Intensive Archeological Survey for Proposed Improvements to Farm-to-Market Road 1735 South of State Highway 49, Titus County, Texas

• Main Authors: Lang, Brett, Green, Melissa M.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: SFA ScholarWorks 2019
• Subjects: Texas; Archaeology; Titus County; American Material Culture; American Studies; Anthropology; Archaeological Anthropology; Environmental Studies; History; History of Art; Architecture; and Archaeology; Other American Studies; Other Arts and Humanities; Other History of Art; United States History; Titus; Archeological Survey
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2019/iss1/93; https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4773&context=ita

On April 30 and May 1, 2019, CMEC staff completed an intensive archeological survey augmented with shovel testing to inventory and evaluate archeological resources within the footprint of proposed improvements to Farm-to-Market (FM) 1735 south of State Highway (SH) 49 in Mount Pleasant, Titus County, Texas. The project is identified under Texas Department of Transportation control-section-job number 1226-02-016. The work associated with this archeological survey was carried out under Texas Antiquities Permit 8882 by Brett Lang (Project Archeologist) and Floyd Kent of Cox|McLain Environmental Consulting, Inc. under guidance from Melissa M. Green (Principal Investigator). The area of potential effects (APE) for the proposed project is approximately 2.1 miles (3.4 kilometers) long and is located on approximately 44.57 acres (18.07 hectares) of existing right-of-way and 21.32 acres (8.58 hectares) of proposed right-of-way for a total of 65.89 acres (26.66 hectares). Fourteen shovel tests were excavated within 13.8 acres (5.6 hectares) of privately-owned land in the proposed right-of-way for which access was granted, where subsurface archeological materials might occur, where no obvious impacts or disturbances were observed, where slope (or lack thereof) made it possible, where ground visibility was limited, and where soil moisture was low. A total of 28.9 acres (11.7 hectares) was subjected to pedestrian survey only and a total of 12.5 acres (5.1 hectares) was excluded due to previous surveys. Soil horizons were found to be shallow (generally extending less than 40 centimeters [15.75 inches] below the surface) with subsoil encountered in all of the shovel tests. The shovel tests were negative for cultural material and little cultural material was found on the surface or subsurface of the surveyed areas. One isolated find consisting of a single Gary point was observed on the ground surface in a disturbed pipeline corridor. Results of the survey show that most of the project corridor has been highly disturbed from existing road construction and maintenance, commercial and residential development, installation of buried utilities, and natural impacts such as erosion. No further work is recommended in the APE prior to the proposed improvements to FM 1735. If any unanticipated cultural materials or deposits are found at any stage of clearing, preparation, or construction, the work should cease and the Atlantic District of Texas Department of Transportation should be immediately notified. All materials (notes, photographs, administrative documents, and other project data) generated from this work will be housed at the Center for Archaeological Studies at Texas State University, where they will be made permanently available to future researchers per 13 Texas Administrative Code 26.16- 17. No artifacts were collected and therefore none will be curated. The Texas Historical Commission concurred with the findings and recommendations of this report on June 20, 2019.