An archaeological survey of the proposed Camp Mohawk County Park in East-Central Brazoria County, Texas

Abstract

Brazos Valley Research Associates (BVRA) performed an archaeological survey of a 55.84 acre tract, the site of the future Camp Mohawk County Park in east-central Brazoria County, Texas, in May 2000. This project was conducted under Antiquities Permit number 2384 with William E. Moore performing the duties of Principal Investigator. The project area was investigated by shovel testing and probing and backhoe trenching. Five prehistoric archaeological sites (41BO206-41BO210) were found. All five sites are located along the margins of two oxbow lakes, former channels of Chocolate Bayou.

Site 41BO206 was found on a low terrace or knoll adjacent to an oxbow lake in the northwest corner of the project area, sites 41BO207 and 41BO208 are located on high banks overlooking the opposite side of the same oxbow lake, and sites 41BO209 and 41BO210 were found on small pimple mounds adjacent to an oxbow lake in the southeast corner of the project area. Sites 41BO206 - 41BO209 are Late Prehistoric based on the presence of ceramics and a Catahoula arrow point which dates from A.D. 700 to A.D. 1100. Site 41BO210 did not contain any diagnostic artifacts. These small sites probably represent temporary occupation areas that were utilized for various activities such as tool manufacture and repair and subsistence tasks such as food processing/cooking, plant gathering, and base camps for hunting. Together they are part of the local subsistence pattern of this part of Southeast Texas. It is recommended that these sites be subjected to Phase II testing to determine their significance if they will be impacted by the proposed construction.

Also present in the project area are several buildings such as dormitories and rest rooms that were constructed for Camp Mohawk. Although the camp is supposed to date to the 1930s or 1940s, not one of these structures is from that period. They were built in the 1950s and 1960s and are not architecturally or historically significant.

Copies of the final report are on file at the Archeology Division, Texas Historical Commission (THC); Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL); Brazoria County; and BVRA in Bryan, Texas. The artifacts and records have been placed in permanent curation at the Brazoria County Historical Museum in Angleton, Texas.