Article Title

A Cultural Resources Survey of the Trail Village Housing Development Project , Brownsville, Texas

Authors

John E. Killer
ILnda R.S. Keller

Agency

Texas Historical Commission

Abstract

The City of Brownsville, Texas is planning to construct a new Housing development and associated infrastructure behind the Paseo Plaza Apartments in Brownsville, Texas. This location is a grassed 4.85 acre parcel west of Paredes Line Road (FM 1847) and between the present apartment complex, a drainage canal, and the City of Brownsville’s Hike and Bike Trail. The bike trail was formerly a Missouri Pacific railway line. The area has been heavily urbanized and the immediate project location has been mechanically landscaped to facilitate drainage. Prior to urbanization this area was intensive farmed and the aerial photographs provided by USDA , Soil Conservation Service (Williams, Thompson, and Jacobs 1977) indicate it was devoted primarily to citrus orchards and/or irrigated row crops. Both of these uses require extensive landscape modification , deep plowing, and land leveling practices. As a result, this parcel has been deeply disturbed to a depth of at least 4 feet and well below the 1 foot Area of Potential Effect.

A pedestrian survey with limited shovel testing was carried out and this confirmed that the area had been deeply disturbed. In addition, a layer of construction fill has already been added. This construction layer is primarily a compact clay with numerous modern trash inclusions such as plastic, concrete, and gravels. Beneath this construction fill layer are the native soils, which are extremely compact clays that have been disturbed by plowing. These lower levels are devoid of cultural materials and have not even been penetrated by roots of root hairs.

No prehistoric or historic cultural materials were present and no further work is recommended.

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