Hayden Rhodes Aqueduct Phase IV Small Sites Assessment, Central Arizona Project Canal

Bureau of Reclamation

Hayden Rhodes Aqueduct Phase IV Small Sites Assessment, Central Arizona Project Canal

Summary

The Phoenix Area Office (PXAO), Reclamation, maintains an archaeological site database for the Central Arizona Project (CAP) main stem canal. The data base was developed using all the previous main stem survey data and previously recorded sites. While many sites have been determined eligible or not eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (Register), some have not received eligibility determinations and some are located outside of the construction corridor and not impacted. Additionally, legacy survey and site records have a number of errors and are sometimes contradictory.

When work on the Hayden Rhodes section of the CAP was initiated in the 1970s, contract archaeology was still in its infancy, with field methods and recording procedures still developing. Some of the sites along the Hayden Rhodes Aqueduct were recorded as low density artifact scatters encompassing hundreds of acres. Most of these sites have been resurveyed and site boundaries updated in a more discreet manner. Reclamation requested that Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd. (ACS) relocate the remaining small sites found along the Hayden Rhodes Aqueduct between Phoenix and the Colorado River as part of this final phase of the assessment study.

Reclamation identified 16 sites to re-locate and assess the condition of these archaeological sites within the CAP ROW. This is the fourth and final phase of site assessments along the western reach of the CAP. Only the portions of sites found on Reclamation lands (including within the CAP security fence) were relocated, surveyed, and evaluated. All sites were re-surveyed, mapped, and their locational information updated with Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates through Global Positioning System (GPS). Site existence or destruction was determined, as well as current conditions and how much of each site exists within the ROW. Register eligibility recommendations were made and site number discrepancies resolved with new Arizona State Museum (ASM) site numbers assigned, when necessary.

The purpose of this resurvey was to correct historic records, site maps, and locational errors. In general, these legacy records from the 1970s and 1980s were incomplete. AZSITE, ACS’s extensive library of cultural resource management (CRM) reports, and reports available online at the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) were examined to consolidate as many of these legacy records as possible into this final report. Sites that were not relocated or confirmed as no longer existing within Reclamation lands and/or the CAP ROW were identified and explained.