It was the desire of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to excavate these existing structures, except the CCC camp, determine their approximate dates of usage, and determine, as far as possible, their individual functions. In order to interpret these data, it was necessary to recover the artifactual remains of the former inhabitants, determine their dates of manufacture, and correlate them to specific rooms or features
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The primary research aim was to establish a range of time for occupation of each structure through the use of written history, oral history, and archaeology. It was hoped that a level of credibility could be established among these three approaches. It was assumed that the archaeological evidence would provide the most accurate data for dating
the structures, then history, and finally oral history, providing the least accurate details. This assumption could be falacious depending on the type of remains present at the site, the amount of historical documentation, or the individuals from whom oral history was derived. John Bluth, Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, Brigham Young University, possesses written reports provided to the Bureau of Land Management, on the documentary and oral histories of the area (Bluth 1975 and 1976). Fike and Headley (1979) have studied the pony express stations from historical research, mostly maps, also.
The archaeological investigations at Simpson Springs, believed to have been used by stage lines and Pony Express in the 1860s, were conducted for the Bureau of Land Management, Salt Lake District, during the summers of 1974 and 1975, under the direction of Dr. Dale L. Berge, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Brigham Young University. Assistant Director was Asa Nielson; members of the field crew consisted of Wes Carpenter, Ted Duggin, Jeff Bentley, and J. B. Earle, during the 1974 season; and Wes Carpenter, Ted Duffin, Dee Hardy, Jim Dykman, and Allan Carpenter in 1975. All were, at the time, students in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, Brigham Young University.