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Findings: (+) County: Washington Township: 1 North Range: 2 West Sections: 30 and 31 USGS Quadrangle: Hillsboro, OR, 7.5-minute, 1990 Project Acres: 13.7 Acres Surveyed: 13.7 Project Type: Survey Field Notes Location: AINW CULTURAL RESOURCE SURVEY OF THE NE JACKSON SCHOOL ROAD (NE GRANT STREET TO NW EVERGREEN ROAD) IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, WASHINGTON COUNTY, OREGON Prepared for Quincy Engineering Salem, Oregon September 10, 2014 REPORT NO. 3322 Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc. 3510 NE 122nd Ave. ● Portland, OR ● 97230 Phone 503 761-6605 ● Fax 503 761-6620 CULTURAL RESOURCE SURVEY OF THE NE JACKSON SCHOOL ROAD (NE GRANT STREET TO NW EVERGREEN ROAD) IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, WASHINGTON COUNTY, OREGON PROJECT: Road improvement project, locally funded TYPE: Cultural resource survey LOCATION: Sections 30 and 31, Township 1 North, Range 2 West, Willamette Meridian USGS QUAD: Hillsboro, OR, 7.5-minute, 1990 CITY: Hillsboro COUNTY: Washington PROJECT AREA: 13.7 acres AREA SURVEYED: 13.7 acres FINDINGS: “No Historic Properties Affected” Archaeological Resources: • One archaeological resource was identified, 14/2238-1, a historic-period isolate. The isolate is not eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Historic Resources: • One historic structure, a culvert on McKay Creek, was recorded. The culvert is recommended to be not eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. PREPARERS: Alexandra C. Williams, M.A., R.P.A., and Judith A. Chapman, M.A., and Elizabeth J. O’Brien, B. Architecture INTRODUCTION Washington County’s Engineering and Construction Services Division is proposing a road improvement project on NE Jackson School Road between NE Grant Street and NW Evergreen Road in the city of Hillsboro (Figure 1). Jackson School Road is a two-lane roadway in the city of Hillsboro that serves as a link between downtown Hillsboro and Highway 26 to the north. The proposed road improvements are designed to have one travel lane in each direction, a center turn lane, bicycle lanes, and continuous sidewalks throughout NE Jackson School Road, as well as improved drainage between Rogahn Street and NW Evergreen Road. The concrete culvert on the McKay Creek tributary at the north end of the project will be altered or replaced with a single-span bridge. If the culvert is altered by extending it, retaining walls would be added to each culvert gradient. NE Jackson School Road Improvement Project September 10, 2014 Hillsboro, Washington County, Oregon AINW Report No. 3322 -1- This project will be funded entirely using local funding through phase 3d of Washington County’s Major Streets Transportation Improvement Program. The project is subject to review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and thus requires compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc. (AINW), staff who meet the professional qualifications of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines in Archaeology and Historic Preservation performed the work. AINW conducted a cultural resource survey of the project Area of Potential Effect (APE). The project APE includes a 21-meter (m) (70-foot [ft]) wide corridor, 11 m (35 ft) on each side of NE Jackson School Road from NE Grant Street to NW Evergreen Road. This includes additional right-of-way that will be acquired at several parcels. The APE is an additional 25 m (80 ft) wider on the east side and an additional 81 m (60 ft) wider on the west side at McKay Creek to accommodate a concrete culvert modification or replacement (Figures 2 through 6). The cultural resource survey identified one archaeological isolate and a concrete culvert on McKay Creek that was built in the 1920s. The archaeological isolate, 14/2238-1, is a historic-period debris scatter consisting of five ceramic fragments dating from the 1930s. The isolate is recommended to be not eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). An archaeological isolate form for the scatter is in Appendix A. Although the culvert retains historical integrity, it is recommended to be not eligible for listing in the NRHP. A State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) Oregon Historic Sites Database form is in Appendix B. A finding of “No Historic Properties Affected” is recommended for the project. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING AND LAND-USE HISTORY The project APE is located in the city of Hillsboro, in Washington County, within Sections 30 and 31 of Township 1 North, Range 2 West, Willamette Meridian (Figure 1). The project APE is a residential neighborhood and includes portions of two parks, the U. J. Hamby Park and the Harold Eastman Memorial Rose Garden, as well as the Jackson Elementary School. The project APE lies within the Willamette Valley physiographic province, an area characterized by broad alluvial flats separated by groups of low hills (Franklin and Dyrness 1973). It is bordered by the Oregon Coast Range to the west and the Cascade Range to the east (Alt and Hyndman 1995). The project APE is situated in the northern portion of the Willamette River basin within the Tualatin River Valley, which extends eastwards from its source on the slopes of the Coast Range to the Willamette River at West Linn, Oregon (Hulse et al. 1998). Within the broader Tualatin River Valley, the project APE is situated in the Dairy-McKay watershed (Hawksworth 1999). McKay Creek tributary drainages cross the project APE in three locations. The southern drainage meanders through U. J. Hamby Park before crossing under NE Jackson School Road. The northern tributary near NE Hood Street is surrounded by low terraces altered through landscaping. McKay Creek south of NW Evergreen Road flows through a reinforced concrete culvert. Vegetation within the project area has changed over time as the result of agricultural and residential developments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Aikens 1993; Hulse et al. 1998). Prior to Euroamerican settlement of the area, prairie and oak woodlands dominated the Tualatin Valley landscape. This open prairie landscape typifying the Tualatin and Willamette Valleys was partly the result of centuries of annual grassland burning by Native peoples of the area to facilitate the growth of important food plants and to attract wild game (Bowen 1978; Boyd 1986; Franklin and Dyrness 1973). Gallery forests containing brushy thickets, marshes, and ash openings grew along the floodplains of major rivers and their NE Jackson School Road Improvement Project September 10, 2014 Hillsboro, Washington County, Oregon AINW Report No. 3322 -2- tributaries. General Land Office (GLO) maps depict that much of the current project area was converted into agricultural fields by the end of the nineteenth century (GLO 1862, 1882). Currently, the much of the area is landscaped. Maple trees and mowed grasses line NE Jackson School Road throughout the project APE. Natural vegetation is limited to oak and alder trees along NE Jackson School Road and the tributary creeks. Soils of the northern Willamette Valley are thick sedimentary deposits that date to the Pleistocene. During this epoch, repeated flooding events associated with failures of ice dams on glacial Lake Missoula flooded the Willamette Valley, leaving extensive silty deposits throughout the region (Allen et al. 2009; Franklin and Dyrness 1973). Soils on the valley floor developed from silty alluvial and lustrine deposits under grassland vegetation. These soils in conjunction with low slopes often results in areas of poor drainage (Hawksworth 1999). Four soils, all silt loams, are mapped for the majority of the project APE: Aloha silt loam, Amity silt loam, Dayton silt loam, and Woodburn silt loam (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service [USDA-NRCS] 2006a, 2007, 2009a, 2009b). With the exception of the moderately well-drained Woodburn silt loam, these soils are poorly drained. Two silty clay loams are mapped along the McKay Creek tributaries; these are the Cove and Verboort soil series (USDA-NRCS 2001, 2006b). Both soils form on low terraces and are very poorly drained. CULTURAL SETTING Native Peoples – Prehistoric Period Although archaeological evidence of earliest inhabitants of the Willamette Valley is sparse, the presence of Clovis fluted projectile points identified in the region suggests that prehistoric populations settled the Willamette Valley around 12,000 years ago (Ozbun and Fagan 1996). During the Early Archaic period, which dates from 11,000 to 6,000 years ago, prehistoric peoples participated in a broad-spectrum, hunter-gatherer subsistence strategy (Aikens et al. 2011). Sites dating to this period are small, reflecting temporary camps, and are typified by leaf-shaped projectile points referred to as Cascade points (Aikens 1993; Aikens et al. 2011; Minor et al. 1982). By the Middle Archaic period, beginning approximately 6,000 years ago, subsistence patterns began to align with those of the Kalapuya people during the contact period, with an increased emphasis on vegetal foods, including camas and acorns, and ground stone technology to process these foods (Aikens 1993; Aikens et al. 2011; Minor et al. 1982). Active landscape management through controlled fires intensified during this period and increased available foods by favoring the growth of camas, huckleberries, and fire-resistant acorn-bearing oaks rather than woody perennials. Sedentism increased during the Late Archaic period (approximately 2,000 to 200 years ago) with the development of seasonally occupied villages