Cultural Resources Assessment APPENDIX C A Cultural Resources Survey of 31.27 Acres 495-22-011 Clovis, CA Prepared For: Don Pickett and Associates, Inc Prepared by Robert Pennell, Tribal Cultural Resources Director, Cristina Gonzales, Assistant Director/Museum Registrar Sara Lane Barnett, Cultural Resources Assistant Venessa Jimenez, Cultural Resources Assistant Ngoc Thuy Kirby, GIS Specialist Table Mountain Rancheria, January 2020 Topographic Quadrangle: Clovis, Calif., 7.5' (2019) (Keywords: Fresno County, Dog Creek, Fancher Creek, Gashowu (Cover photo: Original Tarpey Depot photo 1915) Table of Contents List of Figures ii Management Summary 1 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 Regulatory Context 2 3.0 Setting 3 3.1 Biological Setting 3 3.2 Ethnography and Ethnohistory 3 3.3 Post Conttact History 6 4.0 Record Search 8 5.0 Field Methods 8 6.0 Evaluations and Recommendations 9 References Cited 10 Appendix A Record Search CONFIDENTIAL i List of Figures Figure 1 Fresno County Figure 2 Google Earth Aerial Image 2018 Figure 3 USGS Clovis Topo Map, 2019 Figure 4 Business Development Plans Figure 5 General Land Office Map, 1854 Figure 6 USGS Clovis Topo Map, 1923 ii MANAGEMENT SUMMARY On October 31st 2019, the Table Mountain Cultural Resources Department conducted a cultural resources inventory on the Don Pickett and Associates, Inc. Clovis Avenue and Dakota Avenue properties in Fresno County (Figure 1). The survey area covered 31.27 acres on parcels 495-22-011 owned by Don Pickett and Associates, Inc., the developer (Figure 2). The study area is located at the south west corner of Clovis Avenue and Dakota Avenue in the City of Clovis, California (Figure 3). The proposed development is located on the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) 2019 Clovis 7.5’ topographic quadrangle map. The study area falls within the south-west quarter of the north-west quarter of Section 21 in Township 13 South, Range 21 East of the Mount Diablo Meridian (Figure 4). The results of this effort are included in a cultural resources report for the 31.27 acre subdivision and business park development. In order to complete this process, an inventory of cultural resources is required, pursuant to AB-52 of the California Environmental Quality Act. 1.0 INTRODUCTION Don Pickett and Associates, Inc. is preparing to rezone and develop land at the south west corner of Clovis Avenue and Dakota Avenue in the City of Clovis, California. The developers plan for a 31.27 acre subdivision and business park development (Figure 5). This report presents the results of the cultural resources investigation of 31.27 acres on parcels 495-22-011 owned by Don Pickett and Associates, Inc., the developer, located south west of the intersection of Clovis Avenue and Dakota Avenue, in Clovis, California. 1 This archaeological survey by Table Mountain Rancheria was conducted on October 31st. Project personnel included professional archaeological staff from the Table Mountain Rancheria Cultural Resources Department of Friant, California. A description of the natural and cultural setting of the study area is presented below, as well as a discussion of the survey methods employed, and a finding of no effect. 2.0 REGULATORY CONTEXT “CEQA, or the California Environmental Quality Act, is a statute that requires state and local agencies to identify the significant environmental impacts of their actions and to avoid or mitigate those impacts, if feasible. CEQA applies to certain activities of state and local public agencies. A public agency must comply with CEQA when it undertakes an activity defined by CEQA as a "project." A project is an activity undertaken by a public agency or a private activity which must receive some discretionary approval (meaning that the agency has the authority to deny the requested permit or approval) from a government agency which may cause either a direct physical change in the environment or a reasonably foreseeable indirect change in the environment. Most proposals for physical development in California are subject to the provisions of CEQA, as are many governmental decisions which do not immediately result in physical development (such as adoption of a general or community plan). Every development project which requires a discretionary governmental approval will require at least some environmental review pursuant to CEQA, unless an exemption applies.”(Public Resources Code 21000–21189 Gatto, 2014) 2 3.0 SETTING The study area is located at the south west corner of Clovis Avenue and Dakota Avenue in the City of Clovis, California within the San Joaquin Valley. Currently, the area has been disc plowed and is used as vacant land. The study area is bounded on the south by Dakota Avenue and on the west by Clovis Ave. Soils on the property include San Joaquin Loam and Ramona Sandy Loam. Elevation of the surveyed area is 346ft. Surrounding areas include single family residences and businesses. 3.1 BIOLOGICAL SETTING The study area is situated in the San Joaquin Valley. The immediate study area has been heavily disturbed and is currently vacant. Prior to its historic development, the project area would have been typical arid California Prairie, dominated by sparse perennial bunch grasses such as Purple Needle Grass, Nassella pulchra, and during years of optimum precipitation, annual forbes such as California Poppy. The study area is located approximately 2 miles north west of Redbank Creek and 3 miles south of Big Dry Creek. Given its distance from any water source, Native American occupation of the immediate study area is highly unlikely within the discernable past. 3.2 ETHNOGRAPHY AND ETHNOHISTORY The indigenous people of the San Joaquin Valley and its bordering foothills of the Sierra and Diablo Ranges are speakers of Yokutsan languages from the Penutian language family. The word yokuts or yokotch translates as people in most of the Yokutsan dialects and has been attached to the many groups that speak this language as a Tribal appellation by early 3 anthropologists working in the region. The majority of Yokuts lived along rivers, seasonal streams and permanent springs on the more well-watered eastern side of the San Joaquin Valley, around the shores of historic Tulare Lake and along the braids of the San Joaquin River as it flowed north from the big bend of the river near what is now Mendota. Valley lands between water courses usually lacked resources necessary for settlements. Lieutenant George H. Derby, US Topographical Engineers, noted during his reconnaissance survey of the San Joaquin (Tulare) Valley in April and May of 1850 that “The Tulare valley, from the mouth of the Mariposa to the Tejon pass at its head, is about one hundred and twenty mile in extent, and varies from eight to one hundred miles in width. With the exception of a strip of fertile land upon the rivers emptying into the (Tulare) lake from the east, it is little better than a desert. The soil is generally dry, decomposed and incapable of cultivation, and the vegetation, consisting of Artemisias [sic] and wild sage, is extremely sparse.”(California Historical Society Quarterly, 1932). The study area falls within the area of the Gashowu (also referred to as Casson in the 1851 Treaty of Camp Barbour and in the 1933 Roll of California Indians) (National Archives, 1928; Merriam, 1967; Heizer, 1972). The Gashowu, a Tribe of the Kings River Yokuts group of the Foothill Yokuts division, occupied Auberry Valley and the drainages that flowed into the Fresno/Clovis area including Little Dry, Sales, Dog, Big Dry, Red Bank, and Fancher Creeks. Some of these streams fed into the San Joaquin Valley near the present day cites of Fresno and Clovis (Kroeber, 1925: Plate 47; Wallace 1978b). Other known ethnographic villages located in this area included Pohoniu, near Letcher, Yokau near Wellbarn Road in Auberry Valley (Kroeber, 1925), Shoko, on Auberry Road two and half miles north of its intersection with Millerton Road (Latta, 1977), Chai-chiyu. one mile east of Millerton and Sky Harbour Roads and Huku-ktuktu, one quarter mile north of Millerton and Auberry Roads (Gayton, 1948). 4 Yokuts occupants of the San Joaquin Valley and adjoining Sierran foothills were hunters and gatherers who depended upon the seasonal vegetal and faunal resources. Similar to their neighboring Tribes, the Gashowu lived in permanently established villages during most of the year, usually between the months of October and May (Gayton, 1930:365). The rest of the year, they would travel across their territory, tracking seasonally available plants as well as game and fish. Their principal villages were located along permanent springs and streams, while temporary camps were scattered throughout their area along seasonal drainages. Pounding rocks, the most visible vestige of Native American occupation, are located on rock boulders and bedrock outcrops above seasonal or permanent water courses. The abundance of resources in the valley supported a socially complex lifestyle, with the high population numbers normally associated with Map from Handbook of the California Indians by Alfred Kroeber 5 agricultural peoples (Baumhoff, 1963). Numerous accounts (Gayton, 1930, 1948; Kroeber, 1925; Latta, 1977; McCarthy, 1995; Spier, 1978; and Wallace, 1978a), of Valley Yokuts life ways offer details of pre-European land use in the San Joaquin Valley. 3.3 POST CONTACT HISTORY The study area is the located in the historic Tarpey Village Area. Tarpey Village is located in on the 1920’s USGS Clovis 7.5” topographic map (Figure 6). In 1912 the La Paloma Winery was built by the Tarpey family. The family grew 1300 acres of grapes in the adjacent area. In 2005 the City of Clovis purchased the winery with hopes of restoration, but in 2016 it was demolished. The area is named for the Tarpey family. On the western edge of the property was the original Southern Pacific Railroad (Figure 6).