TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM BALBOA PARK STATION AREA PLAN ARCHEOLOGICAL CONTEXT I FINAL Date 3 November 2006 To File No 2004 1059E Balboa Park Station Area Plan From Randall Dean of resources Topic an evaluation of potential presence significance archeological within the Balboa Park Station Area Plan area OBJECTIVES for the of this memorandum is information environmental The purpose provide background evaluation of the proposed Balboa Park Station Area Plan BPSAP regarding potential effects resources resources as to legally-significant archeological C'significant archeological and To achieve this the memorandum defined by CEQA 15064 5b c1 objective the basis for a provides an historic context of the Plan Area to serve as preliminary of that be identification and significance evaluation archeological properties may present information in this is within the Plan Area The historical and archeological provided report related the Plan Area and on and based on secondary archeological literature to primary General Land Office secondary historical documentation including historic maps US plats Census US Coast Surveys Sanborn Fire Insurance maps etc US Bureau population the Western Project historical schedules city directories Municipal Reports Neighborhoods discussion of the reports etc This report provides a general program-level general types that be within the Plan Area and property types of archeological resources may present affected future under the General thus potentially by physical projects proposed regulatory identification of Plan and Planning Code changes proposed in the BPSAP Site-specific is for the Phelan Site and the Auto potential archeological resources attempted Loop Kragen Parts site for which the BPSAP proposes specific physical projects The objective of this memorandum is not to provide the minimally necessary background where that information does not exist information regarding archeological resources already future time in archeological documentation To the degree that at some a proposed project under environmental evaluation of within the Plan Area is determined to require CEQA an and the information for that its effects on archeological resources project site-specific this an study evaluation is not provided in memorandum archeological consultant-prepared be Even in those cases where providing such information and assessment may required information is available and is described in this the archeological site-specific memorandum static and discoveries occur over state of archeological information is not new archeological of are time that alter assumptions upon which the potential presence archeological resources I is there predicted or upon which the significance of archeological resources gauged Thus is that the the possibility that at the time some future project is proposed project site-specific of that time information in this plan will not be up-to-date with the state knowledge at regarding the archeological sensitivity of the project site REGULATORY CONTEXT that the effects of resource shall be taken into CEQA requires a project on an archeological affect resource that it shall first be consideration and that if a project may an archeological determined if the historical that if the archeological resource is an resource is for the California of Historical archeological resource meets the criteria listing in Register under Criteria Resources CRHR To be eligible for listing to the CRHR A B or C an archeological site must contain artifact assemblages features or stratigraphic relationships of associated with important events or important persons or exemplary a type period or method of construction Guidelines and and and To be CEQA 5 15064 5a1 3 c 1 2 need show the to eligible under Criterion D an archeological site only potential Yield of the Interior An important information United States Department 1986 archeological historical resource under for resource that qualifies as a CEQA generally qualifies listing under Criterion D of the CRHR CEQA Guidelines 515064 5 a3D An archeological resource for under Criterion when it can be demonstrated that the may qualify listing D of historical resource has the potential to significantly contribute to questions scientific Preservation Bulletin No importance CA OHP Planning 5 HISTORIC CONTEXT San Francisco It is known that humans have been present within the area of land comprising known have inhabited the today for at least 6000 years The earliest peoples currently to of but of hunter San Francisco Bay Area were comprised widespread sparse populations seeds and evidenced the gathers whose subsistence was based on large game nuts as by and and These lived presence of large projectile points milling stones manos metates peoples in small nomadic bands that made less use of shoreline and wetlands resources than later after 2000 and who prehistoric populations Soon BC bayshore marsh-adapted people were Utian language Miwok-Costanoan language family speaking people began to migrate Hokan into the Bay Area from the Central Valley displacing the earlier language speaking than the older resident in populations The new inhabitants were different populations a subsistence number of respects including language larger and more sedentary settlements a and and based on acorns shellfish small game mortuary practices personal ornaments perhaps the fabrication of coiled basketry It is assumed that the Costanoan representatives later than of this Utian dispersal reached the northern end of the San Francisco peninsula no 500 BC the The Costanoan tribe that occupied the northern end of the San Francisco peninsula in h divided into late 18 century is known under the general term Yelamu The Yelamu were of at least five settlements three semi sedentary village groups The Yelamu were composed located within San Cbutcbl Sitlintac Amuctac Tubsinte and Petlenuc that were present day the Francisco Yelamu may have also been the name of an additional settlement within 2 the shore the vicinity of Mission Dolores Sitlintac may have been located on Bay near large tidal wetlands of the Mission Creek estuary Chutchui was located near the lake Laguna de los Mission to three in land These Dolores east of the current Dolores two miles two villages band of the Yelamu who used them were probably the seasonally settlements of one Yelamu used the sites of Amuctac and Tubsinte alternately Another band seasonally village have had that were located in Visitation Valley A third Yelamu band the Pedenuc may a small settlement near the Presidio The Yelamu were allied by marriage to Costanoan groups on the east side of San Francisco Bay Within less than two months after the arrival of the Spanish who had begun construction of attacked and the first Mission Dolores all of the Yelamu villages in San Francisco were burned by an expedition sent by the Ssalson tribe the Costanoan tribe of the San Mateo area The Yelamu survivors abandoned all of the San Francisco settlements seeking refuge with missionized in the late 18'h the other groups in East Bay and Marin Until they were century Yelamu only returned to San Francisco for occasional hunting Plan Area lies within the basin of a The eastern part of the upper drainage Islay Creek have flowed it was the southern tributary of Islais Creek Islay Creek may year-round since and Avenues source of Geneva Lake historically located in the area around Cayuga Niagara 9h the reaches of and is identified as dry in the summer in 1 century maps as was upper of Islais Creek that drained Len Canyon Sanborn Map Col 1899 The topographic setting of the Plan is between the lower southern of Mt the western part Area a depression slope reliefed the south alluvial Davidson and the slightly area to The terraces and upper slopes the Plan Area have of the headwaters of Islay Creek within the eastern part of may provided has also been that desirable seasonal prehistoric occupation sites It suggested Shoup 1992 of Davidson could have been travel corridor for the gap south Mt a prehistoric groups Creek and the and faunal resource-rich between San Francisco Bay and Islais estuary marine of the Pacific shoreline and the marshlands of Lake Merced The ecological zones Ocean be small loci archeological record left by this transhumant activity may ephemeral activity of such as has been encountered in the Sutro headlands or the more substantial deposits a settlement site of the Plan Area the The earliest European settlement relevant to the history was original mission of San Francisco de Asis constructed in 1776 The first mission was a temporary structure constructed near the headwater lake of Mission Creek named by the Spanish de los Dolores The Yelamu Costanoan settlement of Cbutcbui was guna de Nuestra Senora probably located near the mission site The location of the first mission is not known but Mission Streets there is evidence to suggest that it was in the vicinity of the Fourteenth and to the north of Laguna de los Dolores Historians opinions of the location and extent of the that size the lake would have Laguna Dolores are inconsistent However allowing the of south of varied both seasonally and from year to year the Laguna de los Dolores was generally Fifteenth Street east of Guerrero Street or perhaps Mission Street north of Twentieth The second Mission Dolores Street or of Sixteenth Street and west of Howard Street was second of wood and mud PafiZada construction The identification of the location of the held mission as for the first mission must rely on conflicting evidence but the more widely