Rancho Seco Survey

View from the project area to the west out of the Las Guijas basin toward Baboquivari Peak, or Vav Giwulik, one of the homes of I’itoi, the O’odham creator.

Purpose

The Rancho Seco Survey was conducted at the request of the Pima County Cultural Resources and Historic Preservation Division, in support of the county’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. The overarching goal is creating a comprehensive, integrated management plan that treats cultural and natural resources as part of a greater whole and is oriented toward conservation and preservation in place.

The first goal of this survey was to evaluate the diversity and density of cultural resources on the Rancho Seco. Second, collaboration with the Tohono O’odham, San Carlos Apache, and Yaqui was initiated to identify current and past Tribal connections to the project area specifically and the Altar Valley in general, in order to incorporate their concerns as stakeholders in resource management. This project

Actions

422.8 acres surveyed
9 sites and 50+ isolated finds documented
Re-documented a significant rock shelter
Heritage connections outreach with the Tohono O’odham Nation, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe

Results

The survey gathered baseline information on the kinds of sites present and their distributions, making a key contribution to building robust, adaptable management and research plans for County conservation lands in collaboration with all stakeholders.
Sites included assay pits excavated at mine claims, a 1940s-1950s ranch-related site with an underlying prehistoric component, and limited activity sites associated with rock tanks/tinajas or cheechpo (O’odham) that held water for various lengths of time.
The small upland tinaja sites reflect a wide range of uses of the area through time related to resource procurement from food to pigments to precious and industrial metals, and to homesteading during the 1890s and the Depression era.
Most isolated occurrences were rock piles used to mark the limits of lode or placer mine claims but also included historic and prehistoric artifacts that range in age from the Early Agricultural Period to the 1950s.
The survey re-documented a previously recorded rock shelter that protects Western Apache pictographs and a Hohokam component with artifacts, bedrock mortars, and pictographs.
A field trip to the project area to visit the project area with Samuel Fayuant of the Tohono O’odham Nation underscored that the Sonoran Desert is filled with Tohono O’odham-named places tied to identity, history, and cosmology.

Date:

April 2024

Location:

Altar Valley, Pima County, Arizona

Type:

Class I inventory and Class III pedestrian survey

Compliance:

State

Lead Agency:

Pima County

Client:

Pima County

Partnership:

Anthropological Research, LLC

DAI Reports:

Project Report No. 2024-101

Services:

Survey

Click any image below to enlarge.

Rock shelter with historic-era Apache and prehistoric Hohokam pictographs, boulders with cupules and bedrock grinding features, and associated artifacts.

Prehistoric and likely historic pictographs drawn with charcoal. Original images on left and digitally enhanced images on right. In upper image (a, b), note quadruped with a mounted rider facing a standing figure wearing a headdress and holding a shield which might depict a confrontation between individuals. Lower image (c, d) depicts a scorpion and centipede.

Apache pictographs, likely depictions of shield motifs (digitally enhanced images bottom row).

Rock cairn associated with a mine claim. A Prince Albert tobacco tin that dates to the 1900-1930 time range was wedged in the cairn and contained the bug-eaten and decayed claim notice, which was illegible. This might be associated with the Rattle Snake claim filed by Charles E. Bent, a prominent miner in the region, on July 15, 1919.

Isolated artifacts, clockwise from upper left: Early Agricultural Period projectile point, indeterminate Cienega phase (800 BC-AD 50); Crushed body of a World War II-era 100lb practice bomb; 20d machine-cut nail (style dates from 1850-1900).

Mine claim assay pit being documented by archaeologists Katie Bubnekovich and Truman Willard.

Tinajas or cheechpo, natural rock tanks in drainages, are important temporary water sources for wildlife, livestock, and people. Debris and sand may be cleaned out to increase storage capacity and cleanliness. Sand-filled tanks will hold less water for longer periods of time due to reduced evaporation.

Quick Findings