Salt-Gila (Fannin-McFarland) Aqueduct
Part of: Central Arizona Project
The Salt-Gila (Fannin-McFarland) Aqueduct is a feature of the Central Arizona Project designed to bring Colorado River water into the interior of the state. It consists of 57.5 miles of open, concrete-lined canal, one major siphon, and four pumping plants. A transmission system links the pumping plants (Salt-Gila, Brady, Picacho, and Red Rock) to power provided by the Navajo Generating Station, near Page, Arizona. The Salt-Gila system is divided into four units, or reaches, which facilitated the organization and administration of the various construction phases of the project. Reach 1 ran from the Salt-Gila Pumping Plant to an area just south of US 60. Reach 2 extended from the terminus at Reach 1 south to Queen Creek. Reach 3 began on the northern banks of Queen Creek and traveled south to the Gila River, just west of Ashurst-Hayden Diversion Dam. Reach 4 extended from the Gila River south to its terminus near the Picacho Mountains.
The Salt-Gila (Fannin-McFarland) Aqueduct project provided the unprecedented opportunity for an extended, large-scale archaeological study of the later periods of Hohokam occupation and of the little known Archaic occupation of central Arizona. The project was organized around a series of tasks and problem oriented analyses that were guided by a consistent, explicit research orientation.
Archaeological investigations of the Salt-Gila Aqueduct began in 1968, the year in which construction of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) was authorized by the Colorado River Basin Act (P.L. 90-537). Two feasibility alignment surveys (Dittert, Fish and Simonis 1969; Kayser and Fiero 1969) provided data for the general programmatic environmental statements on the Central Arizona Project (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation 1972). These data were supplemented by two additional survey and evaluative testing projects (Grady 1973; Stein 1979) completed by the Arizona State Museum (ASM). Ultimately the ASM undertook a massive data recovery project at 45 sites along the Salt-Gila Aqueduct, the results of which were published in a nine volume series (ASM Archaeological Series 150) that was completed in 1985.
Following construction of the Salt-Gila (Fannin-McFarland) Aqueduct, Reclamation established a database of archaeological resources within the CAP right-of-way based on the original Class III survey data. An unknown number of these sites were either destroyed by construction or excavation, while others are no longer located within the CAP right-of-way. In 2005, Reclamation began hiring cultural resource management firms to revisit and reevaluate archaeological resources located within its right-of-way and obtain up to date data on site eligibility and condition.
Site Name Keywords
AZ U:10:14(ASM) •
AZ U:15:102(ASM) •
AZ AA:3:21(ASM) •
AZ AA:3:26(ASM) •
AZ U:10:5(ASM) •
AZ U:10:6(ASM) •
AZ U:15:100(ASM) •
AZ U:15:19(ASM) •
AZ U:15:46(ASM) •
AZ U:15:57(ASM)
Site Type Keywords
Archaeological Feature •
Artifact Scatter •
Rock Alignment •
Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex •
Settlements •
Hamlet / Village •
Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features •
Agricultural or Herding •
Non-Domestic Structures •
Ball Court
Other Keywords
Fannin-McFarland Aqueduct
Culture Keywords
Hohokam •
Historic •
Archaic •
Euroamerican •
PaleoIndian •
Early Archaic •
Middle Archaic •
Late Archaic •
Historic Native American
Investigation Types
Site Stewardship Monitoring •
Heritage Management •
Archaeological Overview •
Data Recovery / Excavation •
Methodology, Theory, or Synthesis •
Research Design / Data Recovery Plan •
Site Evaluation / Testing •
Systematic Survey
Material Types
Ceramic •
Chipped Stone •
Fire Cracked Rock •
Ground Stone •
Metal •
Glass •
Building Materials •
Shell •
Fauna •
Macrobotanical
Temporal Keywords
Prehistoric •
Historic •
Hohokam Colonial period •
Hohokam Sedentary period •
Hohokam Classic period •
Santa Cruz Phase •
Sacaton Phase •
Colonial Period •
Sedentary Period •
Formative Period
Geographic Keywords
Arizona (State / Territory) •
United States of America (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Arizona •
Pinal County (County) •
Maricopa County (County) •
Salt-Gila Aqueduct •
US (ISO Country Code) •
USA (Country) •
Pima County
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-6 of 6)
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Salt-Gila Aqueduct (Fannin-McFarland Aqueduct) Archaeological Data Collection Studies and Supplemental Class III Survey Project