Archaeological Investigations Along the Bouse Hills-Harcuvar-Little Harquahala Transmission Lines, Features of the Granite Reef Aqueduct, Central Arizona Project

Under contract with the Bureau of Reclamation, the Office of Cultural Resource Management (OCRM), Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, completed an archaeological survey of the Bouse Hills-Harcuvar-Little Harquahala 115 kV transmission lines. The Bouse Hills-Harcuvar Transmission Line stretches 23.3 miles from the Harcuvar Substation to the Bouse Hills Pumping Plant. The Harcuvar-Little Harquahala Transmission Line stretches 41.7 miles from the Harcuvar Substation to the Little Harquahala Pumping Plant.

OCRM archaeologists identified and documented 8 field loci and 8 isolated artifacts during the Bouse Hills-Harcuvar-Little Harquahala 115 kV transmission lines survey. Based on relative density of cultural material dispersion, field loci were grouped into one site: AZ S:6:7 (ASU).

Mitigation was completed at one site and three field loci in the winter of 1979. Excavation of 3 cobble features was completed at AZ S:6:7 (ASU). Surface collection was completed at FL 1, FL 6 and FL 9.

The investigations identified a pattern of secondary resource zone exploitation in the desert areas between the river valleys. Researchers defined and described a secondary resource zone as an area which did not support a permanent population, but was utilized intermittently, probably on a seasonal basis, in the exploitation of wild plant and animal food resources by people whose primary subsistence was derived from a different zone.