Western Divide Class III Cultural Survey

Rock ring and bedrock mortar site, Sequoia National Forest, Tulare

County, California

Project Experience

SAS has conducted projects throughout California and the nation. The following selected projects highlight just a few of the projects successfully completed by SAS. The key clients listed offer a window into the variety of federal, state, and local agencies and private landowners SAS has partnered with over the years.

USDI, Utah Bureau of Land Management Moab District Office, Selected Road Inventory – Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah. 2009

SAS conducted a Class II cultural resources survey of an approximate 50-mile road system meandering through Great Basin and Southwest study areas. While conducting field reconnaissance of the entire route, SAS field members identified and recorded over 30 sites, 50 isolates, and several petroglyph panels, all of which were plotted as shape files and submitted to the client as a GIS layer.

USDI, Montana Bureau of Land Management,

Class III Cultural Inventories – Fergus, Lewis & Clark, Petroleum, Powell, Phillips, and Teton Counties, Montana. 2008, 2010-2011

Working with the Montana BLM Lewistown and Missoula Field Offices, SAS conducted Class III cultural resources inventories totaling over 7,600 acres in preparation for fuels reduction and beetle kill projects. Numerous sites were recorded and evaluated for the National Register of Historic Places, including historic-era homesteads, lithic scatters, and rock art sites.

Tower Mart #99 Project – Solano County, California. 2007-2012

From 2007 to 2011, SAS conducted CEQA-level archaeological investigations of site CA-SOL-364 at the town of Rockville, California. The investigations included an inventory, archaeological testing, data recovery, and burial removal efforts to assist the Tower Energy Group in mitigating construction of a proposed gas station and storefront remodel and expansion. Field efforts yielded over 50,000 prehistoric artifacts, including rich lithic material, groundstone, charmstones, marine shell pendants, bone tools, and faunal remains, most of which were recovered in context with numerous Native American burials and 42 archaeological features.

Solano Irrigation District (SID) –  Solano County, California. 2007-2012

Since 2007, SAS has conducted numerous CEQA-level cultural resources studies for SID in preparation for proposed pipe replacement and reinforcement, deep well replacement, and bridge reinforcement. During many of these studies, SAS discovered and evaluated many historical resources for the California Register. Several projects, including the Pierce Lateral B Pipeline Replacement Project in 2007, required additional testing and evaluation for site eligibility determination.

USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) –  Butte, Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Kern, Kings, Lassen, Marin, Merced, Modoc, Plumas, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Yolo, and Yuba Counties. 2007-2012

SAS has surveyed over 25,000 acres for NRCS throughout California, including projects for the wetland reserve program, floodplain easements, and fuels modification projects. Over the years SAS has recorded and evaluated numerous cultural resources for the National Register of Historical Places, including multiple-acre lithic scatters, homesteads, and petroglyph panels. Working closely with NRCS staff to mitigate potential impacts to cultural resources, SAS has traversed beaches, deserts, valley floors, and high-elevation forests using sub-meter-accurate GPS devices to pinpoint sites.

Walmart Mitigation at Old Lynch Canyon Project,

Solano Land Trust –  Solano County, California. 2012

In coordination with the Solano Land Trust and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, SAS conducted a NEPA-level inventory and archaeological testing and evaluation of an old homestead and prehistoric lithic scatter site, CA-SOL-304/H. With goals of re-establishing a native habitat wetland along the banks of Lynch Creek, Walmart mitigated the cultural resources in the area through a mitigation bank for construction of a new storefront in Suisun City. Meeting tight deadlines, SAS completed the project with minimal review changes and with interesting results, including the recovery of historic-era buttons and a pewter statue of canine hero Rin Tin Tin. Remaining stone block foundations, a rock wall, and a spring box were diligently recorded and found to correspond with a plat map homestead site.

USDA, Sequoia National Forest, Class III Cultural Resources Inventory for the Western Divide Hazardous Fuels Project

– Tulare County, California. 2010-2011

SAS surveyed over 12,000 acres in the Western Divide Ranger District of the Sequoia National Forest, recording seven new sites and updating over 80 existing sites. SAS wrote a NEPA-level report providing National Register eligibility recommendations and descriptions of a wide variety of cultural resources, including bedrock mortar and basin milling stations, lithic scatters with rich dark midden, pictographs, fire rings, historic-era cabins, can scatters, and waterways. SAS field crews trudged through thousands of acres of densely vegetated, rugged terrain to find these resources.

DOD, U.S. Army, Fort Irwin Uplands Cultural Resources

Survey Project – San Bernardino County, California. 2010-2011

To switch battle tactics of upland hill combat, the Fort Irwin National Training Center contracted with SAS to survey nearly 8,000 acres of stark upland hill terrain to identify cultural resources and make National Register eligibility recommendations. Molding to the military environment, SAS field staff underwent unexploded ordinance training and strategically sampled portions of the enormous Fort Irwin uplands acreage. SAS completed a final report summarizing the findings of 13 sites and 23 isolates, including two petroglyph sites and several large multi-acre lithic scatters.