The Van Winkle's Mill Archeological Project began in 1997. It started as a simple project by the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Station of the Arkansas Archeological Survey--mapping a long abandoned nineteenth-century sawmill community in Benton County, Arkansas (see map below).

It has grown, quite by accident, into a multi-year, multidisciplinary project that has utilized the resources, personnel and funding from three institutions of higher learning and various state and federal agencies. Material from this project has been used in two Ph.D. dissertations, a MA thesis and an undergraduate honors thesis at the University of Arkansas and the University of Texas at Austin. Click on the links to explore the project and find out more...

The "Project" section of this web site provides an overview of when we did what and why. Below you'll find links to the various stages of investigation that we have conducted in Van Winkle's Mill.

• 1997-1999: Mapping and Testing
• 2000-2003: Cost-Share Project
  • 2000 Survey
  • 2001-2002 Testing at the Blacksmith Shop and Mill Complex
  • 2003 Testing at Little Clifty Creek Shelter
• 2001 University of Arkansas Archeological Field School
• 2005 University of Arkansas Archeological Field School