Fort Lowell - Adkins Steel Property Monitoring

Purpose

The Adkins Steel property, acquired by the City of Tucson as an addition to Fort Lowell Park, contains remnants of historic Fort Lowell as well as features from the underlying precontact Hohokam village known as the Hardy site. Through an Intergovernmental Agreement, Pima County sponsored a plan to stabilize and interpret the extant ruins. This required monitoring of all ground-disturbing activities as well as stabilization work on historic structures.

Actions

• Archaeological monitoring of stabilization activities, underground fuel tank and fuel line removal, and the demolition of post-fort era buildings and structures

• Archaeological monitoring of restoration and construction work on Officers’ Quarters No. 1, 2, and 3, in addition to excavation of drainage trenches, drilling of postholes, and site grading

Results

• Two archaeological features and small number of precontact and historic artifacts were located during the stabilization and demolition monitoring.

• Sixteen historic archaeological features were discovered, including an artifact-filled privy pit associated with the fort-era occupation of Officers’ Quarters No. 3.

• Monitoring successfully documented and protected subsurface cultural resources, and the data recorded provided new insights into the precontact and historic occupations of the parcel.

• Desert Archaeology recommended that all future activities on this portion of Fort Lowell that disturb the ground deeper than 6 inches should be monitored.