The site is located on private property in rural Saline County, Kansas, between the cities of Salina and New Cambria, southeast of the corner of U.S. Route 40 and Simpson Rd, and north of Smoky Hill River. It occupies a portion of alluvial flood plain between the Smoky Hill and Saline Rivers, whose confluence lies to the east. It is unknown exactly what courses the rivers would have followed at the time of the site's occupation. The site's features are interpreted as being of a small village, with twelve to fifteen low mounds identified as house sites in the 1930s. These sites, and others that may have predated that survey, are now identifiable only by shallow deposits of cultural materials. Dating of finds at the site yields an occupation time of about 1000 to 1350 CE.
History
By accident in 1873, Benjamin Marlin encountered bones when he was constructing a dugout home on his land. In 1936, Guy and Mabel Whiteford started excavating the site. For many decades, it was a tourist trap known as the Indian Burial Pit or Salina Burial Pit. It was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1964. In 1989, the state of Kansas purchased the site. In 1990, the pit was filled with sand and covered with a concrete cap to protect it, then covered with dirt and grass.
Marker
A former Kansas Historical Marker sign along U.S. Route 40 describes it as follows :
Several hundred years ago, perhaps more than a thousand, this valley was inhabited by men whose average height was probably well over six feet. These were not the indians of quivira, whose "7-foot warriors" coronado described in 1541, but an even earlier people. Here they lived in earth lodges, tilling the soil, hunting and fishing, and here they left records of unusual archaeological importance. One mile southeast of this marker is a burial pit containing more than 140 skeletal remains that demonstrate the remarkable size and strength of these prehistoric indians. The pit was discovered in 1936. It has been scientifically excavated, with the skeletons still preserved in the same flexed positions of their burial centuries ago. Among the objects found in the pit are pieces of pottery, a grinding stone, parched corn and beans. A stone tomahawk, ceremonial flint knives, and clam-shell beads and ear pendants.
