Riverside City History
Native American Archeological Finds

In the summer of 1983, Gary Brenner spent hours kneeling on sun-baked ground near the middle of Riverside. But while he was only a few feet from cars whizzing by on one of the area's busiest streets, his mind raced back to 350 BC, when earlier residents didn't even have bows and arrows. Brenner, a local man and descendant of the Brenner family that were the earliest settlers in the area, was a key investigator in the historic Renner Village Site. For thirteen years the Renner Site was the subject of investigation by the Missouri Archaeological Society and programs operated by Park College and Maple Woods Community College, with help from Kansas University and the University of Missouri. Now part of Riverside's Renner Brenner Park, the Renner Site was determined by archaeologists to be a massive Indian village nearly 2500 years ago. The site holds one of the largest concentrations of artifacts in the entire state of Missouri. This village was populated by people known locally as the Hopewells, western contemporaries of the Mound Builders who constructed large earth structures on the hills surrounding downtown Riverside— in the current "Indian Hills" subdivision.

The Hopewells had their roots in the Ohio area, then migrated to southern Illinois before eventually coming to this area. When Riverside's site was active, the bow and arrow had not been invented, nor had horses been introduced to the continent. Game was killed by hunters on foot using a spear thrower called an atlatl.

All travel was by foot or water. Despite these limitations, there was an extensive trade network with locations in modern Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida and west to the Rocky Mountains. Copper recovered at the site can be traced to Wisconsin. The evidence includes obsidian from the Rockies and seashells from Florida. Judging by bones and other remains, the Hopewell's main food was the white tailed deer. Other animals included fox, wolf, coyote, beaver and many of the animals that exist today. Additionally they fished with fish hooks crafted out of deer bones and captured and ate turtle as well. Even a few bear bones have been found at the site.

The Hopewell village covered about seven acres. The center of the village was about 100 feet northwest of the gazebo that now stands in the park. At that time, the Missouri River flowed just south of the site. Line Creek and a smaller creek also bordered the area, offering protection and easy access to water.

Although the village was occupied for nearly 1,500 years, it is believed that only about 35 people actually resided on the site at any one time. The site was a village where people from surrounding, smaller sites came during the day to work and trade. The average daytime population may have exceeded 100 or even 200 during the peak at 350 AD. Elaborate pottery vessels were the Hopewell trademark, with designs patterned from those villages in Ohio. Vessels ranged from coffee cup size to the size of five-gallon buckets. The Renner Brenner Site is best known for pottery rims with a crosshatched design.

Burials took place in earth mounds on the highest bluffs to the east and west of the site. The largest of these was on the bluff next to city hall. This mound was sixty feet in diameter and 20 feet tall containing an estimated 20 or more burials. The numerous mounds that were once in Riverside are long gone due to residential development. Seven main groups of more than 24 mounds once filled the ridges in Indian Hills and around High Drive and I-635. The largest of these was over 60 feet in diameter and about 10 feet tall. Before 1950, several amateur archaeologists reported finding as many as 25 remains in the largest mound. Some smaller mounds were actually stone "vaults" with the interiors approximately eight-feet square with roofs of wood piled over with dirt. Some evidence suggests these vaults were used as crematories over a period of time.

More than 35,000 artifacts have been professionally excavated from the Renner Brenner Site. About 7,000 of these are museum quality and most of these are in universities and colleges. The artifacts from the 1980-91 excavations remain in Riverside and comprise approximately 15,000 artifacts, with about 3,000 of these being museum quality.

Archaeological evidence suggests, however, that there were even earlier inhabitants of Riverside - between 4,000 and 5,000 BC. Known in the Kansas City area as the Nebo Hill people, these early Archaic people lived primarily on the high bluffs and hills along the Missouri River. The most important artifacts of the Nebo Hill people were recovered in Riverside near the current post office.

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