Savanna Agardy1, Brock James1, Anna Roberts1, Anastasia Rath1, Will Rath1, Kate E. Magargal2, Tom Flanigan3, Brian F. Codding31Undergraduate Research Assistant, Department of Anthropology and Archaeological Center, University of Utah

2 Project Director, Department of Anthropology and Archaeological Center, University of Utah3 PI, Department of Anthropology and Archaeological Center, University of Utah

IntroductionHumans have been intrinsically tied to the ecology of western North America for atleast 14,000 years [1]. Using the archaeological and historic records, this projectexplores how past populations along the Wasatch Front interacted with their localenvironments. As the first major archaeological investigation in Red Butte Canyon, thisproject provides a baseline to assess prehistoric human-environment interactions,provides site-specific experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduatestudents, initiates partnerships between the anthropology department, the US ForestService and the Utah State Historic Preservation Office, and assess the culturalresources of RBC to facilitate site stewardship planning and identify any potentialimpacts that may require mitigation. We present here our preliminary findings of astudent-led archaeological survey in Red Butte Canyon.

Project GoalsThis first major archaeological investigation of RBC facilitates four goals:(1) provide a baseline to assess prehistoric and historic human-environment interactionsin the canyon,(2) develop site-specific experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate andgraduate students that could potentially be incorporated into regularly taught courses,(3) assess the cultural resources of RBC to facilitate site stewardship planning andidentify any potential impacts that may require mitigation, and(4) engage students in a community outreach event to present a synthesis of theprehistory of RBC, emphasizing the local past and how it needs to be preserved.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the field crew of the Red Butte Canyon Archaeoogical Project,September 2015 (pictured). Chris Merritt of the Utah State Historic PreservationOffice was generous with his time and comments in assisting in various stages ofplanning and executing this project. Ashley Parker and other staff of the SaltLake office of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache USFS were instrumental in lending fieldequipment and expertise. Funding was provided by the Global Change andSustainability Center at the University of Utah and the Friends of Red ButteCreek.

Selected References[1] Grayson, D. The Great Basin: a natural prehistory. Univ of California Press, 2011.[2] Orton, C. Sampling in Archaeology Cambridge University Press, 2011.[3] Ehleringer, J.R., L.A. Arnow, T. Arnow, I.B. McNulty, and N.C. Negus 1992 Red Butte Canyon Research Natural Area: history, flora, geology,

climate and ecology. Great Basin Naturalist (1992) 52:95-121.[4] QGIS Development Team. 2016. QGIS Geographic Information System. Open Source Geospatial Foundation Project. http://qgis.osgeo.org[5] GRASS Development Team. 2015. Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) Software, Version 7.0. Open Source Geospatial

Foundation. http://grass.osgeo.org[6] Satnik, David. ”i.zc” raster function. GIS Laboratory, Central Washington University, 2011.

Results

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Figure 1. Preliminary survey of RBC revealed information to help us begin to form anunderstanding of the cultural landscape of the canyon and the usefulness of the canyonfor future archaeological training.a) This map shows areas within the canyon that we predicted had a high likelihood ofhaving extant cultural materials on the surface. Through surveying a sampling of theseareas, we discovered that many regions in this map are difficult to access and experiencedense vegetative growth and highly active geomorpholocial processes. This informationinformed analytical steps to focus our efforts in future years (see future work).b) Survey crews monitored the remnants of a previously-recorded trash dumpassociated with Ft. Douglas along the banks of Red Butte Creek through ResearchPark. We also found remnants of built structures such as cement blocks andcontinuously used military infrastructure such as a historic bridge.c) Inside the research natural area, the canyon bottom revealed a long history ofinfrastructure. Pictured is the remnants of an old reservoir near the gate, now filled inand made obsolete by the current reservoir.d) While prehistoric artifacts were scarce in the canyon, likely as a result of heavyhistoric collection, two artifacts were located in the uplands section of the project area.Pictured is a projectile point fragment that likely dates to the late prehistoric era,indicating that RBC was a hunting ground for prehistoric people.

MethodsResearch began with a records search with the State Historic Preservation Office andUSFS to collect past project findings. The result of this files search indicated that noprehistoric materials had yet been located within the project area, but that smalldevelopment projects frequently encountered historic infrastructure from the Ft.Douglas era and before. A slope analysis of the upper Red Butte Creek watershedhighlighted areas with the highest potential for intact materials. Survey blocks weredistributed within the study area stratified by categories [2] based on elevation, aspectand soil type to capture a representative sample of ecological variation [3] that can beused to investigate changes in human settlement dynamics over time, and by propertyand management type so to assess potential impacts and site stewardship challenges.Three crews lead by graduate students and faculty from the Department ofAnthropology and Archaeological Center, and staffed by undergraduates, conductedpedestrian survey of varying intensity in the survey blocks, dependent on obstacles suchas vegetative cover. Data was collected with portable Trimble GPS units and the localUSFS field notes system.

Future Work

Figure 2 This figure shows the result oflinear feature detection in red, a hillshadebackground in transparent grayscale andthe USGS 7.5” topographic backgroundmap of the project area and surroundingterrain.

Importantly, our 2015 fieldwork will inform future efforts to identify intact culturalmaterials in their primary or near-primary context. This will take two forms. First, whilesurvey focused on flat surfaces based on slope analysis (Fig 1a), field assessmentsrevealed that most of these locations represent recent depositional environments. Whilethese sediments may still hold material evidence of human occupation, archaeologicalsubsurface testing will be required to determine this. Second, field surveys revealedlarge number of fragmented linear features that appeared to mark historic roads and arail line once used to transport material from the quarry. These features were toonarrow to appear in the initial slope analysis and were too fragmented for clear fieldmapping. In order to understand the extent of this cultural landscape, we conductedand analysis of lidar data from the Utah AGRC to construct 0.5m resolution digitalterrain model [4]. A zero-crossing ”edge detection” function was applied to theavailable lidar raster data for RBC [5, 6]. This analysis (Figure 2) reveals linear featuresin the canyon that will be targeted in future fieldwork.

For more information, contact Kate Magargal, Department of Anthropology, University of Utah (kate.magargal@anthro.utah.edu)Agardy et al. (2016) Archaeological Investigations of Red Butte Canyon.