A Design for Salado Research

This is the introduction to the Roosevelt Platform Mound Studies.
The Roosevelt Platform Mound Study investigated the physical and social organization of three Classic period community complexes in the Tonto Basin of Arizona known as Pinto Creek, Cline Terrace, and Rock Island. The data were collected from the investigation of 79 prehistoric sites arranged in three clusters within the Tonto Basin. There are many other sites not examined by the investigations described in this series of reports, but the 79 sites of our project provide sufficient challenge. The project was conducted from 1989 to 1998, about four of which involved the field investigation of the sites.

The project was funded through the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior. The investigations were necessary in order to mitigate the adverse impact of raising the height of the dam at Roosevelt Lake. The original Theodore Roosevelt Dam was completed in 1911. By the 1980s, it needed to be strengthened. In addition, modern data and recent floods suggested that the height of the dam needed to be raised. A series of archaeological surveys conducted around the perimeter of the original lake (Fuller et al. 1976; Jewett 1986; Rice and Bostwick 1986) identified 539 sites that could, on rare occasions, be flooded by the lake behind the planned raised dam. To mitigate the anticipated impact of the flooding, the sample of 79 sites were documented and studied.