A PHASE I CULTURAL RESOURCE ASSESSMENT OF THE GARCIA FARMS FAVT PARCEL HENDRY COUNTY, FLORIDA ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL CONSERVANCY, INC. AHC TECHNICAL REPORT NO. 1182 AHC PROJECT NO. 2017.203 FEBRUARY 2018 A PHASE I CULTURAL RESOURCE ASSESSMENT OF THE GARCIA FARMS FAVT PARCEL HENDRY COUNTY, FLORIDA By: Robert S. Carr, M.S. Alan M. Noe, B.A. Earl Harvey Jacobs IV, B.S. John Beriault, B.A. ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL CONSERVANCY, INC. 4800 SW 64th Avenue, Suite 107 Davie, Florida 33314 [email protected] (954) 792-9776 For: WATER AND SOIL SOLUTIONS, LLC AHC PROJECT NO. 2017.203 AHC TECHNICAL REPORT NO. 1182 FEBRUARY 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ii CONSULTANT SUMMARY 1 PROJECT SETTING 3 PREVIOUS RESEARCH 8 CULTURAL SUMMARY 13 METHODOLOGY 18 RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS 21 REFERENCES CITED 22 APPENDIX I: FLORIDA SURVEY LOG 28 i LIST OF FIGURES 1. USGS map of the Garcia Farms FAVT parcel 2 2. 1876 plat map with overlay of project parcel 4 3. 1943 Copeland map with overlay of project parcel 5 4. 1974 black and white aerial photograph of project parcel 6 5. 2017 color orthophotograph of project parcel 7 6. USGS map showing all previously recorded archaeological sites within one mile of the project parcel 12 7. 2017 color aerial of project parcel depicting shovel test locations 19 8. Typical view along rows of crops planted across the project parcel 20 ii CONSULTANT SUMMARY From December 2017 to January 2018 the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, Inc., (AHC) conducted a Phase I cultural resource assessment for Water and Soil Solutions, LLC, of the 232 acre Garcia Farms FAVT (floating aquatic vegetation tilling) parcel adjacent to and east of CR833 (Josie Billie Highway) in southeastern Hendry County. The parcel is located in Section 35 in Township 47S, Range 33E (Figure 1) and lies three miles north of the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. The parcel was surveyed to locate and assess any sites of archaeological and/or historical significance. This cultural resource assessment was conducted for the proposed redevelopment of the parcel as a stormwater treatment area. This assessment was conducted to fulfill historic resource requirements in response to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (1966), State of Florida Statutes Chapter 267 and Hendry County historic preservation objectives. The work and the report conform to the specifications set forth in Chapter 1A-46, Florida Administrative Code and Florida Division of Historic Resources (FDHR) Module 3 guidelines. The Garcia Farms FAVT parcel was historically characterized as cypress strands, prairie, and oak and cabbage palm hammocks. Modern land use is agricultural. A site search with FDHR determined that no sites are recorded in the parcel and that 16 previously recorded archaeological sites occur within one mile of the parcel. The parcel was identified as having a low probability for archaeological sites based on a review of aerial photographs. No standing structures occur within the parcel. This Phase I cultural resource assessment included a review of aerial photographs and archival documents, a pedestrian survey, and shovel testing across the parcel. A total of 58 shovel tests were excavated across the parcel. All shovel tests were negative for cultural material. It is the consultant’s opinion that no significant cultural resources occur on the project parcel. 1 2 PROJECT SETTING The project parcel is located in Section 35 in Township 47S, Range 33E in south-eastern Hendry County, Florida. The ±232 acre parcel consists of vacant land that was used for farming. The parcel is adjacent to and east of CR833 (Josie Billie Highway). The relevant USGS maps are Cowbone Island and Goddens Strand (Figure 1). Neither the 1876 plat map (Figure 2) nor the Copeland map of 1943 (Figure 3) reveal any identified natural or cultural features within the project parcel. The earliest available vintage aerial photograph indicates that the project area (ca. 1974) had been previously cleared and farmed. Land use changes in the parcel include fencing, drainage ditching, and clearing. The parcel is currently in agricultural use. The vegetation of the general area reflects a transition from the northern reaches of the Big Cypress Swamp into the toe of slope for the Immokalee Rise characterized by elevational and vegetation changes from wetland to high saw palmetto prairie toward the northwest. In the north and western portions of the project area is a major physiographic change with increasing concentrations of cypress heads, domes, and sloughs with relict flatwoods. Four miles to the east begins a transition to sawgrass marsh communities on the western edge of the Everglades Trough. The soil changes radically at that point from sand sediments to organic peat soils mantling chalky limestone and limestone caprock. The geology of southeastern Hendry County is characterized by solutioned limestone caprock overlain to various depths by sands or shelly marls. In cypress sloughs, but particularly in cypress dome/solution ponds there are potentially deep deposits of muck or peat. Fine tan and gray sands found extensively in the district are Holopaw and Riviera fine sands which usually overlie relict marine deposits of shelly marl and marly limestone caprock that are part of the Pleistocene Caloosahatchee and Fort Thompson formations. These marine marls contain lenses and deposits of clay intermixed with varying percentages of sand. These clays may have been a source for ceramic manufacture by the Formative period Native Americans. Mantling the Riviera and Holopaw sands are windblown deposits of gray sands of varying depths. Seven soil types are represented on the project parcel: Oldsmar sand, 0-2 percent slopes (12%); Immokalee sand, 0-2 percent slopes (2.4%); Myakka sand, 0-2 percent slopes (30.5%); Bassinger sand, 0-2 percent slopes (54.5%); Holopaw sand, 0-2 percent slopes (0.1%); Tuscawilla fine sand (0.1%); and Chobee fine sandy loam, frequently ponded, 0- 1 percent slopes (.4%). These are fine, poorly drained sands and soils generally found in interior flatwoods cypress strand prairie areas (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1989). 3 4 5 6 7 PREVIOUS RESEARCH Archaeological investigations within the western Everglades Basin and Big Cypress have not been numerous. Isolated from the more accessible coast, interior southern Florida was generally passed over by the archaeologists that visited southern Florida during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The exceptions were studies of a few earthwork sites located along the edge of the Everglades. These circular and linear earthwork complexes were large and conspicuous and caught the attention of ranchers who shared their observations with archaeologists. Among the earliest investigations of an earthworks was Big Mound City conducted by the Smithsonian Institution (Willey 1949). Other documented earthworks included Tony's Mound (Allen 1948). These early reports on earthwork sites became the impetus for additional surveys (Carr 1974, 1985; Hale 1984, Johnson 1990) and scientific excavations of earthwork sites such as at Fort Center at Fisheating Creek in the 1960s (Sears 1982) and Ortona on the Caloosahatchee River (Carr et al. 1995) that were to have impacts on developing site models, chronology, and a regional model for the Lake Okeechobee region and the Belle Glade Area in particular. Studies of the Lake Okeechobee archaeological sites were partially fueled by speculation that maize agriculture was an important subsistence trait for the area (Sears 1982). Interest in the Everglades to the south focused on questions of site distribution and adaptation to the wetlands environment. John Goggin's early surveys and recordings of sites in both the Okeechobee and Everglades areas were pivotal for furthering our knowledge of the extent of site distribution throughout the area (Goggin 1949, 1952). PREVIOUS RESEARCH NEAR THE PROJECT AREA Goggin's regional survey included the recording of three sites in the general project area. Most notable is Tony's Mound, 8HN3, located 15 miles northeast of the study area. A second site, a burial mound, 8HN24, is located in an area north of the study area. The third site is the Pepper Mounds, 8HN4, described by Goggin as two sand mounds each separated by a slough that ran between them (Goggin 1951). This site is located ten miles northeast project area, although Goggin’s site form incorrectly places it in the section southwest of Section 4. Carr visited the HN4 site in 1974 and provided a revised site form on the site's location. A review of the scientific literature indicated that systematic archaeological assessments had only been conducted in two of the six STAs (Special Treatment Areas lying to the northeast approximately ten miles near the Hendry-Palm Beach County line. These were within the northern portion of STA 6 (Carr and Davis 1990) and the eastern portion of STA-IE (Carr and Haiduven 1990). Other studies include work by Joan Deming near STA 5 and STA 6 along the L-3 Canal (1977), archaeological monitoring of oil seismic lines in Hendry County (Carr and Allerton 1988). AHC has conducted several Phase I archaeological surveys within and near the Hendry County FPL (Florida Power & Light Corporation) parcel (Carr 1988, 1990). In July 1987 8 through January 1988 AHC performed archaeological testing and assessments of five seismic survey lines which resulted in the discovery of eighteen archaeological sites, all of them black dirt middens (Carr 1988). In 1989 AHC began the first of three phases of work to assess sites found in the northern portion of the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation. The Phase I survey examined an area the equivalent of 89 square miles and resulted in the documentation of 31 sites, of which 27 were newly recorded during the assessment (Carr 1990). From April through July 2011 AHC conducted a Phase I cultural resource assessment for FPL of a ±3118 acre parcel adjacent to and west of SR833 (Josie Billie Highway, Government Road) in southeastern Hendry County.