A human skull believed to be more than a 100 years old has been discovered.

Following a call from a concerned citizen who found the skull in the 102 River, law enforcement officials responded, recovered and sent in the skull to be examined by an anthropologist from Kansas State University.

The skull was embedded in a sand bar on the 102 River — approximately a mile and a half north of Barnard.

The Nodaway County Sheriff’s Department, the Nodaway County Coroner’s Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control all responded.
Steve Whittington, an investigator with the Sheriff's Department, said they removed the skull that had been partially embedded and searched in the surrounding area for additional bones, but none were found.

After being removed, the skull was sent to an anthropologist at Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas.

“He determined, after doing some tests, that the skull was most likely of early American Indian ancestry,” Whittington said.

Whittington said the anthropologist wasn’t sure how old the skull was, but that it could have been from 100 years ago.

While they don’t find too many older “artifacts” like this American Indian skull, Whittington said because the 102 has risen really high over the last several years, the skull could have come from a number of places.

“It’s hard saying where it came from,” he said. “It could even be from the result of uncovering an Indian burial ground.”

The skull is still at Kansas State, but will be sent back to Nodaway County, where Whittington said it will probably be given to a historical society.