Piute Creek Archeological Survey and Site Documentation, Mojave National Preserve, California

The Mojave National Preserve (MOJA) plans to establish a visitor use area to interpret the cultural resources surrounding Fort Piute (CA-SBR-119/H). Fort Piute, a small military outpost built in 1867, is located in the east-central section of MOJA, near the eastern MOJA boundary. The visitor use project area is adjacent to a section of the Mojave Road (CA-SBR-3033/H),
within the Fort Piute (CA-SBR-119/H) site boundary, and within site CA-SBR-213/H, a large multicomponent archeological site.

In preparation for the proposed project, archeologists from the Western Archeological and Conservation Center (WACC) conducted an inventory survey of the Fort Piute area, completed a small clearance survey for proposed picnic and parking lot areas, and completed an instrument map of Fort Piute (CA-SBR-119/H). In total, five new and four previously recorded sites were identified and recorded. The prehistoric sites date to the late Archaic, Late Prehistoric, and Ethnohistoric periods and include midden deposits, artifact scatters, milling slicks, and petroglyph panels. The remains of a possible cremation were identified in the western portion of site CASBR- 1745/H. The historic-period sites are related to the construction and use of the Mojave Road, as well as mining and ranching activities in Piute Pass. All of the sites are included in the Piute Pass National Register District, NRHP-L-73-429 (Haenszel and Reynolds 1972), and management recommendations concerning the direct and indirect impacts of the proposed project on the recorded sites are included in the final chapter of this report.