Fort Worth District Research Articles

Cultural Resources Survey of the Lone Star Express II Pipeline Project - Loop 1, in Midland, Martin, Howard, Mitchell, and Nolan Counties, Texas

Gray & Pape, Inc., of Houston, Texas, on behalf of Lone Star NGL Pipeline, LP, conducted an intensive pedestrian cultural resources survey within permitted areas of the 174.36-kilometer (108.34-mile) long Lone Star Express II Pipeline Project – Loop 1, in Midland, Martin, Howard, Mitchell, and Nolan Counties, Texas. The lead agency for the project has been identified as the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District (Permit No. SWG-2019-00091). Thus, survey efforts concentrated on areas anticipated to be under the jurisdiction of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (permit areas). Within Loop 1, the total Area of Potential Effects within the permit areas measures approximately 125.6 hectares (310.3 acres). This area encapsulates approximately 29.6 kilometers (18.4 miles) of proposed project alignment. In addition, approximately 2.3 kilometers (1.4 miles) or 8.9 hectares (21.9 acres) of the proposed route are controlled by the City of Colorado City and thus required the issuance of a Texas Antiquities Code Permit. Permit number 8896 was issued for the project. The procedures to be followed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to fulfill the requirements set forth in the National Historic Preservation Act, other applicable historic preservation laws, and Presidential directives as they relate to the regulatory program of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (33 CFR Parts 320-334) are articulated in the Regulatory Program of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Part 325 - Processing of Department of the Army Permits, Appendix C - Procedures for the Protection of Historic Properties. All fieldwork and reporting activities were completed according to a scope of work submitted to the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas Historical Commission and accepted standards set forth by the Texas Historical Commission and the Council of Texas Archeologists and in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Gray & Pape, Inc. submitted project records to the Center of Archaeological Studies at Texas State University. A records and literature review of the project location prior to survey identified 62 previously recorded archaeological resources, one cemetery, one historic marker, and 22 previously conducted surveys within a 0.8-kilometer (0.5-mile) radius of the Loop 1 segment. Of those, 10 recorded archaeological resources and six previous surveys intersect anticipated permit areas. Fieldwork on Loop 1 was conducted in the Spring of 2019 with supplemental survey in July, August, and September 2019. Survey of Loop 1 required approximately 1,200 Gray & Pape, Inc. person-hours to complete and involved archaeological reconnaissance and shovel testing throughout anticipated permit areas within the project corridor. In total, approximately 664 shovel tests were excavated within permit areas, 25 of which were positive for cultural materials. An additional 122 shovel tests were conducted as part of resource delineation efforts. Field effort also included the excavation of a total of 13 deep tests. Nine previously recorded resources: 41NL6, 41NL313, 41NL314, 41NL315, 41NL316, 41NL320, 41NL321, 41NL323, and 41NL326; eight new previously unrecorded resources: 41HW142, 41MH128, 41MH130, 41NL377, 41NL378, 41NL379, 41NL380, and 41NL392; and four isolate finds were identified within Loop 1 permit areas. An additional 10 previously recorded resources: 41MD41, 41HW8, 41HW104, 41HW105, 41HW106, 41NL310, 41NL312, 41NL322, 41NL324, and 41NL325; and one newly identified resource, 41MH129, were identified within the Area of Potential Effects but outside of jurisdictional areas. These sites largely exhibited surface scatters of lithics which are typical for the area and were consistent with the resources identified within jurisdictional permit areas.

Cultural Resources Survey of the Lone Star Express II Pipeline – Loop 3, in Eastland, Comanche, Erath, and Bosque Counties, Texas

Gray & Pape, Inc., of Houston, Texas, on behalf of Lone Star NGL Pipeline, LP, conducted an intensive pedestrian cultural resources survey within permitted areas of the 142.27-kilometer (88.4mile) long Lone Star Express II Pipeline Project – Loop 3, in Eastland, Comanche, Erath, and Bosque Counties, Texas. The lead agency for the project has been identified as the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District (Permit No. SWF-2019-00091). Thus, survey efforts concentrated on areas anticipated to be under the jurisdiction of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (permit areas). Within Loop 3, the total Area of Potential Effects within the permit areas measures approximately 209.9 hectares (518.6 acres). This area encapsulates approximately 52.8 kilometers (32.8 miles) of proposed project alignment. The procedures to be followed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to fulfill the requirements set forth in the National Historic Preservation Act, other applicable historic preservation laws, and Presidential directives as they relate to the regulatory program of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (33 CFR Parts 320-334) are articulated in the Regulatory Program of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Part 325 - Processing of Department of the Army Permits, Appendix C - Procedures for the Protection of Historic Properties. All fieldwork and reporting activities were completed according to a scope of work submitted to the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas Historical Commission and accepted standards set forth by the Texas Historical Commission and the Council of Texas Archeologists and in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. A records and literature review of the project location prior to survey identified 13 previously recorded archaeological sites, four historic markers, five cemeteries, and five previously conducted surveys within a 0.8-kilometer (0.5-mile) radius of Loop 3. Of those, the mapped locations for one recorded archaeological site and three previous surveys intersect the project corridor. An additional three archaeological sites are located within 91 meters (300 feet) of the project’s Areas of Potential Effects. Fieldwork on Loop 3 was conducted in the Spring of 2019 with supplemental survey in August, October, and November of 2019 and required approximately 3,680-person hours to complete. Survey involved archaeological reconnaissance and shovel testing throughout anticipated permit areas within the project corridor. In total, approximately 901 shovel tests were excavated within permit areas, of which four were positive for cultural material. No portions of previously recorded resources: 41ER48, 41ER49, 41ER50, or 41ER56, were re-identified; however, two new previously unrecorded resources, 41BQ358 and 41BQ359, and one isolate, BQ-07-ISO-01, were discovered. The newly recorded resources consist of sparse Prehistoric lithic scatters, consisting mainly of debitage and lacking temporally or culturally diagnostic artifacts. The lone diagnostic artifact, Isolate BQ-07-ISO-01, consists of an Ellis or Godley type projectile point dating to the Late to Transitional Archaic. The resource areas within the pipeline corridor showed clear disturbance from the adjacent pipeline right-of-way. Indications of soil deflation, erosion, and past land modifications such as agriculture or terracing were also observed. Further, Resource 41BQ358 and Isolate BQ-07-ISO-01 are located on very spatially limited topographic settings surrounded by slopes of 30 degrees or greater. The workspace at the location of 41BQ359 has been revised to avoid the site thus removing it from permitting. The workspace where it passes the site will be marked by orange fencing. Shovel test results at nearly all permit areas identified subsoils, cemented soils, or bedrock. Alarm Creek in Erath County, Permit Area Number 65, was targeted for deep testing based on geomorphological data, and field results and discussions with the field archaeologist. Deep test results indicated a lack of deeply buried A horizon soils and showed no potential for deeply buried cultural material or paleosols. No cultural features or historic-age standing resources were encountered in the field. No artifacts were collected as a result of survey. It is the opinion of Gray & Pape Inc. that none of the recorded resources retain the potential to provide significant research value and are thus recommended not eligible for the National Register, under Evaluation Criterion D. In addition, the resources are recommended not eligible for State Antiquities Landmark status. Gray & Pape, Inc. recommends no additional archaeological work for these resources or surveyed portions of the project. However, Gray & Pape, Inc. recommends that an unanticipated discoveries plan be put into place in the event that such discoveries take place during construction.

Speaker Jim Wright: Power, Scandal, and the Birth of Modern Politics by J. Brooks Flippen

Reviewed by: Speaker Jim Wright: Power, Scandal, and the Birth of Modern Politics by J. Brooks Flippen Daniel K. Williams Speaker Jim Wright: Power, Scandal, and the Birth of Modern Politics. By J. Brooks Flippen. Jess and Betty Jo Hay Series. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2018. Pp. vi, 527. $35.00, ISBN 978-1-4773-1514-9.) J. Brooks Flippen's definitive biography of James Claude "Jim" Wright Jr., the Texas Democratic congressman who served as Speaker of the House in the late 1980s before he was toppled by Newt Gingrich, offers a detailed, thoroughly researched account of a lost political species: the moderate southern Democrat. For three decades, Wright, an admirer of both Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, served as a bridge between his conservative, increasingly Republican constituents in Fort Worth, Texas, and the national Democratic Party, whose liberal principles of equality and commitment to social welfare Wright continued to champion even after conservative "Boll Weevil" Democrats converted to the party of Ronald Reagan (p. 104). Flippen's book, which is based on extensive archival research and interviews with many of Wright's associates (and with Wright himself before his death in 2015), sheds important light not only on Wright's own achievements but also on the era of centrist liberalism of which Wright and other moderate southern Democrats were a part. Although Wright began his political career in the 1940s with a reputation as a progressive, he quickly learned to moderate his inclinations toward large government social programs and racial integration when they conflicted with the conservative leanings of his constituents. For thirty years, from the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower to that of Reagan, Wright practiced the politics of compromise, using his growing influence in Congress to pass centrist legislation on health care, civil rights, and the environment. His skill at channeling federal money to his district while simultaneously calling for fiscal responsibility warded off conservative challengers at home, and his ability to shepherd Great Society legislation through Congress (albeit at times in watered-down form) pacified northern liberals in his congressional caucus. His record on civil rights was mixed, reflecting the conflict between his liberal inclinations and conservative constituency. He voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and in general, he supported moderate civil rights legislation, but only after it had been weakened by conservative amendments. On the environment, he was more progressive, but still not [End Page 508] sufficiently opposed to Texas oil interests to earn the support of national environmental activists. By the 1970s, Wright's cultural conservatism was out of step with the liberal wing of his party. He supported the Vietnam War long after it had become unpopular with progressives and took moderately conservative stances on abortion and school prayer. In the 1980s, when Wright had reached the top echelons of congressional Democratic leadership, some liberal Democrats in Congress treated him as an opponent and tried unsuccessfully to block him from becoming Speaker of the House. But if Wright found the Democratic Party's cultural move to the left discomforting, he considered the rightward shift of the Republican Party under Reagan far more objectionable. As Speaker, Wright tried—often unsuccessfully—to block Reagan's cuts to social programs and to counter Reagan's defense spending increases with tax hikes. Even as the parties shifted around him, Wright remained a southern liberal in the mold of the early 1960s: a man who believed in expanded government programs and a strong social safety net coupled with balanced budgets, moderate social conservatism, and a strong defense. At the end of the 1980s, Wright saw this dream collapse. After giving his life to congressional service—and sacrificing his first marriage, his extracurricular activities, and, to a certain extent, his health for the sake of his political career—he had to leave Congress in disgrace because of allegations of financial improprieties that he believed were unfair and politically motivated. Worse, the politics of moderation, civility, and consensus that Wright had pursued for decades disappeared, as did the centrist southern wing of the Democratic Party. Since 1997, Wright's Fort Worth district has been represented in...

An Ancestral Caddo Site (41CS125) on the Sulphur River at Lake Wright Patman, Cass County, Texas

ln December 2017, AmaTerra Environmental lnc. conducted an intensive archeological survey of 41CS125, a previously reported ancestral Caddo site at Lake Wright Patman in Cass County, Texas. The work was done at the request of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District in advance of a proposed bank stabilization pro}ect. The site was occupied from the Late Paleoindian period through historic times with extensive occupations during the Formative to Early Caddo and Late Caddo periods. Artifacts recovered in the investigations included both arrow and dart points, lithic debitage, bifaces, ground stone, a celt fragment, pitted stone, ceramic sherds, a ceramic bead, charred organic material, unidentified bone fragments, and 19th century historic domestic materials. While the site has been adversely affected through alluvial erosion and looting, survey results indicate that intact components of the site still exist along the northern and western periphery of the landform.

GIS-based visualization of integrated highway maintenance and construction planning: a case study of Fort Worth, Texas

BackgroundThis paper reports on a case study of the use of visualization of geospatial data that is distributed across data sets and requires integration over time and space to aid decision makers. Like many State Highway Agencies (SHAs) in the United States, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is organized along the traditional functional lines of planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operations. It has historically relied on experience and longevity of its staff to efficiently and effectively plan its construction and maintenance projects. Although functional boundaries of maintenance and construction are fairly clearly defined, there tends to be some overlap in projects that can be executed by either of the functional groups. The department currently does not have a robust integrated information system for identifying potential planning conflicts between its construction and maintenance projects. This has led to suboptimal use of resources, including overlapping plans for maintenance and mobility enhancement projects.Case descriptionWith over 650 highway projects assigned across two functional groups within the district’s (TxDOT Fort Worth district) boundary, it is a challenging task to assemble a coherent plan for managing these projects over a multi-year planning period that is subject to external stakeholder input as well as shifting funding constraints. Temporal and spatial data needed for integrated planning resides in specialized information systems developed for the needs of individual functional groups. To address this challenge, this district decided to integrate and visualize data from individual information systems in a Geographic Information System (GIS). A GIS-based tool was developed to integrate, visualize, and analyze projects data from multiple information systems.Discussion and evaluationThis paper documents the benefits associated with visualization and integration of projects data in a GIS to address planning challenges facing a typical highway agency. Among the lessons learned are the potential uses of GIS, which include detecting spatially and temporally overlapping projects, supporting integrated planning, and improving communication among functional groups within a state highway agency.ConclusionThe study demonstrates that such spatial-temporal representations of project data can lead to early identification of potential overlaps during the planning phase. In a broader context, such geospatial visualization efforts can also form the basis for eliciting practitioners’ perspectives and knowledge input in the development of spatial decision support systems.

Documentation of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Knight’s Bluff (41CS14) and Sherwin (41CS26) Sites, Cass County, Texas

A number of years ago, Perttula documented a variety of funerary objects through a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) grant awarded to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. These were from ancestral Caddo sites on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District lands in East Texas, including funerary objects from the Knight’s Bluff and Sherwin sites at Lake Wright Patman in the Sulphur River basin. These NAGPRA materials are held at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). At that time, only a few ceramic vessel funerary objects were made available for NAGPRA documentation purposes, including only three ceramic vessels from Burial 4 at the Knight’s Bluff site, and six vessels from Burials 4 and 6 at the Sherwin site. The remainder of the ceramic vessel funerary objects from these two sites (n=16 vessels from Knight’s Bluff and n=13 vessels from the Sherwin site), plus one vessel from general Lake Wright Patman contexts, either from Knight’s Bluff or the Sherwin site, have recently been documented, and they are discussed in the remainder of this article.

National Register of Historic Places (NHRP) Eligibility Determinations for Previously Recorded Archaeological Sites at Wright Patman Lake, Bowie and Cass Counties, Texas

Between 19 October and 11 November 2015, SEARCH conducted National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility determinations at previously recorded archaeological sites at Wright Patman Lake in Bowie and Cass Counties, Texas. This project was conducted under Contract W912HY‐11‐D‐0002, Task Order 0006 between the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Fort Worth District, and SEARCH.

The Archaeology and Paleoecology of the Aubrey Clovis Site (41DN479) Denton County, Texas

This report contains the results of interdisciplinary investigations of the Aubrey Clovis Site (41DN479}, located at Lake Ray Roberts, Denton County, Texas, and conducted by the Center for Environmental Archaeology, University of North Texas for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District. Exposed by construction of the artificial outlet channel for the reservoir, the site is a multi-cluster complex of archaeological features and artifact-fauna! concentrations buried 7-9 meters below the flood plain of the Elm Fork Trinity River. The Clovis-age materials are geologically situated on a paleo surface within a 14 m thick sequence of late Quaternary deposits, associated with spring, lacustrine, alluvial and colluvial sedimentary environments. A stratigraphically consistent set of 23 radiocarbon ages establishes a sound chronometric frame for these deposits between 1.6 Ka and 14.2 Ka. The Clovis occupations are directly dated by two radiocarbon ages of ca. 11,550 Ka determined on charcoal from a hearth. These ages are securely bracketed by stratigraphically and numerically consistent ages above and below, within the period of ca. 12,300 to 10,940 Ka. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions for the periods before, during and after Clovis occupations have been afforded by pollen, insects, mollusks, vertebrate faunas as well as sedimentary and geochemical data. In the early post-glacial period, the site environs was a cool grassland with moderate effective precipitation, that evolved towards significantly warmer and drier conditions prior to Clovis occupations. The environment ameliorated at about the time of occupations, but exhibited a maximum of Late Quaternary mammalian biodiversity. Clovis artifacts and faunas occur in multiple clusters, including ·camps 8 and F" that contain ca. 9,800 lithic artifacts, over 4,000 fauna! remains and features including hearths, lithic concentrations and a pit considered to be a well. These concentrations were adjacent to a Clovis-age pond and river. Bison bones and associated artifacts indicate a butchering (and "kill"?) locus on the pond shore opposite Camp 8 . Subsistence data from the camps indicate exploitation of a broad set of animals, ranging from mega-mammals (Bison and possibly Mammoth) down to small game, fish and birds. Lithic artifacts show procurement from a minimum of almost 200 km from the site, with materials dominated by Tecovas quartzite, white Novachert and Edwards chert, and including chalcedony, Alibates chert, and Morrison or Dakota sandstone. The assemblage is dominated by repair and maintenance debris associated with bifacial and unifacial tools. Latest stage manufacture is indicated for a biface(s), while all other activities were apparently performed with only resharpening/ repair of other stone tools. Detailed spatial patterning indicates quite well differentiated activities within and between these occupation clusters. Overall, the uniquely detailed record of Clovis occupations at Aubrey registers an adaptive strategy characterized by high mobility, broad exploitation of dispersed, variable resources, long-distance raw material procurement coupled with efficient blank and tool depletion, and a probable combination of functional flexibility and strong within group task differentiation and integration.

Archeological Site Assesments and Survey at Aquilla Lake, Hill County, Texas

Personnel from Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted archeological site assessments and survey at Aquilla Lake from November to December 2010 in preparation for a pool raise planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District. The proposed pool raise could potentially raise the conservation pool level of the lake by 6.5 ft. Field investigations revisited and reevaluated 41 previously recorded sites and surveyed 10 previously unsurveyed areas (180 total acres) within the confines of the proposed 6.5-ft conservation pool raise. The investigations consolidated 8 of the 41 previously recorded sites into 3, therefore reassessments are given for 36 sites. In addition, 3 new sites were recorded within the 10 previously unsurveyed areas. Of the 39 sites assessed in this report, 5 (41HI74/114, 41HI128, 41HI134, 41HI146, and 41HI169) are recommended as being potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (under Criterion D) pending additional investigations. Of these 5 sites, only 41HI74/114, 41HI134, and 41HI146 will be adversely impacted by the 6.5-ft pool raise and therefore warrant additional investigations.

Evaluating the Effect of Natural Gas Developments on Highways

The natural gas reserve in the Barnett Shale geological formation is one of the largest onshore natural gas reserves in the United States. The development of a natural gas well is a traffic-intensive operation that involves high volumes of truck traffic; saltwater traffic generated during the production phase is a major contributor to truck volume. The effect of traffic related to the natural gas industry on Texas highways is quantified. The oversized and overweight database maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation (DOT) was used to quantify several key characteristics of the rig traffic. In addition, personnel from the Texas DOT's Fort Worth District provided critical information about construction and saltwater traffic, including truck types used, gross vehicular weights, number of trips, and haul distances. Pavement sections were located along the busiest trucking corridors to evaluate damage caused by the truck traffic associated with natural gas development. Results indicated the approximate damage due to rig traffic was 1.6%, to construction traffic was 13%, and to saltwater traffic was 6%, relative to the damage caused by design traffic in terms of rutting. Additional damage caused by the natural gas truck traffic translated into reduced service life for pavements in the region. Results indicated a reduced service life of approximately 5.6%, 29%, and 16% associated with rig, construction, and saltwater traffic, respectively, in terms of rutting.

Geoarcheology in North-Central Texas: A Framework for Archeological Investigation, and Cultural Resource Management in the Fort Worth Highway District

This document represents an examination of geoarcheological issues affecting a nine– county area in and around Fort Worth, Texas. The study area includes Tarrant, Wise, Jack, Parker, Palo Pinto, Erath, Hood, Somervell, and Johnson Counties (Figure1–1), which collectively make up the Fort Worth District, a regional administrative entity of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). This study represents the second phase of a district– focused geoarcheological program being implemented at TxDOT. A similar study of the Houston District was published previously (Abbott 2001a), and studies of other districts are planned. The current study is intended to familiarize archeologists, planners, and transportation professionals working in the region with relevant geoarcheological issues, thus serving as a resource for those involved in prospection, assessment, and interpretation of prehistoric archeological sites. Readers of the previous Houston study are warned that the overall organization of the document and some of the text may seem familiar, as a certain degree of self–plagarism was practiced, particularly in the discussion of geomorphic and soil processes in Part II. Although the focus of investigation is on the nine counties making up the Fort Worth District, many of the issues addressed are equally applicable to adjacent areas of north–central Texas.

Archaeological Data Recovery (41TR198) and Survey Within the Riverside Oxbow Project Tarrant County, Texas

This report presents the findings of the survey of 75 acres and the excavation of 28 cubic meters of site 41TR198 (Crooked Oxbow Site) within the Riverside Oxbow Project sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, in partnership with the City of Fort Worth and the Tarrant County Water District. Planned impacts from this proposed project include habitat restoration, channel reestablishment, vegetation plantings, new roads, and sports field construction. The deepest impacts planned for the Area of Potential Effects are one meter and involve the excavation of a shallow lake utilizing the relict oxbow bordering site 41TR198. Impacts planned for the remainder of the project area will be less than one-half meter deep. Overall, the project will attempt to use the existing landscape as much as possible in order to reduce impacts. As a federal agency the USACE is required to undertake cultural resource investigations for their projects in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended through 2001. Since the Tarrant Regional Water District is the landowner and co-sponsor of the project, and a political subentity of the state of Texas, this project was also conducted under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 5040.

Documentation of Unassociated and Culturally Unidentifiable Funerary Objects in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District Collections Housed at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin

This report concerns the documentation of unassociated Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) funerary objects from prehistoric sites at several man-made reservoirs operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District (COE) in northeastern Texas: Lake Wright Patman, Lake O’ the Pines, and Lake Sam Rayburn in the Sulphur River, Big Cypress Creek, and Angelina River basins, respectively. These NAGPRA materials are presently held at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL).

Archeological Monitoring for Levee Repair, Navarro County, Texas

This report presents the results of one day of archeological monitoring and visual inspection during repairs to a levee located in northwestern Navarro County, Texas. These repairs, which required draining standing water, raking and grading wet areas, and opening borrow areas as the source for filler clay soils for the levee, were conducted over a segment of levee 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) long. Disturbed areas were estimated at 1.09 hectares (2.69 acres). Two phases of investigations were conducted during the repairs: the first was to monitor ongoing repairs, and the second was to inspect areas of prior disturbance. These investigations, conducted for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, were designed to evaluate the impact to historic properties. Archeological monitoring and visual inspection failed to identify any cultural materials or deposits. Geo-Marine, Inc., does not recommend any further cultural resources investigations at this location.

Archeological Assessment of Big Cypress Bayou Fish and Wildlife Habitat Restoration Area, Jefferson, Texas

The investigations conducted along Big Cypress Bayou were undertaken as part of a project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop a fish and wildlife habitat restoration area. This project will benefit and is supported by the City of Jefferson and the Cypress Valley Alliance in helping to educate the public on the merits of environmental and historical preservation. The authors wish to thank several individuals for the completion of this report. First and foremost, our deepest thanks go to Mr. Duke De Ware whose love of the history and vision for the future of Jefferson is paramount. The use of facilities, equipment, and personnel from the Cypress Valley Alliance, and the tireless efforts of Elijah Dusek was beyond what we could have asked-thank you for everything. The ever present support, direction, and patience from Dr. Jay R. Newman of the Planning Division, U.S . Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District is also greatly appreciated.

Predictive Model for Archeological and Historic Site Locations Within the Big Fossil Creek Drainage, Tarrant County, Texas

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Fort Worth District, is investigating the water resource problems, needs, and opportunities within the Big Fossil Creek drainage in Tarrant County, Texas. The effort focuses on describing existing conditions and identifying measures to minimize and control flood loss within a 48,396.8-acre area of the drainage north of the city of Fort Worth. Geo-Marine, Inc., of Plano, Texas, was contracted by the USACE to assess the potential for historic properties within the drainage area. Background research and a pedestrian reconnaissance survey of the project area were carried out and a geographical information systems (GIS) model was designed to evaluate the probability for both surface and subsurface cultural resources deposits within the project area and to make recommendations for further treatment of any properties.

Geoarcheological Investigations of Wetland Cell D Within the Dallas Floodway Extension Project Area, Dallas, Texas

The Dallas Floodway Extension project is designed to provide flood damage reduction and environmental restoration within the Trinity River flood plain between the Corinth Street Viaduct and Loop 12. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, contracted with Geo-Marine, Inc., to conduct an archeological assessment of the proposed Wetland Cell D. The archeological assessment was to identify any potential archeological sites that may be eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places and to provide an assessment of the potential for buried landforms in the project area that may have intact archeological resources present. The geoarcheological investigations, involving the excavation of 10 backhoe trenches and the review of previous data collected within the Upper Trinity River drainage, revealed that the flood plain sediments of the Trinity River are quite variable, both horizontally and vertically. The data collected during the current investigations suggest that Cell D is located along or near the axis of a recent Trinity River meander belt that has cut deeply into the preexisting Quaternary sediments. This channel cut was then rapidly filled with fine-grained deposits possibly derived from the surrounding uplands and other areas upstream. In addition, the trenching revealed that the upper portions of the sediments within Cell D have been disturbed during the recent historic period, presumably by the construction of the Interstate 45 bridge and the activities of the nearby Dallas Central Wastewater Treatment Plant.

National Register Testing of Nine Archeological Sites at Waco Lake, McLennan County, Texas

From October 2000 to February 2001, personnel from Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted National Register of Historic Places eligibility testing of nine sites located at Waco Lake in McLennan County, Texas. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, sponsored the project as a result of the proposed plan to raise the conservation pool level of the lake by 7 ft to 462 ft above mean sea level. Waco Lake is located in central McLennan County, Texas, on the west side of the City of Waco (Figure 1). It is on the Bosque River, with the dam lying ca. 6.6 km upstream from where the Bosque flows into the Brazos River. Two arms extend west and south from the main body of the lake following the North Bosque and South Bosque Rivers. Two major tributaries, Hog Creek and the Middle Bosque River, enter the southern arm from the west. No major streams feed the lake from the east. The original dam was completed in 1929, and at an elevation of 430 ft, the lake covered ca. 2,700 acres. In 1965, a new dam was finished and the level raised to 455 ft, with the new conservation pool covering ca. 7,300 acres.

Super-Accelerated Testing of Flexible Pavement with Stationary Dynamic Deflectometer

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), in partnership with the Center for Transportation Research, has implemented the Texas mobile load simulator (TxMLS) as a tool for accelerated testing of in-service pavements. Although the TxMLS has been used successfully to test in-service pavements in the Yoakum and Fort Worth districts, the fact that only one TxMLS machine exists limits the number of accelerated pavement tests (APT) that can be performed. Therefore, TxDOT is evaluating a modification of the rolling dynamic deflectometer (RDD) for use as a super-accelerated pavement tester. In this application, the truck-mounted dynamic loading system is operated in a stationary mode, with the loading rollers and rolling sensors of the RDD removed from operation. The servohydraulic actuator is used for application of harmonic loading to a wheel footprint on the pavement surface. Hundreds of thousands of load repetitions are applied in a matter of hours; hence the designation as super-accelerated testing. This stationary dynamic deflectometer (SDD) is being studied as a possible tool for use in expanding TxDOT’s APT program. The SDD may allow TxDOT to increase, in a cost-effective manner, the number of accelerated tests that can be performed. Preliminary tests have been performed with the TxMLS and SDD on two different pavement recycling strategies constructed on the northbound and southbound lanes of US-281 in the Fort Worth District. That the same conclusion was reached about the relative performance of the test sections with both machines indicates the potential usefulness of the SDD.

Archeological Investigations at the Harrison Bayou Site (41HS240) in Harrison County, Texas

We recently completed archeological investigations on approximately 1400 acres of land on Harrison Bayou, Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant, Harrison County, Texas, leased by the Caddo Lake Institute, Inc. (Perttula and Nelson 1999). The Caddo Lake Institute, Inc. leased this portion of the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant (LHAAP) for 30 years under a September 1996 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Department of the Army. These archeological investigations were completed under Archeological Resources Protection Permit DACA63-4- 97-0580 issued September 1, 1997, by the Real Estate Division of the Department of the Army, Fort Worth District, Corps of Engineers to the Caddo Lake Institute, Inc. During these investigations, intensive shovel testing and a limited amount of hand excavations were completed at the Harrison Bayou site (41HS240), one of the earliest reported Caddoan sites in Northeast Texas (Ford 1936), but still one of the more poorly known sites in the region. In this paper, we discuss the work we conducted at the Harrison Bayou site, and summarize the archeological findings from this important Middle Caddoan period occupation at Caddo Lake.