Beaver County

Click on Oklahoma map to return to county listings

173 reported archeological sites for Beaver County to date

The Antelope Creek people are the only recorded prehistoric culture in Oklahoma using stone slab foundations in the construction of their homes. Packed clay held the sandstone slabs upright. The walls were probably finished with grasses woven into upright limbs and covered with clay.

The house excavated at the Roy Smith Site in 1965 had a continuous west wall of 70 feet. Five 15 foot by 11 foot rooms were sectioned off the main E-W wall. The largest of these rooms on the south end of the structure had a long entryway stretching to the east.

The arrow points and other stone tools found at Roy Smith were chipped from Alibates flint from the famous Alibates quarry in the Texas Panhandle, about 100 miles from Roy Smith.Excavators also found bison bone farming tools and cordmarked pottery at Roy Smith.

The people who lived at Roy Smith apparently abandoned the site around AD 1450. The reasons for this abandonment are unclear. Perhaps a prolonged drought made farming less productive. Further research may someday answer this and other questions about the Antelope Creek people.

For further reading, consult:
The Roy Smith Site, Bv-14, Beaver County, Oklahoma by Fred Schneider (Bulletin of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society 18 1969).