Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 12:27:07 -0400 From: bobhunt@erols.com Subject: [lpaz-repost] (fwd) [TheRevelation] SSVOP - Hohokam ruins face bulldozer in Phoenix To: lpaz-repost@yahoogroups.com
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----- Original Message ----- From: Raven Weaver Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 12:47 PM Subject: SSVOP - Hohokam ruins face bulldozer in Phoenix
SSVOP: Native American News http://www.topica.com/lists/SSVOP Hohokam ruins face bulldozer in Phoenix By Tom Zoellner The Arizona Republic Aug. 30, 2001 12:00:00 http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/0830ruins30.html
An extensive complex of Hohokam ruins on a north Phoenix mountaintop is set to be bulldozed by a gravel-mining company, and government officials missed their only opportunity to stop it.
The Fort Mountain complex, which archaeologists thnk was a sophisticated mirror-signaling station around the year 1130, will be flattened and the underlying rock crushed for sale as roadbed fill and ready-mix concrete.
"We're going to take the whole thing down," said Tom Stewart of Alameda Building Components, Inc. "There's nothing taking place on that mountain that isn't permitted by right."
The fate of Fort Mountain is a vivid example of how ancient ruins in Arizona can fall through the cracks of laws designed to protect them. Phoenix passed up an opportunity to buy the 31-acre site and turn it into a desert preserve four months ago.
"It was a lower priority than properties that were more at risk of development," said Jim Burke, the deputy director of the Parks, Recreation and Library Department. "It's not a good situation, but we don't have enough money to buy everything we want. It's tragic, but I don't have the answer."
Phoenix has only $4 million in bond money to buy up to 5,000 acres of north Phoenix property for a Sonoran Desert Preserve, he said.
Stewart said he went forward with plans to mine the mountain after city officials told him the property was "insignificant" and declined his offer to sell.
"They just didn't want it," Stewart said.
The low rock walls at the summit of the 500-foot mountain are the remnants of a multi-chambered complex that could provide many clues into the state of late Hohokam culture, Phoenix City Archaeologist Todd Bostwick said.
Fort Mountain was an outlying settlement of the larger Hohokam agricultural vilages near the Salt River in what is now downtown Phoenix. The entire tribe is believed to have left the area around 1450 after a deadly drought.
There is some evidence to suggest the Indians used the lofty perch of Fort Mountain as a station to signal other villages with smoke or mirrors, he said. The strategic mountaintop location and fortified walls also suggest the Hohokam were preparing for war, either from an outside enemy or from unrest within their own society.
A large, oval-shaped room with thick walls also may have been a place of worship, perhaps before battle. A number of petroglyphs carved on the east slope also point to a spiritual purpose for the place, Bostwick said.
The site also demonstrates the Hohokam genius for agriculture: Fields at the foot of the mountain appear to have been flooded by ancient farmers, who diverted the seasonal flow of nearby Cave Creek.
A 1978 study reported that 11,224 artifacts, including fragments of pots, tools, jars and bones, have been recovered from the area.
"The place has a lot of research potential," Bostwick said. "To see these sites destroyed is depressing for an archaeologist."
What is happening to Fort Mountain also could foreshadow future plow-overs of ancient Indian ruins. The richest deposits of sand and gravel are found near dry riverbeds - the same spots that the Hohokam Indians found so attractive for irrigation and settlement nearly 2,000 years ago.
In 1996, a sand and gravel company accidentally graded about 80 percent of a Hohokam site on state trust land in Cave Creek Wash. Company representatives blamed a misplaced fence.
There are few state protections in place against gravel mining at ancient sites on private property. The only thing that would trigger a delay would be a mummified body turning up at a site, which requires the developer to contact the Arizona State Museum before proceeding.
"If they're up there bulldozing a walled fortress and petroglyphs, there's not a lot anybody can do to stop it," said Steve Ross, the cultural resourcs manager for the state Land Department. "It's really unfortunate."
The case highlights the long conflict in the West between public preservation agendas and private property rights. There is no evidence that Alameda Mining or its contractors, Insearch Corp. and KSI, are doing anything illegal on their legitimately acquired land at Fort Mountain.
"It would be nice if there was more state regulation of cultural resources, but then you have the notion of government intrusion on private land," Ross said.
It also raises the question of how many Hohokam sites should be preserved forever. The culture flourished for more than 14 centuries and left abundant remnants all over central Arizona. There are about 700 recognized sites in metro Phoenix, and many buildings - including Bank One Ballpark, Sun Devil Stadium, the Phoenix Civic Plaza and the offices of The Arizona Republic - sit on top of old Hohokam settlements.
The Fort Mountain site already has been compromised. A previous landowner had plans to build a dream house on the summit and plowed a road up the western slope. And years ago, the nearby Deer Valley Airport erected a navigational beacon in the heart of the ruins.
Fort Mountain still might have been protected had it been within the boundaries of Phoenix, which is one of only a handful of cities in the nation to employ a full-time archaeologist with review powers.
Instead, it sits in an island of unincorporated county land, where the owners were required only to apply for a certificate of mining exemption, with no archaeological questions factored in.
"This is a base that is uncovered," said Charles Hart of the Maricopa County Planning and Development Department. County officials are expected to approve the mining exemption request next week.
The bulldozing will proceed when samples of the subsurface rock have been analyzed, Stewart said.
"If it proves out that it's a doable venture . . . then we will go forward with it," he said. "We have our access and our right-of-entry permits."
Gordon Burhop, who lives in the nearby subdiviion of Mountain Gate, has hiked the ruins extensively and says he will lament their passing. The entire mountain is expected to be flattened within 10 years.
"Even if it's legal, it's morally wrong," Burhop said.
Reach the reporter at tom.zoellner@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-2474
. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. . Other Disclaimers: http://www.topica.com/lists/SSVOP 2001-2002 SSVOP - All Rights Reserved.
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