HPC agenda 102799 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

standing structure files. All project area landowners were also contacted and invited to a public Town Hall- style meeting to report their knowledge of archaeological sites in the area. They were asked to bring along any artifact collections in their possession so that the archaeologists could record the sites and identify their artifacts . Members of the Tar Heel Archaeological Society, a regional group of enthusiasts, were also contacted to see if they have any knowledge of archaeological materials in the project area. Task Two was to integrate the results of historic research, site file research, and informant interviews . Task Two included groundAruthing potential site locations as feasible during an archaeological field reconnaissance of the St. Mary' s Road Corridor. These data were used td create a context for understanding archaeological resources in the project area. Task Three was to correlate all of these data in a report with recommendations for future work. This report is the culmination of those tasks . Environmental Overview The project area is located in the rolling hills of the Piedmont physiographic province . The Piedmont is an uplifted plain dissected by myriad streams . These lands tend to have somewhat steep slopes around creek drainages . The major drainage in the project area is formed by the Eno River and its tributaries (e . g. , Buckwater, Little, and Strouds creeks) . The Eno tends to flow towards the east/southeast and eventually forms part of the Neuse River basin (Daniel 1994 : 2) . The project corridor does not cross the Eno River (Figure 1 ) . The historic placement of the road, however, was influenced by the location of that river and its tr 'butar ' s . St . Mary ' s Road is located about 1 , 500 .3 , 000 ft north of the Eno River near the western boundary of the project area. The project road trends more to the northeast in the eastern half of the project area (Figure 1 ) . ' At the intersection of Buckwater Creek and the Eno , found about 11 , 000 ft south of St . Mary ' s Road, the Eno takes a sharp turn to the south. Although the study corridor does not cross the Eno River, St . Mary' s Road does cross some of its tributaries . The approximately 6 . 4 mile stretch of St. Mary ' s Road Corridor under study crosses Strouds Creek about 0 . 7 miles east of the road' s intersection with N . C . Highway 70 . It passes over Little Creek about 1 . 5 miles to the east of that same intersection with Highway 70 . The corridor crosses an unnamed creek at about 2 . 7 miles east of that same intersection point with the highway. This creek flows into Buckwater Creek just south of St. Mary' s Road. Buckwater Creek tends to parallel the corridor to the east, until a point located about 4 . 7 miles east of the intersection of Highway 70 and St . Mary ' s Road. At this location Buckwater turns southwards towards the Eno River, after it is joined by another tributary (unnamed branch) that crosses St . Marys Road in the vicinity. One other branch (Finches) parallels St . Mary ' s Road to the south, extending from Buckwater Creek east across Pleasant Green Road . The project area falls within the Carolina Slate Belt and is geologically complex. The local topography is broken into a series of pronounced ridges, generally trending northeast to southwest and separated by deep, V-shaped valleys (Wilson and Carpenter 1975 : 13 ; Heron 1979 % 34-37) . The highest elevation in the project area reaches 724 ft above Mean Sea Level, found about 0 . 8 miles south of St. Marys Road at a point 4 miles east of Hillsborough (U . S . G . S . Hillsborough Quadrangle 1994) . The actual road corridor 3