Document Type
Report
Publication Date
1986
Abstract
With the execution of a Cultural Resource Investigation work authorization (#4-86/87) under contract #85-1115 (MDOS ER #9262) betveen the MDOT, the MDOS, and WMU, authorizing a Phase I archaeological survey of the I-75NB Welcome Center in Moran Township, Mackinac County, Michigan, archaeologists undertook a systematic and intensive site location survey of the project area on 12-13 Oct 86.
Employing reconnaissance and shovel testing procedures, the survey team relocated and confirmed the existence of a site(s) in the eastern portion of the project and extending into the adjoining property of the Straits State Park. Although lithic debris and pieces of FRC were recovered, nothing is diagnostic; cultural affiliation and temporal placement of this site cannot be determined.
Elsewhere in the project area, surveyors observed considerable prior disturbance resulting from the. construction of the parking lot. Immediately to the north of this lot, some chunky limestone and chert shatter were recovered from muck soils flanking a cedar swamp. Careful examination of these pieces revealed no evidence of purposeful modification; the surveyors concluding that the chert, like the limestone material, was derived as colluvium from the nearby bluffs. Inasmuch as the Welcome Center will be constructed in the area north of the parking lot, we are confident that no archaeological resources will be impacted by the proposed activity.
With respect to the eastern portion of the project, we believe that the three previously recorded sites are actually a single site (20MK136), and that additional (Phase II) evaluation of this site should be undertaken prior to any proposed construction activity.