Mexican Potters of Prado

Summary

Since 1985, the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CoE) has been planning improvements to Prado Dam and the Prado Flood Control Basin. Federal involvement in such undertakings invokes the Section 106 consultation process of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966 (as amended) to consider project effects upon significant cultural resources. As part of the planning and consultation process, the CoE has sponsored several investigations to identify and evaluate prehistoric and historical cultural resources, primarily in a project area behind Prado Dam and below an elevation of 566 feet (172.5 m) above mean sea level (amsl). This project area is on lands administered by the CoE in San Bemardino and Riverside counties.

Greenwood and Associates has been involved in several previous CoE investigations regarding the many historical cultural resources in Prado Basin. These Investigations include an historical and archaeological evaluation of the Rincon Townsite and its environs, testing and evaluation of part of the Rincon Townsite and two nearby sites, and a site by-site evaluation of approximately 200 historical cultural resources in the basin. The latter of these investigations developed the historical context of the project area in terms of significant research topics appropriate and necessary to evaluate the historical resources, and to provide for data recovery studies to mitigate potential project effects upon significant resources.

Rincon/Prado was a center of Mexican-American pottery and tile production from ca. 1926–1940, after which all property was purchased by the federal government. This townsite may be the only Mexican production center of its type in southern California, and is significant to the history of the region by providing valuable data regarding early twentieth century Mexican entrepreneurial craftsmen and immigrants. This document reports data recovery investigations at part of the Rincon Townsite (CA-RIV-3698H) and at a nearby adobe (CA-RIV-2802H) in Riverside County. Both sites are considered to have the qualities necessary to be eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (36 CFR 60.6). This part of CA-RIV-3698H consists of the remains of several structures that were located at the intersection of Main and Center streets in the historical town of Rincon. CA RIV-2802H, the foundation of an adobe structure, is on the eastern edge of the Rincon Townsite at the intersection of Yorba Road and the Santa Fe Railroad line.

The work reported here was conducted in compliance with the 1992 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), and a research design (Foster 1992). The MOA stipulated that a data recovery plan be developed and carried out at these two sites. Fieldwork for the Phase III data recovery operation at CA-RIV-2802H included exposure and documentation of stone foundations of an adobe structure, recovery of cultural material from a trash deposit, and excavation of a trash scatter located east of the adobe. Data recovery fieldwork at CA-RIV-3698H consisted of the excavation of 28 features: pottery kilns or associated features, a concrete storm drain, cobble foundations of two adobe structures, concrete slab foundations, a concrete footing, a brick alignment, a portion of Center Street, a possible privy, refuse deposits, a ceramic waster pit, ruins of a hotel/store walkway, and an accumulation of broken plaster.

Phase III investigations for these sites also included laboratory analysis, archival and other historical research, and oral interviews. Data recovery at CA-RIV-2802H is complete and construction activities should be allowed to proceed with no further concern for this site. Investigations at site CA-RIV-3698H were hindered by the presence of nesting sites of the protected least Bell's vireo; the thick vegetation obscuring the ground along with restrictions on the removal of dense willow growth; and the high water table. Many areas of the townsite were either not investigated, or sampled minimally; investigations of two substantial adobe structures, encountered for the first time during the Phase III effort, were incomplete due to constraints mentioned, and further management based on these discoveries is recommended.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SRI Press

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 1846 to 1882 (Rancho Period)

Calendar Date: 1926 to 1938 (Decline of Rincon/Prado)

Calendar Date: 1882 to 1926 (Rincon/Prado Town)

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): SRI Press

Contributor(s): James R. Schmidt; Bruno Texier; Bryan R. Cross

Prepared By(s): Greenwood and Associates; Statistical Research, Inc.

Submitted To(s): Army Corp of Egineers Los Angeles District

Record Identifiers

Delivery Order No.(s): 13; 13; 12; 11

Contract No.(s): DACW09-91-D-0009

File Information