Awards of Excellence:

The City of Little River and the Coronado-Quivira Museum

The City of Little River and the Coronado-Quivira Museum were the recipients of an Advocacy Award for their role in supporting excavations at archeological site 14RC410.  In 2004, the City of Little River successfully applied for Community Development Block Grant funds in order to upgrade its sewage lagoon system.  After a lagoon location immediately north of their city’s existing three-cell lagoon system had been chosen and engineering plans had been produced, a review inquiry to the KSHS revealed that a known archeological site was situated beneath the project’s footprint.  A Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Little River and the KSHS (specifying that impact to the site be mitigated through excavation) was signed and major field investigations began.  Despite having scant discretionary funds available, the City of Little River, with monetary assistance from the Coronado-Quivira Museum in Lyons, saw the project through to the conclusion of field investigations.  The project attracted a commendable amount of positive publicity with volunteers from the community assisting with the excavations and several hundred visitors passing through.  The City of Little River and the Coronado-Quivira Museum chose to support and supplement the project to preserve the history and heritage of Rice County and Kansas.