Article Title

FM 2206 Improvements from State Highway 42 to Loop 281 Gregg County, Texas

Authors

Melissa M. Green
Haley Rush

Agency

Texas Historical Commission

Abstract

Between September 2015 and March 2016, reconnaissance and intensive archeological surveys were completed in order to inventory and evaluate archeological resources within the footprint of proposed improvements to Farm-to-Market (FM) 2206 from State Highway 42 to Loop 281 in Longview, Gregg County, Texas. The project is identified under TxDOT control-section-job numbers 2073-01-009 and 2073-01-010. The work associated with this archeological survey was carried out under Texas Antiquities Permit 7404 by Melissa M. Green (Principal Investigator), Haley Rush, and David Sandrock of Cox|McLain Environmental Consulting, Inc., a subcontractor to Burns and McDonnell.

Results of the survey show that the majority of the project corridor has been highly disturbed from numerous types of activities dating from the early oil exploration in the area to recent installation of buried utilities, as well as natural impacts such as erosion.

Twenty-nine shovel test units were excavated on both publicly- and privately-owned land in areas where subsurface archeological materials might occur, no obvious impacts or disturbances were observed, slope was less than 30 percent, ground visibility was limited, and moisture levels allowed. Soils were found to be extremely shallow (generally extendingsurface); subsoil was encountered in the majority of the tests. All of the shovel tests were sterile, except for one where an iron pipe was encountered.

Three backhoe trenches were excavated on the west side of Hawkins Creek where deeper Holoceneage soils were present that could contain paleosols or archeological deposits. All three backhoe trenches were sterile for cultural materials and none showed evidence of intact paleosols that might contain archeological deposits

No further work is recommended in the APE prior to the proposed improvements to FM 2206. If any unanticipated cultural materials or deposits are found at any stage of clearing, preparation, or construction, the work should cease and TxDOT 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.

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