An Archaeological Survey of 3,475 Acres at Camp Swift, Bastrop County, Texas: 2005

Abstract

The Texas Military Forces (TXMF) conducts military training on Camp Swift, an approximately 11,500-acre tract in northern Bastrop County, Texas. TXMF is responsible for complying with federal legislation regarding the assessment and management of environmental and cultural resources. This cultural resource inventory by the Center for Archaeological Studies (CAS), Texas State UniversitySan Marcos, was conducted between November 2005 and October 2006, under Section 106 and 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). During the survey of 3,475 acres, 168 sites were recorded and 110 of these were newly discovered sites; however, five of these sites were outside of the survey boundary. Fifty-eight sites had been discovered by previous archaeological projects, but four of them could not be relocated. The 54 sites that were relocated were more fully documented in this report. Based on area, the site densities have increased three-fold. These results provide a more accurate inventory of prehistoric and historic sites at Camp Swift and demonstrate that intensive surveys linked with systematic shovel test excavations are the most dependable method for discovering sites at this facility. Summary and RecommendationsDuring this intensive survey, a shovel test was excavated every 30 m, covering 3,475 actual surveyed acres resulting in the excavation of 11,015 transect shovel tests. Of these transect shovel tests, 453 were positive and 10,562 were negative. An additional 16 acres covering site boundaries outside of the survey area were further assessed with shovel tests. This resulted in a total area assessed with shovel tests of approximately 3,491 acres. During this project, CAS archaeologists encountered or searched for 168 sites, discovering 110 new ones and revisiting 54 previously recorded sites; four previously recorded historic sites (41BP164, 41BP167, 41BP434, and 41BP489) could not be relocated. Five sites (41BP124, 41BP381, 41BP771, 41BP775, and 41BP793) were outside of the survey boundary and the latter three are newly discovered. There are 125 prehistoric components and 58 historic components, including four sites that could not be relocated and 15 sites that have both historic and prehistoric components.A total of 12,532 shovel tests were excavated on this project. For the site evaluations, 1,517 shovel tests were excavated within site boundaries in an attempt to evaluate previously recorded sites and establish the boundaries of new sites. Of these, 477 shovel tests were positive and 1040 shovel tests were negative. This survey represents one of the largest investigations of the unique sandy mantle environment in Texas. The Sandy Mantle is a large expanse of surface sandy soils lying above poorly consolidated sandy bedrock deposits that cover approximately one-eighth of the state. Because of this intensive testing, it was possible to develop a detailed map of the sand depths in the mantle at Camp Swift and identify patterns that may correlate with occupation history and site preservation potential. The ...