REVISITING A 150-YEAR-OLD COLD CASE: UTILIZING NON-INVASIVE GEOPHYSICS TO SEARCH FOR THE BENDER FAMILY HOMESTEAD (SITE 14LB24)

14LB24 was a historic site occupied from 1870 to 1873 in southeast Kansas. The site is thought to contain the remains of the Bender’s homestead, which possibly includes a house, barn, outhouse, wells, and burial grounds. The Osage Trail is also recorded as passing close to the homestead. The site is well known today as the home of the Bloody Benders, where a total of eleven victims were discovered after the Benders abandoned the homestead in 1873. The exact locations of the homestead and the Trail are currently unknown today. Renewed interest in the site has been spurred by landowner Bob Miller in an effort to tale the stories of the victims as well as identify if any other victims are still at the site today. This interest led to the creation of a field camp setting in 2023 by the University of Kansas Department of Anthropology and Kansas Geological Survey. Magnetic, electrical conductivity, and electrical resistivity data were collected over a 4.5 acre survey grid. Additionally, a densely sampled pedestrian survey was established over the entire survey grid. The results of the survey identified a large circular feature that may be evidence of a horse corral, a possible well, and a possible trash site. This corresponds with areas of dense artifact concentration from the pedestrian survey results. Excavations at the site in 2024 will focus on these geophysical anomalies and more geophysical surveys will be conducted to expand the survey area.