Theodore Roosevelt Dam Archaeological Project

The Center for Archaeology and Society (CAS) and the Center for Digital Antiquity (DA) at Arizona State University have created and are making available via tDAR, a collection of digital documents, data sets, and other information. This digital collection comprises many of the results of the detailed and intensive archaeological investigations undertaken for the Theodore Roosevelt Dam project in the Tonto Basin of central Arizona.

The collection is organized into general three sub-collections: the Roosevelt Platform Mound studies, the Roosevelt Rural Sites study, and the Roosevelt Community Development study. The general locations of components and site areas investigated by these studies is illustrated by the map image also included in this collection.

The reports describing the investigations and results have been available since the late 1990s in paper format. The data also have been available, if one knew where to look for it or who to contact for a copy, but not easily accessible or usable. The documents and data now are more broadly discoverable, accessible, and useful for additional current and future educational, scholarly, and scientific uses. The CAS and DA plan to enhance this tDAR collection, with additional documents, data, and other related information as it is developed and becomes available.

Between 1989 and 1993, the Bureau of Reclamation funded four substantial field archaeological projects in Tonto Basin of central Arizona, all associated with the modification of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam that would raise the lake level. Earlier archaeological surveys in the area around Roosevelt Lake had identified hundreds of sites that likely would be affected as a result of the dam modification (Fuller et al. 1976; Jewett 1986; Rice and Bostwick 1986). It was known or suspected that many of the sites likely to affected would be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Therefore, to comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the Bureau of Reclamation, the lead agency for the undertaking, determined to mitigate the adverse effect to the archaeological resources by a large-scale data recovery effort. The reports, other documents, and data described and made available in this tDAR collection are the results of this effort.

The data recovery program was divided into four projects, each of which had different research objectives and were conducted by separate research teams which also coordinated their activities (Pedrick 1992:2-3; Rice and Lincoln 1998:1-3).

"The Roosevelt Bajada Survey was a sampling survey by SWCA Inc. of portions of the bajada and foothills surrounding Tonto Basin (Ahlstrom et al. 1991). The Roosevelt Rural Sites Study conducted by Statistical Research focused on small agricultural and habitation sites in the rural areas away from the large settlements in the basin (Ciolek-Torrello et al. 1990). Desert Archaeology Inc. of Tucson was responsible for the Roosevelt Community Development Study, and their aim was to provide a longitudinal record of the history of occupation of Tonto Basin (Doelle et al. 1992). The Roosevelt Platform Mound Study, conducted by the Office of Cultural Resource Management at Arizona State University, studied the organization of Classic period platform mound complexes (Rice 1990). As the study progressed, Reclamation modified the Platform Mound Study to include the investigation of a series of 44 sites on the bajada that had been identified in the survey conducted by SWCA (Rice and Lincoln 1998:1)."

Ahlstrom, Richard V. N., Mark L. Chenault, and Kirk C. Anderson (1991) The Roosevelt Bajada Survey, Tonto Basin, Gila County, Arizona. SWCA Archaeological Report No. 91-24. SWCA, Inc. Environmental Consultants, Tucson. Accessed 18 July 2016, tDAR # 402032, https://core.tdar.org/document/402032/the-roosevelt-bajada-survey-tonto-basin-gila-county-central-arizona.

Ciolek-Torrello, Richard S., Steven D. Shelley, Jeffrey H. Altschul and John Welch (1990) Research Design. Roosevelt Rural Sites Study, Vol. 1. Technical Series No. 28. Statistical Research, Tucson. Accessed 18 July 2016, tDAR # 378209, https://core.tdar.org/document/378209/the-roosevelt-rural-sites-study-volume-1-research-design.

Doelle, William H., Henry D. Wallace, Mark D. Elson, and Douglas B. Craig (1992) Research Design for the Roosevelt Community Development Study. Anthropological Papers No. 12. Center for Desert Archaeology, Tucson. Accessed 18 July 2016, tDAR # 378203, https://core.tdar.org/document/378203/research-design-for-the-roosevelt-community-development-study.

Pedrick, Kathryn E. (1992) Introduction. In Developing Perspectives on Tonto Basin Prehistory, edited by Charles 1. Redman, Glen E. Rice, and Kathryn E. Pedrick, pp. 1-4. Roosevelt Monograph Series 2, Anthropological Field Studies 26. Office of Cultural Resource Management, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe. tDAR # 406896, https://core.tdar.org/document/406896/developing-perspectives-on-tonto-basin-prehistory.

Rice, Glen E. [editor] (1990) A Design for Salado Research. Roosevelt Monograph Series 1, Anthropological Field Studies 22. Office of Cultural Resource Management, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe. Accessed 18 July 2016, tDAR record 394282, https://core.tdar.org/document/394282/a-design-for-salado-research.

Rice, Glen E. and Thomas R. Lincoln (1998) The Bureau of Reclamation Archaeology Projects in the Tonto Basin. In A Synthesis of Tonto Basin Prehistory: The Roosevelt Archaeology Studies, 1989 to 1998, edited by Glen E. Rice, pp. 1-10. Roosevelt Monograph Series 12/Anthropological Field Studies 41, Office of Cultural Resources Management, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe. Accessed 6 May 2015, tDAR #394298, https://core.tdar.org/document/394298/a-synthesis-of-tonto-basin-prehistory-the-roosevelt-archaeology-studies-1989-to-1998.