Projects that involve ground-disturbing activities oftentimes go to great lengths to avoid adversely affecting historic properties that are significant cultural resources such as buildings, structures, and even sites protected by Section 106. Some activities result in very obvious effects; others not so much. Thorough evaluation during the pre-construction planning process identifies most effects and makes recommendations to avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse effects. Occasionally, some effects fly under the pre-construction planning radar.

Construction vibrations are phenomena that are sometimes overlooked, yet these unseen products of blasting, demolition, pile driving, and compaction can travel well beyond a construction right-of-way and cause cosmetic and, in severe cases, structural damage to significant cultural resources. Discovering their effects after a project is underway can have costly consequences. Certain project elements may be delayed while a vibration monitoring plan is prepared. Disgruntled property owners may file damage claims. Project proponents may receive bad press. Time, money, and project supporters’ good will are potentially wasted.
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Cultural resources research on the archaeology of Central Arizona has focused mainly on the large settlements within Perry Mesa. Perry Mesa is a series of basalt-capped mesas and canyons along the Agua Fria River that resulted from the eruption of the shield volcano. This mesa-canyon complex covers an area of about 75 square miles and contains one of the most fascinating groups of ruins in Central Arizona.

Beginning in 2006, as part of Logan Simpson-supported independent research, one of our senior archaeologists supervised a multiyear project of a previously unstudied prehistoric community that is undoubtedly part of the Perry Mesa system, which is located 10 miles east of Perry Mesa proper. Over this seven year period, a group of more than 20 volunteers, many of them Logan Simpson employees, surveyed and recorded over 150 prehistoric sites that are part of this unique community situated on the Tonto National Forest.
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As experienced consultants in the cultural resources management industry, Logan Simpson earns its bread and butter by helping our clients navigate federal laws designed to protect prehistoric and historic archaeological sites. But as full-time “compliance specialists,” we also tend to seek out the next exciting opportunity to conduct research that rises above and beyond the scope of our clients’ projects.

Recently, a cultural resources inventory of the entire Arizona Public Service Company (APS) transmission system in Arizona and northwest New Mexico presented Logan Simpson Design with such an opportunity. Our team of archaeologists was given the chance to survey transmission lines on and near the Hopi mesas, adjacent to the six contemporary pueblos and numerous abandoned pueblos that figure prominently in the history of Southwestern ethnography and archaeology. In the process, Logan Simpson archaeologists came across an exciting site that had not been investigated for decades: an ancestral Hopi coalmine and associated pottery-firing areas.

In a land with few trees for firewood, ancestral Hopis used coal dug by hand from natural seams in the Mesaverde sandstone. Under and adjacent to the APS transmission line, our crew recorded coal-extraction areas—curious mounds filled with the beautiful fragments of Hopi Yellow Ware ceramic pots (yellow in color due to the extremely high firing temperature of coal as fuel)—and other artifacts that appeared to date from the late 1200s into at least the 1400s. Sound avoidance measures were of course provided to protect the site; the land manager (Navajo Nation) concurred with our protection measures, and the Section 106 process was complete.
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