FIRST 4,000 YEARS OF PEOPLE IN THE REGION AROUND CCCC (CROOKED CREEK/MODERN WASHINGTON COUNTY) (jan 1, 3000 BC – jan 1, 1000)

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For everything before 1000 c.e., the limited sources of information allows for only very broad differences and similarities to be observed among populations living in different times and locations. For example, archaeologists can see the new technologies introduced to a region, but not the diverse ways they were used. They can distinguish the lifestyle of people living in the prairies of western Iowa from those living in the more heavily forested east, but they can’t distinguish each of the diverse groups within those eco-regions. By learning about the religious traditions of a number of more recent native groups in the upper-Midwest researchers can recognize the shared creation myth of the “Earthdiver” retrieving mud from the deep sea to forge dry land, but they don’t have any way of knowing what other specific beliefs the people had held from site to site before the 2nd millennium c.e. Of course, there were always many diverse groups with identities and cultures of their own, but there just is not enough information to identify them in times that long ago.

The earliest people to have lived in this place may have had dogs, which were probably domesticated in this area at least 5,000 years ago. Likely, they collected freshwater mollusks from Crooked Creek, whose shells fill the middens (ancient trash heaps) of archaeological sites along waterways throughout eastern Iowa. Almost certainly, they hunted the ever-present deer using the atlatl, an ancient spear-throwing device. Most definitely, they collected hickory nuts and hawthorn fruits, which were found in a site near Davis Creek about 5 miles north of Camp, and can still be found in and around CCCC property today. Evidence of early agriculture, pottery, long distance trade, and large burial mounds have also all been found at archaeological sites within about 10 miles of CCCC.

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