NYSAA Bulletin No. 52 — Archaic Sites: Croton Point & Dogan Point — Passage 15

[Various (1971)] In the 1950's the United States Army Corps of Engineers proposed to dam the Allegheny River at Kinzua, Pennsylvania, to prevent downriver flooding and to control the navigation level of the river. Since the proposed dam would create an artificial lake in the Allegheny River Valley which might cover sites of archaeological importance, several institutions began to conduct archaeological surveys of the region to be flooded. These institutions included the Carnegie Museum, New York State Museum, and the Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo. During July, 1966, a field survey team from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Department of Anthropology, found and excavated two pits exposed by power equipment on the first terrace of the Allegheny River downstream from Salamanca, New York.

Further west (500 ft.) from this area they also located cultural material eroding from the river bank. Since both of these sites lay below the proposed flood level of the river it was decided to excavate them before the completion of the dam. The Witchs Walk Sites, as they came to be called, are located on the north bank of the Allegheny River, on the first terrace, directly across from a stream tributary of the same name. The river flows in a northeast/southwest direction in this area, south of Salamanca, New York. The sites are located on the Seneca Indian Reservation, the property belonging to the estate of Carrie John.