Article Title

Further Surface Collecting and Shovel Testing Investigations at the Sanders Site (41LR2), Lamar County, Texas

Authors

Timothy K. Perttula, Heritage Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State UniversityFollow
Bo Nelson, Heritage Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State UniversityFollow

Agency

Journal of Northeast Texas Archeology

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.2016.1.92

Abstract

Archaeological investigations at the Sanders site (41LR2), an important ancestral Caddo mound center and village on the Red River in Lamar County, Texas, have been ongoing since 2013. The latest round of work at the Sanders site primarily concerned Dr. Chester P. Walker’s conducting geophysical work there in December 2014. Bo Nelson went to the site to show Walker the areas where artifactual materials have been collected from surface clusters in earlier investigations.

The weather was cold and rainy the entire time. Dr. Walker was able to work in between rain episodes. The fields were wet and muddy. Most of the Crawford property was planted in winter wheat, except the fields just east of the mounds, that still had dried corn stalks covering the ground surface. The fields with the corn stalks had no surface visibility. The Sanders’ property was recently disked, and there was about 50–60 percent surface visibility.

Mr. R. P. “Dick” Crawford, Julia Crawford’s father, made several visits to the site while Nelson and Walker were there. He has a routine that involves checking for feral hogs, and seeing if there had been any damage they may have done to the fields since his last visit. During his visits, he was able to show to Nelson and Walker a small strip of property that was owned by the Crawford’s that we had originally assumed to be included with the Sanders’ family property. This strip of property extends up to the West mound, making the Sanders’ property “L–shaped” instead of a block–shaped tract.

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