherts located 100 to 250 km away
Ordovician and Mississippian formations
•Variety of point styles and foreign cherts indicate a far-flung
settlement round by hunter-gatherers during Middle Archaic

7. Archaic / Woodland
Early Middle Woodland
Adena Points
•Multi-purpose tools; used as
tips and knives
Top row: Scallorn, Klunk, Merom, & side notched points
Bottom row: side notched & expanding stemmed, Fox Valley

8. Utilitarian Tools
Top Row: 2 burins, utilized flake, 3 hafted
scrapers
Bottom Row: Drills and perforators, 2 hafted drills
Hammerstone, grooved axe, bannerstone
1 side scraper, 4 end scrapers
Knives
•Task oriented tools for
1) Wood working
2) Hide working
3) Carving bone
•Production/Processing
1) Food
2) Clothing
3) Shelter
4) Fuel
5) Transportation

9. Furniture
Broken Tips & Bases
Medium Preforms
Fine Preforms
• Discarded artifacts; broken tips & bases, indicate base camp activities, locations where maintenance of
tool kits occurred away from capture or kill sites
• Cached preforms of different stages indicate exotic cherts were transported from further distances then
refined on-site
• Heat treatment of cherts made them more amenable for processing into tools
• High incident of resharpening, multi-functional usage and re-use of tool types indicates conservative
(recycled) strategies in utilizing chert resources
Behavioral Implications Reflected in Lithic Technology

10. Ecotone Settings
• Ecotone is a transition zone between 2 different ecological zones
School Street Site 11DU451 Kristan Site
11CK825
•Single component Middle Woodland site located
upland between Salt Creek’s east bank and a marsh
• Multi-component site located in a forest-edge ecotone;
transition zone between floodplain-forest & upland prairie
• Site discovered by Ray Fraser and Gregory Perino
• affinis Snyder, Steuban, preform, Norton point, axe Top Row: Late Paleoindian rejected preform with
transverse flaking on one side, Hardin Barbed point, side
notched, Waubesa point, triangular knife, modified tool
Bottom Row: Red Ochre cache blades (Pomranky points)
made from Bayport Chert derived from Huron County,
Michigan
Havana Hopewell sites are extremely rare outside
major river valley locales

11. Kensington/Ogden Site 11CK810
French Jeton 1669
Obverse Reverse
HINC. SPLENDOR. ET.
ADOR.
Hence Splendor and Passion
MAR. THER. D. G. FR. ET. NAV. REG.
Marie Therese Dei Gratia Franciae Et Navarrae Regina
• Jeton was discovered in 1996 buried in a parkway near the intersection of Kensington & Ogden
Avenues in La Grange
• Jetons were tokens; this one commemorated the marriage of King Louis XIV & Marie-Therese
• Minted in Paris in 1669, it is made of pure copper in a manual press

12. Clovis/Gainey 11,200 to 10,800 RCYBP
•Clovis sites situated in upland locations
on Valparaiso Moraine
1) Mayslake (11DU20) glacial lake
2) Trinity School Site (11CK1061) located
on tertiary stream of Flag Creek