The Clampitt site, located in Guthrie Township of central Lawrence County, is situated on the eastern bank of the East Fork White River near its confluence with Guthrie Creek ( Figure 1 ). This portion of the East Fork Valley lies within the Mitchell Plain, an area of low relief resulting from the erosion of middle Mississippian-age limestones. The topography of this karst plain is marked by countless sinkholes and other solution features reflecting a well developed system of subsurface drainage (Schneider 1966:46). The limestone- derived soils of this area supported a native mixed mesophytic forest dominated by oak, hickory, beech, and maple, but included significant numbers of white ash, tulip popular, white basswood, and yellow buckeye as well (Petty and Jackson 1966:279-281). General understory vegetation included hawthorn, redbud, wild plum, and flowering dogwood, as well as, herbaceous shrubs like elderberry and pawpaw (Petty and Jackson 1966:276).
The East Fork White River originated as a glacial meltwater channel and contains deposits of Pleistocene age. The Clampitt site is located on an elevated, terrace consisting of glacial outwash deposits of the Atherton Formation (Wayne 1963). Local soils are a mixture of Tyner and Alvin series loamy sands. These soils are very well-drained, with a low organic content, and are low in pH (Thomas 1985).
The site overlooks an expansive floodplain to the west and is bordered by
Guthrie Creek on the north (Figure
2). At present, the site is nearly devoid of trees, but only the southern
half of the site is currently under cultivation (Figure
3). Most of the uncultivated north half is covered by grasses and weeds;
several dense clusters of Osage Orange trees have recently grown up at the edges
of the site. The village site is bisected in an east-west direction by a barbed
wire fence and a sand farm road (Figure
3). Elevations across the site range from about 500 to 512 ft. a.m.s.l.,
and the terrace surface is marked by low, north-south trending ridges and gentle
swales (see Figure 2).
