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Article Title
Archeological Survey of Wildlife Mitigation Lands, Justiceburg Reservoir, Garza County, Texas
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21112/ita.1991.1.9
Abstract
In order to fulfill its obligations in conjunction with the proposed Jnsticeburg Reservoir project, the City of Lubbock, Texas, is considering the purchase of 2,240 acres in Garza County to serve as wildlife mitigation lands. Prior to the City's final decision to acquire the land, an archeological survey was conducted. The ca. 1,000 acres of incised canyonland and upland margin and ca. 215 acres of selected upland rises were intensively surveyed, while the remaining 1,025 acres of upland flat and low-lying areas were spot checked. Subsurface geomorphic investigations (i.e., backhoe trenching) of the uplands were also conducted. The survey resulted in the documentation of 1 historic and 32 prehistoric archeological sites (1 previously recorded). Of these, the historic site is recommended as eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and eight prehistoric sites are of unknown eligibility. These nine sites will need special management considerations to prevent impacts from wildlife mitigation use of the land. Historic use of the project area is associated with late nineteenth/early twentieth-century cattle ranching, while all of the prehistoric occupations that can be temporally defined are late Archaic or Late Prehistoric. Most of the cultural activity is clustered around three major freshwater spring complexes. There appears to have been intensive use of these areas during the late Holocene but only ephemeral prehistoric use of the uplands more than 0.5 km away from the springs and stream channels. Geomorphic evidence indicates that extensive root-plow disturbance occurred in many upland areas, but well-preserved archeological deposits are present in portions of the eroded upland margin. Three unique upland depositional environments (playas with associated dunes, channels, and pond deposits) have the potential for preserving buried cultural remains of considerable antiquity as well as providing paleo-environmental data which is lacking at this time.
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