The Fort Sam Houston Project: An Archeological and Historical Assessment

Summary

The archaeological and historical investigations reported here result from a contract between the Fort Worth District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio (Contract #DACA 63-77-6-0081).

During this project, Thomas R. Hester served as principal investigator, with Dr. Joel Gunn as co-principal investigator. The archaeological field director, Thomas C. Kelly, his co-workers Andrea Gerstle and Cristi Assad, and the other members of the archaeological field and laboratory staff (see Acknowledgments) were faced with a challenging task in the assessment of cultural resources on properties controlled by Fort Sam Houston. Most challenging of all was the systematic sampling of cultural resources at the 28,000-acre Camp Bullis military reservation. Before the project began, there was much discussion as to the kinds of survey procedures that might be successfully employed in the diverse and rugged terrain of Camp Bullis. I believe that the survey strategies that evolved from these discussions (see Research Methods, III.A.4) are highly useful ones, and may possibly have broad applicability in similar surveys along the eroded margin of the Edwards Plateau in southcentral and southwestern Texas. Another significant aspect of the survey and subsequent surface and subsurface site sampling was the use of specially designed computer-coded forms for data recording. These supplemented standard record-keeping procedures (III.A.4) and, during analysis, proved highly valuable in studying the variability of sites and assemblages within the Camp Bullis area. Additionally, the site information became part of a computer data bank that can be tapped in further problem-oriented research in the region.

Other strong elements of the project were ethnohistory, history and historic archaeology. These avenues of inquiry provided a framework within which to evaluate the cultural resources found during the project and, in the case of historic archaeology, yielded important new information on the 19th and early 20th century human utilization of the Camp Bullis area. Anne Fox, Sara Kleine, James E. Ivey and Daniel E. Fox worked diligently in collaborative efforts in all of these areas of investigation.

There have been a number of criticisms leveled recently at public service archaeology, particularly in the areas of what some consider excessive cost and lack of long-range benefits to scientific research. I believe that in the Fort Sam Houston project such critical comments are negated by the data presented here. This report contains the information needed by the Corps of Engineers for future planning at Fort Sam Houston properties, it provides a wealth of new data--both descriptive and interpretive--important to research into the history and prehistory of the region, and it represents the hard work and long hours (far exceeding the monetary value of the contract) of dedicated and concerned archaeologists and historians. All of these elements will serve to better insure the protection and interpretation of cultural resources in the study area.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• National Archeological Database (NADB)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Cultural Resource Office, Joint Base San Antonio

Contributor(s): Philip Dering; Anne A. Fox; Daniel E. Fox; Augustine Frkuska; Carol Graves; Joel D. Gunn; Jerry Henderson; Thomas R. Hester; James E. Ivey; Sara E. Kleine

Field Director(s): Thomas C. Kelly

Principal Investigator(s): Thomas R. Hester; Joel Gunn

Repository(s): Fort Sam Houston

Prepared By(s): Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio

Submitted To(s): US Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District

Record Identifiers

Contract Number(s): DACA 63-77-6-0081

NADB document id number(s): 2150420; 846733

NADB citation id number(s): 000000009583; 000000320180

File Information