Table Of ContentA Cultural Resources Inventory of the
Hawthorne Water Systems Project
Babbitt, Mineral County, Nevada
Report
KAUTZENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANTS, INC.
Frontpiece illustration of a
pecked and grooved saurian effigy head
discovered in an Archaic site
in the South Truckee Meadows, Nevada.
Illustration by J.W. Oothoudt
A CULTURAL RESOURCES INVENTORY OF THE
HAWTHORNE WATER SYSTEMS PROJECT,
BABBITT, MINERAL COUNTY, NEVADA
Prepared for:
Danny Sommers
Farr West Engineering
5442 Longley Lane, Suite B
Reno, Nevada 89511
Prepared by:
Dwight D. Simons, Ph.C. and Robert R. Kautz, Ph.D.
Kautz Environmental Consultants, Inc.
5200 Neil Road, Suite 200
Reno, Nevada 89502
(775) 829-4411; [email protected]
KEC Project 590
July 25, 2007
CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT RELEASE
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
In early June, 2007, Mr. Danny Sommers, Farr West Engineering, Reno, Nevada, contacted Dr.
Robert Kautz, Kautz Environmental Consultants, Inc., Reno, Nevada, to request a cultural resources
survey of 1,116.5 acres located immediately north of the City of Hawthorne, west-central Mineral
County, Nevada. The proposed project area is currently owned and managed by Mineral County.
The County has received a Nevada Small Cities Community Development Block Grant administered
by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the County’s Economic
Development Administration, to develop water and sewer lines in anticipation of construction of an
industrial park project on the subject lands. Mr. Ron Radii of the Western Nevada Development
Department subsequently met with Ms. Rebecca Palmer of the Nevada State Historic Preservation
Office, who recommended a cultural resources survey.
Because the proposed project area is funded and permitted through HUD, this project is defined as
a “federal undertaking,” which refers to, “any project, activity, or program that can result in changes
in the character or use of historic properties, if any such historic properties are located in the area of
potential effect” (36 CFR § 800.2[o]). Since the proposed project is a federal undertaking, it entails
responsibility for compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966,
as amended (16 U.S.C. § 470), and its implementing regulations (36 CFR Part 800.4[b]). This act,
and its implementing regulations, are intended to ensure consideration of historic resources by means
of their identification and historic resource evaluation, as well as an evaluation of the project’s effect
upon those resources. The report that follows has been designed to satisfy these specific federal
requirements.
On June 19-22, 2007, a Class III pedestrian survey was done of the entire 1,116.5 acre project area.
A total of 31 isolated artifacts, 10 isolated historic features, and 21 archaeological sites were
observed and recorded. The 21 archaeological sites included 15 historic sites, five prehistoric sites,
and one multi-component site. All of the six prehistoric sites/component were lithic scatters.
Among the 16 historic sites/component are 11 refuse scatters, an historic road segment, the
Hawthorne Cemetery, the Hawthorne Sewage Treatment Facility, the Hawthorne Airport, and the
former town site of Babbitt.
It is recommended that the 31 isolated artifacts, and the 10 isolated historic features are not-
significant, and not eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
Therefore, it is recommended all these isolated finds require no further management consideration
prior to implementation of the proposed development project.
It is recommended that the six prehistoric archaeological sites/component 26Mnl656, 26Mnl658,
26Mnl660, 26Mnl662, 26Mnl664, and 26Mnl666, and the 16 historic archaeological
sites/component 26Mnl651, 26Mnl652, 26Mnl653, 26Mnl654, 26Mnl655, 26Mnl657,
26Mnl658, 26Mnl659, 26Mnl661, 26Mnl663, 26Mnl665, 26Mnl667, 26Mnl668, 26Mnl669,
26Mnl670, and 26Mnl671, are not-significant, and not eligible for nomination to the NRHP.
Therefore, it is recommended all the prehistoric sites and the single prehistoric component, and all
the historic sites and the single historic component, require no further management consideration
prior to implementation of the proposed development project.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2018
https://archive.org/details/culturalresourceOOkaut
A CRI of the Hawthorne Water Systems Project, Babbitt, Mineral County, Nevada_i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 INTRODUCTION.1
1.1 PURPOSE OF THE SURVEY.1
1.2 PROJECT AREA.1
1.3 REPORT OUTLINE.4
1.4 NATURAL SETTING .4
1.4.1 Geology and Soils .4
1.4.2 Flora.5
1.4.3 Fauna.5
2.0 PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC OVERVIEW
AND RESEARCH THEMES .7
2.1 PREHISTORIC CONTEXT.7
2.2 PREHISTORIC RESEARCH THEMES .8
2.2.1 Paleoenvironments.9
2.2.2 Prehistoric Chronology .13
2.2.3 Prehistoric Settlement-Subsistence .21
2.2.4 Prehistoric Lithic Technology .33
2.2.5 Prehistoric Trade and Exchange .38
2.3 ETHNOHISTORIC CONTEXT.42
2.4 THE HISTORIC RECORD .44
2.4.1 Early Historic Period Euro-American Explorers and Emigrants.44
2.4.2 Historic Native Americans.46
2.4.3 Historic Mining .49
2.4.4 Historic Transportation .49
2.4.5 Historic Settlement.53
2.4.6 Military History.61
2.5 HISTORIC RESEARCH THEMES AND QUESTIONS.68
2.5.1 Chronology .68
2.5.2 Living Conditions .69
2.5.3 Transportation .69
2.5.4 Settlement .72
2.5.5 The Military.74
3.0 PRIOR RESEARCH, EXPECTATIONS, AND FIELD METHODS .77
3.1 PRIOR RESEARCH.77
3.1.1 Previous Cultural Resource Inventories.77
3.1.2 Previously Recorded Archaeological Sites .79
3.1.3 State and National Register Properties.80
3.1.4 Historic Maps and Historic Indices.80
3.2 INVENTORY EXPECTATIONS.86
3.3 FIELD SURVEY METHODS .86
3.4 PREHISTORIC FLAKED STONE ARTIFACT ANALYSIS.87
3.4.1 Lithic Debitage.88
3.4.2 Bifaces.90
4.0 RESULTS.93
Kautz Environmental Consultants, Inc.
U_A CRI of the Hawthorne Water Systems Project, Babbitt, Mineral County, Nevada
4.1 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.93
4.2 ISOLATED FINDS.94
4.3 ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES .101
4.3.1 Site 26Mn 1651, The Hawthorne Cemetery.101
4.3.2 Site 26Mnl652 . 104
4.3.3 Site 26Mnl653 . 105
4.3.4 Site 26Mnl654 . 105
4.3.5 Site 26Mnl655 . 106
4.3.6 Site 26Mnl656 . 106
4.3.7 Site 26Mnl657 . 106
4.3.8 Site 26Mnl658 . 107
4.3.9 Site 26Mnl659 . 107
4.3.10 Site 26Mnl660 . 108
4.3.11 Site 26Mnl661.108
4.3.12 Site 26Mnl662 . 108
4.3.13 Site 26Mnl663 . 108
4.3.14 Site 26Mnl664 . 109
4.3.15 Site 26Mnl665 . 109
4.3.16 Site 26Mnl666 . 109
4.3.17 Site 26Mnl667 . 110
4.3.18 Site 26Mnl668 . 110
4.3.19 Site 26Mn 1669, Town of Babbitt .110
4.3.20 Site 26Mn 1670, The Hawthorne Airport.113
4.3.21 Site 26Mnl671, The Hawthorne Sewage Facility.115
4.4 HISTORIC STRUCTURES .117
4.4.1 Water Tower Number 7.117
4.4.2 Sky View Academy.118
5.0 CULTURAL RESOURCES EVALUATIONS
AND MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS.121
5.1 EVALUATIONS OF ISOLATED ARTIFACTS AND FEATURES.121
5.2 EVALUATIONS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES.122
5.2.1 Non-Significant Prehistoric Sites/Component.123
5.2.2 Non-Significant Historic Sites/Component.123
5.3 MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS .127
5.3.1 Isolated Artifacts .127
5.3.2 Not-Significant Prehistoric and Historic Archaeological Sites/Components
.127
6.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY.129
APPENDICES
Appendix A Photograph Logs
Appendix B Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant - Babbitt Housing Area by M. Molyneaux
Appendix C Historic Resources Inventory Forms and Associated Context
Appendix D IMACS Site Records
Kautz Environmental Consultants, Inc.
A CRI of the Hawthorne Water Systems Project, Babbitt, Mineral County, Nevada_iii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Project Vicinity Map .2
Figure 1.2 Project Area Map.3
Figure 2.1 Aerial Photo of Babbitt, c. 1940s or 1950s .58
Figure 2.2 Floor Plans for Babbitt Duplexes.60
Figure 2.3 Babbitt, Nevada. Essex and 15th Streets, c. 1940s .61
Figure 2.4 Plan Map of Babbitt, Nevada.62
Figure 2.5 Babbitt “Colored Section” c. 1945 . 63
Figure 2.6 Babbitt Plan Demonstrating Persisting Racial Separation, c. 1970 . 64
Figure 3.1 GLO Plat Map of T.8N., R.30E. (1888) with Project APE.82
Figure 3.2 GLO Plat Map of T.8N., R.30E. (1922) with Project APE.83
Figure 3.3 Hawthorne, 1:250,000 Scale, Topographic Map, 1911.84
Figure 3.4 Hawthorne, Nev., 1:62,500 Scale, Topographic Quadrangle, 1955 . 85
Figure 4.1 Overview of Project Area .93
Figure 4.2 Isolate Location Map.100
Figure 4.3 Site Location Map .102
Figure 4.4 Sketch Map of Site 26Mnl651, Hawthorne Cemetery .103
Figure 4.5 Historic Streetscape in Babbitt and Modem View of Street During
Recordation .112
Figure 4.6 Civil Air Patrol Building, South and East Elevations .114
Figure 4.7 Sewage Facility, North and West Elevations.115
Figure 4.8 Water Tower Number 7, Northeast Elevation.118
Figure 4.9 Sky View Academy, Main Building, East Elevation.119
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Summary of Prehistoric Chronology in West-Central Nevada .8
Table 2.2 Indices of Lithic Cost/Value .35
Table 2.3 Lithic Assemblage Expectations for Different Mobility Strategies.37
Table 3.1 Cultural Resources Investigations Conducted Within One Mile of the Project Area
.78
Table 3.2 Previously Recorded Archaeological Sites Within One Mile of Project Area . . 79
Table 3.2 State/National Register Properties Within One Mile of the Project Area.80
Table 3.4 GLO Plat Maps Reviewed Within One Mile of the Project Area.81
Table 3.5 Historic Topographic Maps Reviewed Within One Mile of the Project Area ... 81
Table 4.1 Isolated Artifacts and Features.94
Table 5.1 Summary of Sites Located Within the Project Area, and NRHP Recommendations
.122
Kautz Environmental Consultants, Inc.
iv A CRI of the Hawthorne Water Sysh
ultants, Inc.
