A Cultural Resource Inventory for the Southwest Loop Freeway Project: Phases One and Two of the Inventory and Planning Study for the Southwest Loop Project

Author(s): Todd W. Bostwick; Glen E. Rice

Year: 1987

Summary

The Arizona Department of Transportation began plans in 1985 to construct a new highway (State Route 218) in the Phoenix metropolitan area which would extend around the western and southern sides of South Mountain. This is a report on the historic and prehistoric cultural resources of the area. The construction of State Route 218 will be funded by the State of Arizona, and this work has been conducted under the State Historic Preservation Act of 1982 (A.R.S. Title 41, Chapter 4.2, Article 1).A planning and design study for the proposed Southwest Loop was conducted by HDR Infrastructure of Phoenix, and the archaeological portion of the study was conducted by the Office of Cultural Resource Management at Arizona State University. The archaeological study began in the fall of 1985 with the development of an overview (Class I survey) based on existing data reports and site files. The second phase of the study included an archaeological field survey of the proposed alternate alignments, and was conducted in the spring of 1986.The study has identified a total of 21 cultural resources within the project area, including thirteen prehistoric sites, three historic sites, and five prehistoric canals. Three of the sites are of particular concern because they are examples of rare and threatened categories of sites unique to the Phoenix Basin. Although an excavation program could salvage scientific data from these sites, and is a necessary step in mitigating the impact of construction, these three Hohokam sites also contain values which cannot be realized through such a documentation program. The destruction of these sites will appreciably diminish the remaining record of the Hohokam cultural and economic system. The direct impact to two of these sites can be minimized by selection of one alignment over other alternatives. However, the Southwest Loop will make the general area highly desirable for development of residential communities, and the site areas not directly impacted by construction of the highway will ultimately be effected by these secondary, associated developments

Cite this Record

A Cultural Resource Inventory for the Southwest Loop Freeway Project: Phases One and Two of the Inventory and Planning Study for the Southwest Loop Project. Todd W. Bostwick, Glen E. Rice. 1987 ( tDAR id: 410786) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8410786

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -112.235; min lat: 33.195 ; max long: -111.977; max lat: 33.449 ;

Record Identifiers

OCRM Report Number(s): 66

Contract Number(s): M-600-6-201

Salt River Project Catalog No.(s): 51691

SRP Library Call No.(s): E78.S68B67

SRP Library Barcode No.(s): 00030559

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
1987_BostwickRice_ACulturalInventory_OCR_PDFA.pdf 41.43mb May 1, 1987 Aug 23, 2016 8:06:05 AM Confidential
This file is unredacted.

Accessing Restricted Files

At least one of the files for this resource is restricted from public view. For more information regarding access to these files, please reference the contact information below

Contact(s): Salt River Project Cultural Resource Manager