Although evidence shows occupation as early as Nebo Hill (3000 BC) and as late as early Mississippian, the predominate occupation of the Renner Site were from fading traces of the Havana Hopewell from Illinois. (100 BC- 400 AD)  It represented the western most expansion of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere until 450 AD.

People who gave up their spectacular ceremonial and artistic practices as they spread successively westward to become simpler horticulturists.

The Renner Site was an important, sedentary, nuclear center of Kansas City Hopewell activity and providing the three sequent Hopewell pottery phases. 

Late in its occupation,the population of the Renner site had expanded to the point where the natural resources of the immediate vicinity could no longer sustain the nuclear community, so certain segments of the village found it necessary to establish outlying, specialized, activity areas for the production of essentials for the maintenance of the nuclear center, such as Deister 23PL2.

It was not an expansion of a vigorous exploding civilization, but rather as an outpost in the far reaches of a declining one.

By the time this dispersion into the Missouri Valley took place, the parental culture centers to the east were already past their peak and had begun to disintegrate.

The Renner Site was occupied by different races and cultures, sometimes simultaneously, for as long as 1,975 years . Radiocarbon dates reveal a possible time span from 956 B.C. To 1019 A.D., with the adjusted (Adair 2012) most probable dates between 36 and 769 A.D.

The site is best known for these reasons:

1. The stone vaults are unique for having doorways.

I saw a photo online of a similar stone vault in Ohio, but the photo had no information.

2. No other Midwest site had the sheer concentration of burial mounds.

3. No other site had the concentration of stone vaults.

4. Is considered the largest western-most village associated with the Hopewell culture.

5. The only site of it's size known to have had virtually every culture of prehistoric people

through all three Woodland periods and into the Mississippian period.

Artifacts range in time from Nebo Hill (3,000 BCE – 1,000 BCE), to Mississippian bird points (650 A.D – 1,550 A.D.).

The center of the site was recorded by Shippee & Wedel as 5 to 6 acres, however Shippee would go on to record several campsites for almost a mile up Vivion Road that would make it closer to 35acres.

Although we will never know the true number, reports from the 1800s had as many as 28 burial mounds within a mile of the site. Of those 28, 7 were large earth mounds and 21 were stone walled burials, eight feet square.

Twenty-five of these burial mounds were on the ridge in Indian Hills. Most were destroyed by 1910 and the rest by 1954.

The Hopewell influence was present with the discovery of copper sheets and pins, clay effigies and platform pipes. They may have influenced the construction of the stone vaults, but their effect at Renner was much more than just an occasional connection.

At times, the site was a sparsely populated area from an outgrowth of the population in southern Illinois. At other times, it appears it was heavily populated possibly as a mortuary complex or as a center for ceremonies, or both. As a general rule, the five acres likely had 2-3 individuals c0nsisting of a chief and his assistants and may have lived in a fortified structure.

Four of the known races of people, were the Woodland (normal round skulls),

the dolichocephalus (long-headed skulls) and the giants (West 1878). Nothing is known about the giants, other than one was recovered that would have been 7' 5” tall and had a skull twice the size of an ordinary skull. These so-called giants are occasionally reported from other Woodland sites throughout the states. It may be a different unknown race or just a thryoid issue, but in Riverside, we'll never know since all evidence has been gone for over 115 years. Some Native Americans have legends about a tribe of giants.

There were other times, although short lived, when nobody was there. There is evidence that at times, all four races mentioned may have lived together

It's maximum population was reached in 360 A.D. And again in 480 A.D.

INTRODUCTION

I built this website entirely with very little HTML experience, so there are several typing mistakes that I slowly corrected. It is also filled with my opinions, which probably do not digest well with professionals.  Progress can come from disagreement.

It has now been 44 years since my work began with the Renner Site and many of my beliefs about these prehistoric people have either changed, strengthened, or were fading away.   The older me sees these people in a different light than the younger me did.

I put myself to sleep every night giving an impressive speech to an invisible, but interested audience.  It's safe to say I fall asleep rather quickly.

I am not a professional in the sense that I hold a degree, but I am in terms of my unquestionable dedication to the Renner Site.  Somewhere along my life's path I was given the honor of being the match that lit the fuse to save it, and an even deeper honor of watching over it until I can't anymore.  I was 24 when all this began for me and this year I turn 70.

I was that 24 year old when I met Shippee.  He was 83.  I came home from work and saw an old man looking into a hand dug pit I had made.  He was standing with a attractive woman with a camera.  I realized quickly who it was and she was a reporter for the Star.

The story of the events that unfolded are elsewhere on this site, but that torch of responsibility was passed to me that day and it wasn't long after that I promised him I would save it.  Strong words coming from someone young enough to have been Shippee's  great grandson.

Mett's daughter, Joan, began bringing him out to our Saturday classes in 1983 and by then he was confined to a wheelchair.  He would sit there for hours as my students would respectfully show him what they were excavating.  There was no doubt he was enjoying it.

On that last class in October, I was able to get him off to the side and tell him the site would be saved.  It was an extremely emotional moment for me and I wasn't sure I was going to get it out.  Mett was looking at me like I had just swallowed a wheelbarrow full of dirt.  After composing myself and kneeling next to him, I told him.  I didn't get the reaction I was expecting.  He simply smiled and said, "I knew you would".

He was hospitalized that winter and passed away in 1985 at the age of 89.  The monument was erected in June of 1986 and the park was dedicated in June, 1990.  Joan was one of the speakers.

I would go on to teach archaeology through a community education class for Maple Woods Community College.  It was a job I got from Dr. Walter Burks and I continued with it for 13 years.  Many who took my class went on to become archaeologists and many who were in my class were already archaeologists.  I probably have twice the number of actual excavating hours than most professors.

My work was before computers, but I'll present the way I recorded artefacts up against anybody at any time. I simply used the same procedure as Wedel.

It is also true that in 1990, I contracted a prehistoric enzyme while sifting dirt, which has been commonly called, "King Tut's disease", about Howard Carter's team contracting something similar while excavating King Tut.   The enzyme needed water and air to activate and it was found both in my lungs.  Within a few short hours, it began shutting down my organs one at a time as I was rushed to NKC Hospital. 



I remember briefly waking up at one point and having a look around.  I knew where I was and thought I had died.  Then the attendant, whom I didn't know was there, nearly scared me to death when he told me to lay back down.  For a brief second, I thought it was God-giving orders.  After that, I would remain unconscious for another  10 days.

When I woke up, I thought only 24 hours had passed and got up to go home.  The nurse and my wife filled me in and instructed me I'd have to stay one more day.

It was a month later before the doctor had diagnosed the enzyme and every six months for the next two years, I had to go have a chest x-ray to make sure it was dormant until it was positive it was calcified.

Today, I do walk around with a little pride that I had a living 2,000-year-old enzyme inside me from the Renner Site and from the middle woodland period.

I was all of 35 back then and now I'm close to 70.  I fulfilled my promise to Shippee and desire to spend my free time doing anything I can to get whatever knowledge I've gained to the public and to help promote education and preservation.  The best way I can do that is through this website.

The Renner Site was discovered by Mett Shippee in 1921 while walking through a fresh road cut during the construction of Vivion Road. Burial mounds dotting the nearby bluffs were discovered long before that in the 1870's.

Although no direct connection has been made between the village and the mounds, the odds are good the mounds were created by the Renner people.

The Renner site is unique for several reasons, most notably the deep midden layer signifying a long occupation. Artefacts found have spanned the ages from Nebo Hill to Mississippian or nearly 3,500 years of occupation by different cultures.

The largest concentration of artefacts come from the Middle-Weblands period and tend to overshadow those from other cultures.

Because there were nearly 28 burial mounds, some may classify this site as a mortuary complex. It would be difficult to argue otherwise. There are four distinct burial types, with each having some sub-types as well.

There were three large earthmounds closest to the village. These were on the side of the bluffs on a terrace, about 50 feet higher than the village.

There were two more large mounds close together at the terminal of the east ridge.

All the rest were stone vaults. Some had doorways, some not. Some were used as crematories, while others did not. Some had bundled burials others had flexed and others a combination of both. Some showed signs of bones being crushed and spread out and a new floor was put in over those to be reused.

The vaults were likely covered with a timber roof and over the centuries of decay would appear as a simple mound before being excavated. Although some are similar, no other place in the world has stone vaults like Renner.

Another type of burial was in a cemetery at the terminal of the west bluff. This was mentioned by Shippee in a letter to Professor Wedel, but never investigated, other than Shippee commenting on the vast debris field there. A cemetery of this time would have been unique to Renner.

Shippee and Wedel had determined that Renner was five to six acres. However, their determination would have been strongly hampered by the construction of Vivion Road, the ongoing farming and areas where there was no farming or ploughing.

I believe they are correct in that the core of the village was five to six acres, but that the extent of the village was much larger. As large as 50 acres. I base that on two facts. The first is from a hand-drawn map by Shippee showing at least 13 sites from Renner, northeasterly about ½ mile. Each of these sites was separated by modern residential construction and roads and otherwise could be lumped together as an extension of Renner.

You could have only accommodated so many people on 5 acres and the notion the population vs time created all the mounds is not possible. I explain elsewhere on this site why that is not possible unless the village is much larger than 5-6 acres.

The other fact is the 28 mounds. You simply don't find that many mounds associated with a 5-acre village, even if the village had been inhabited for an extended period. Shippee's sites follow Line Creek and Nichol's Branch, where both are directly parallel to the mound in Indian Hills. In other words, if you were on the far end of the village, it would have been easier for you to walk to the furthest mound, than from the core of Renner. A majority of the mounds and vaults were closer to what I think was the northeastern extent of Renner, than to the core.

During the Middle Woodland period and the Hopewell influence, I believe only one to three or four individuals lived on the core and that they lived in a fortified structure surrounded by a stockade-type fence. I believe all the daily tasks were done by everyone at the core and at the end of the day, they went to their homes on the extension of the village.

During that time, the place was run more like a big farm. Someone was in charge and others carried out the wishes. Some individuals specialized in spearpoint manufacture, others in pottery making and so on.

The term, “Hopewell influence” is thrown around a lot regarding Renner. I think it's clear that it was much more than just an influence. Yes, it is missing some of the giant earthworks and more elaborate copper artifacts, but I believe that could be a result of being so far removed from Ohio. If the material and manpower aren't readily available, then you do the next best as they did at Renner.

It could also be that the limited excavations at Renner have simply missed artifacts. Thirty per cent of the site was destroyed by residential construction, the installation of large underground pipelines and the construction of Vivion Road. Less than 10% was professionally excavated. Of the four major excavations, hardly any resemble the other. Wedel's work was only 100 feet from mine, and his material was like it came from a completely different site. Wedel found amazing things considering everything was hand-dug with a shovel and no hand trowels.

Although the burial mounds were excavated by archaeologists, these were all done before 1915 and the extent of what the archaeologists were looking for at that time was simply not known.  No dates were done on the Riverside stone vaults because  radiocarbon dating was still 70 years into the future.  Dates were taken from the Young site west of Parkville.   The vaults there were nearly the same as Riverside and produced the dates of 432 & 426 AD.  These dates put  earth mounds and stone vaults all within the same era.  This suggests they were both built by the same people, but who had different beliefs.

In the Brenner mound group of 4,  there is an earth mound in line with three stone vaults.  This also suggests that earth mounds weren't before stone vaults, or vise-versa.   Wedel (1943) had suggested that earth mounds came after stone vaults, but again, his comments were labored and came before carbon dating.  I, on the other hand, would have thought it  would have been the other way around.  I based my thoughts completely on the idea of the vaults being more advanced.  There didn't seem to me to be anything advanced about simple earth mounds, other than their different sizes and shapes.  Even then, they were nothing on a scale compared to the high degree of expertise required to build stone chambers and to train others.

All the remaining mounds were destroyed in the early 1950s, where only two had any attempt at modern excavation and did yield two radiocarbon dates.   

Most of what I've described so far is all with the middle woodland period. We have evidence of occupation from archaic to Mississippian and these other cultures will need to be addressed as well, someday, by someone.

The peak population of Renner occurred at 360 and again at 425 AD. Then over the next 200 years, there was a fairly rapid decline to less than half of the peak numbers. There was a short-term come-back for 100 years between 700 and 800 AD.

There are several likely reasons for the downfall. We know the main group in Ohio ended and people began moving on and becoming Mississippians. It's also believed there was a long-term weather event where the high temperatures were as much as 20% below normal as well as rainfall.

But the biggest reason may have been the failure to manage the forest. Without a properly managed forest, you run out of firewood and the animals move on to safer areas. The trees you need to build your hut are now a mile away when they used to be at your doorstep.

Understanding the balance between wildlife habitat and human needs was essential. Effective resource management would have been vital to prevent the depletion of food sources and maintain biodiversity.

Once a mismanaged forest gets out of control, there's no getting it back in your lifetime and you have to relocate.  You can't cook or get warm without a wood supply.

In the thousand years before the decline, it's apparent forest management was done and done well. But a quick influx of people could have changed that in a very short period.

Let's say that on average, three fires burn continuously from 50 BC to 750 AD. There were times when there were no fires at all and times when there were more than three. So, three is just an average.

According to the National Park Service, a 24-hour fire would require 14 bundles of wood, assuming it's not all hardwood. If it was, it would only require 7. For this example, we split the difference to 10.

An average tree may contain 35 bundles and there is an average of 70 trees per acre that can be harvested- if that acre has been managed correctly and would equal 2,450 bundles.

In one month, those three campfires will burn through 909 bundles or 26 trees.

In one year, that equals 10,950 bundles or 312 trees.

If there was not some kind of forest management and all the trees were simply cut with no regard to their location, that would level 4.45 acres. If replanting or seeding was done, it would take up to 60 years before those 4.45 acres would have trees that could again provide wood.

Without management, that would level 44.5 acres in 10 years, or every tree within 1,000 feet of the core of the site. In 60 years, that would be 267 acres and without management, this would be the first year the first acre would have trees to harvest.

According to the National Forest Service, when you cut down every tree within an area, a very small percentage may generate saplings and most of those might be eaten by wildlife such as deer. Out of the 70 trees you took out, you might be lucky to have 7 return and grow to mature.

That would be everything within 3,300 feet of the site or about ¾ mile.

And that's just for firewood for three fires. They needed wood for their homes, drying racks, spears, axes and a long list of other needs. You could probably easily add in two extra trees per year for those items and over 60 years, that would be an additional 120 trees or additional 1.5 to 2 acres,

Thought and planning would have to be given to trees not to be cut for firewood and where that tree may be the preferred choice for a particular purpose.

So 60 years from now, you go back to your first acre to find only 7 trees whereas 60 years ago that acre provided you with 70 trees which was enough to keep one fire going for about 10 months.

Now you return to find 7 trees. Those 7 will keep one fire going for 25 days. But, you had wiped out 60 acres, so you have 420 new trees. That would keep three fires going for only 9 years.

After 69 years, you'd have to wait another 60 for trees you could harvest or be willing to go as far as a mile each day for firewood and that much further for wildlife to hunt.

In this example, in those 800 years, they will have harvested 249,600 trees, which is equal to 3,265 acres (at 70 per acre), or nearly exactly the area of today's Riverside.

With no forest management, the actual area it would have taken to sustain firewood and wood for structures, over 800 years, is mind-blowing to the tune of about 12,000 acres for a 5-acre site. That is everything within three miles of the Renner Site.

With a managed forest, it was possible within 518 acres to sustain 800 years.

And folks, that's what happened and that's the only way it could have. If there were 70 harvestable trees per acre, then they only harvested 35 and so on and every 60 years those acres would replenish provided reseeding or replanting was done. Even if not, by selective cutting, they could have barely made it and did. Well, at least until the end.

Because of that, there isn't one square foot of land within a mile of Renner that has not been walked by prehistoric man and that's one of the reasons their artefacts are found anywhere.

Forest management on this scale by primitive people is amazing. It required hard work, planning and supervision beyond belief. Not only that but day to day, to year to year, to decades, to centuries, this was carried out.

My numbers may not be exactly right for this example, but I believe they are close enough to understand the broader picture of woodland management by these people.

This practice would not have been unique to Renner. It was the practice for all woodland sites that survived more than one hundred years or so.

Obviously without saws of any kind, dead wood on the ground and up in the tree branches would have been collected first and the actual felling of an entire tree would have been uncommon most of the time. As far as tools, sometimes what they needed may have had to come from a living tree and so on.

Then there is the experience of stone vault construction. All 20 or so of these vaults were constructed nearly the same way over several hundred years. The Riverside vaults were unique in that they were found nowhere else. There are similar ones, but not like these.

The interiors of all were 8 feet square, or within 6”. The walls were 2 feet thick and three to four feet tall. The rock wasn't just any rock. They were limestone slabs where even the largest ones were not more than 4” thick.

I cover the construction of these elsewhere on this site, but it took the brain and tools tools make the structures level and square with doorways. It required some way to measure, a way to keep the walls plumb and level and where all these slabs were dried laid. No mortar.

Not just anyone in the village would have been capable of doing this and over centuries, it was a skill handed down through generations. The directional placement had meaning as well as the direction of the doorways to the south. The placement of the bodies inside had meaning where some were bundles and some flexed. In either case, their heads were oriented to the south.

All were in groups of three, except one group of five. Eight were not on the terminal of a ridge, but the other 12 were. Only one did not have a doorway.

They were all excavated and destroyed by 1915.

According to archaeologists at the time, there were three types of individuals. There were the ones with a normal-appearing skull and several called the “long-headed race”. The third was the giant. This was a skeleton that was over 7 feet tall and the skull was said to have been twice the size of a normal human.

I've read about individuals like that on other sites, but it appears to go unnoticed by academia. They could have been a group of really big people, or it could have been one person who suffered from a thyroid issue.

At least one skull recovered had a spear point embedded in the back of the skull. One might think if you were going to drag or carry this individual up the hill and bury him, that you would have at least been tempted to pull the spear point out.

It either indicates a horrible accident or a murder.

When these vaults were excavated in the 1870s and the dirt removed, the walls looked like they had been laid yesterday. Despite the nearly 2,000 years since the walls had not moved.

We don't know a lot more than that because the archaeologists at the time appeared to be more concerned with finding some sort of treasure.

Most of the excavations were done on a Saturday afternoon when there wasn't time to properly do anything close to right.

But between the notes from those involved, we've been able to partially piece together some of that lost history.

Anyone who reads about the middle woodland people learns of the high mortality rate among children. We learn the average age of their life was about 38. That's not exactly true, although it was significantly shorter than ours. It's skewed because if you have a burial with 5 individuals under the age of 5 and one adult of about 50, then the average would be 13. And nobody found in our example is 13.

A more realistic average age of life would be closer to early 40s and for that time, that would have been normal.

Infant mortality was high and it was with every culture before the 1700's. An interesting fact is more infants died in the winter than in summer and not for the reasons you might think. If a mother can't produce milk, the infant will die. A mother can't produce that milk without the proper nourishment and it was impossible to find fruits and vegetables and the things she needed if she was not prepared.

The pottery designs are a science that is difficult to unravel. Some designs, such as the cross-hatched rim, are found from here to New York, while others are more localized. Aside from radiocarbon dating, we've learned to somewhat date pottery by its designs and thickness. Some designs reflect those of a particular culture or area. And some appear to be designed haphazardly as if they didn't know why that design was going on.

Through the 1980s into the early 90s, I was fortunate enough to excavate in three different areas. The north end along Vivion, the middle where we plugged in beside Wedel and Roedl and the far southern end. The far southern end had the greatest material.

My most memorable excavation was the recovery of a dog burial. I worked on it alone and spent nearly three weeks uncovering it. It was a small dog and did not show any signs it had been eaten. It was in a shallow rock-lined pit and had been placed there with several broken artefacts.

Each day I would slowly uncover just a bit more as it began to tell me its story. By the time I had it excavated, I was depressed knowing it was over and knowing it had told me.

The broken artefacts were an indication to me that children were involved and that it had been a family pet. It wasn't uncommon on middle woodland sites to find dogs who had been eaten and then buried.

Some site reports suggest a popular meal was dog soup.

My first wife and I divorced in 1996.  She stayed and I moved out so the kids would have a safe home.  Big mistake.  It should have been the other way around.  I took all 60 boxes of artefacts with me and stored them in a Northmoor storage unit.  I would eventually move seven more times before landing another personal home after meeting my current wife.

On May 4, 2003, a large tornado came through Riverside from Wyandotte County.  It travelled across Northmoor, over I-29, through Gladstone and up through Liberty.

I was in Lee's Summit at the time and saw the storage unit where my artefacts had been destroyed.  I drove there the next morning and the National Guard would not let me enter and said it would be three days.  For three days I had these nightmares of seeing all the artefacts spread all over the ground.

I went back the third day and they let me in.  It appeared every unit was torn apart like sardine cans.  As I went around the corner to my alley, I saw my unit was one of the very few that was not touched.  It was unbelievable, to say the least.  Grateful, I immediately loaded them and took them home.  They were that close to being gone.

I'm still struggling with the population of the site and probably will until the day I can't anymore. Given the long length of time it was occupied, I have no doubt it varied wildly and given the possibility of it being 35 acres, that would better explain the 25+ burial mounds and vaults.

With the possibility of a skeleton with a spear in the skull and a fortified fence at Renner, there becomes some doubt as to whom was fighting with whom. Was it within the Renner population or those a little further west at the Young site? Why would it have to be fortified right in the middle of the site?

There's only one reason for a fortification and that was to keep something safe. If it wasn't a fortification, then it was some kind of round stockade-style fence where that only serves two purposes. Either so keep someone or something in, or out.

William Paxton was a Platte City lawyer through the 1800s and he kept a diary or journal of just about everything to do with Platte County. His work was published after his death and is a priceless trove of information. He discusses how early settlers recall seeing Indians go to some of the mounds and appear to ransack them and that was on more than one occasion.

I can't begin to tell you how much respect I have for these and all the people who have lived at Renner thousands of years ago. When you are at the Renner Site and looking around, you pretty much see the same landscape they did, but that's about it.

It was a completely different time and I don't have the words to paint you a mental picture.

Our society would find these people dirty and vulgar. They probably smelled really bad and didn't know it. We probably would consider them mean and bad parents, when that could have been the norm back then.

The same is true for us. Those people may not even be able to breathe our atmosphere today in most places. We would smell of petroleum, perfumes and smoke.

Enjoy,

Gary  D. Brenner