Article Title

State Highway (SH) 317Retention

Authors

Eric R. Oksanen

Agency

Texas Historical Commission

Abstract

On January 15, 2015, archeologists from Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Environmental Affairs Division-Archeological Studies Branch conducted a reconnaissancelevel survey of 3 acres of a five acre tract adjacent to State Highway 317 in Bell County, north of the City of Belton. The property will be excavated for a stormwater retention pond. The survey found shallow rocky soils and exposures of limestone bedrock throughout the project area. Historic maps indicated a house structure with the project area. No standing structures remain on the property; there is the remains of a collapsed shed-like structure measuring 5-x5 meters, a collapsed smaller pen-like structure approximately 2-x-1.5 meters, and mechanically pushed piles of the remnants of dry-laid limestone rock walls. Archival research suggests a house was built on the property between 1905 and 1915. The former house site, collapsed structures and stacked limestone piles were recorded as 41BL1379, a twentieth-century homestead site measuring approximately 2 acres, located at the west end of the tract.

The site has been extensively altered by mechanized land clearing and lacks integrity of location, design, setting, materials, and is not associated with a notable person. The site is considered ineligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places or official designation as a State Antiquities Landmark and no further field investigations are warranted. All investigations were conducted on state-owned TxDOT controlled property under Texas State Antiquities Permit 7149 with Eric R. Oksanen as Principal Investigator. No artifacts were collected and nothing was curated. Records from the survey are maintained at TxDOT Environmental Affairs Division Cultural Resources Program.

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