Article Title

The Carlisle Site (41WD46), a Middle Caddoan Occupation on the Sabine River, Wood County, Texas

Authors

Timothy K. Perttula, Heritage Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State UniversityFollow
Bob D. Skiles
Bonnie C. Yates

Agency

Journal of Northeast Texas Archeology

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.1993.1.11

Abstract

The Carlisle site (41WD46) is located on the Sabine River near its confluence with Lake Fork Creek in the Upper Sabine River Basin. As defined by Perttula, the Upper Sabine River Basin includes the area from the headwaters of the Sabine River to the mouths of Cherokee Bayou and Hatley Creek at the western edge of the Sabine Uplift. Lake Fork Creek is one of several large south-southeastward flowing streams within the Upper Sabine River Basin. The town of Mineola is approximately 13 kilometers (km) west of the Carlisle site.

The site is situated at the tip of an upland projection overlooking the Sabine River floodplain, but extends into the floodplain to within ca 30 meters of the river bank. The Lake Fork Creek channel is approximately one km east of the site.

While the site was an improved pasture for many years prior to 1975 and to the present, it had been previously cultivated. In fact, this cultivation may have contributed to its initial identification in the early 1930s, as well as its subsequent partial burial. The upland sandy soils derive from the Queen City Formation, and these are highly susceptible to erosion and colluvial downwasting. Colluvial deposition seems to have been a prominent factor in the burial of cultural materials along valley margins and lower footslopes elsewhere in the Upper Sabine Basin, and the site's topographic position suggests that both alluvial and colluvial deposition is responsible for the burial of the floodplain cultural deposits at the Carlisle site.

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