Phase I Archaeological Resources Inventory of the Harper's Creek Area, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, St. Mary's County, Maryland

The following report presents the results of a Phase I archaeological survey conducted from June 1997 to December 1997 around the Harper’s Creek drainage, situated aboard the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. The goal of this survey was to identify and inventory all archaeological sites within the project boundary in accordance with Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended. The project area is in Maryland Archaeological Research Unit Number 9, the Estuarine Patuxent Drainage of the Coastal Plain Province. The survey was conducted by the staff of the Southern Maryland Regional Center at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum for the Natural Resources Branch of the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the Public Works Department at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The project was funded through a grant provided by the Department of Defense's Legacy Resources Management Program.
Harper’s Creek is situated west of Cedar Point in the northeast quadrant of the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, and combines with Pearson Creek to empty into the Patuxent River near its confluence with the Chesapeake Bay. The project consisted of a Phase I shovel test pit survey. Four thousand, four hundred and seventy-seven shovel test pits were excavated at 25-foot intervals to a distance of 200 feet inland from the creek. The survey tested approximately 460 acres.
Twenty-three archaeological sites were encountered, including fourteen previously unidentified sites and nine sites which were previously documented. The prehistoric sites ranged from the Early Archaic period to the Late Woodland period, and the historic sites extended from the last half of the seventeenth century to the early 1940s. Fourteen sites may potentially be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (National Register): 18ST396, 18ST472, 18ST474, 18ST475, 18ST659, 18ST747, 18ST748, 18ST749, 18ST750, 18ST751, 18ST753, 18ST754, 18ST755, and 18ST756. Additional work will be necessary at these sites to determine their eligibility, should avoidance prove impossible.