The Lower Illinois River Valley is often referred to by local researchers as the “Nile of North America” due to its long and storied cultural history. However, for our Western Illinois Field Station team clearing underbrush from a wooded bluff in Pike County, this research-rich region is known as the place where the buffalo gnats roam! Swarms of these seasonal flying pests (which are in fact a humpbacked variety of the black fly) make unpleasant hot/humid late spring/early summer working conditions much worse due to the welts caused by their bites.
Despite this, the team found an interesting Late Woodland site that produced a Steuben point, cordmarked pottery, and evidence for subsurface pit features as part of IDOT-sponsored investigations relating to a potential bridge realignment.
