Freestone County, Texas
Reflections


Checking out archeological reports and publications
By Bill Young


I want to discuss the different books and publications I use as reference material. Two weeks ago 
my wife Bobbie Jean received a phone call from a gentleman wanting to know where he might 
purchase a copy of the book I am currently using titled “A Reconnaissance Survey of the Trinity 
River Basin.” Assembled by Jeffery J. Richner and Joe T. Bagot and published by Southern Methodist 
University, this archeological report was completed in 1976-1977. 
 
Many archeological books are in reality reports required of an archeologist/archeologists after some 
type of archeological contract was completed. Each report deals only with whatever was required in 
a contract. For instance, if a creek was going to be channelized, one of the governmental agencies 
might require an archeological survey to be completed to see if any archeology site is present within 
the boundaries of the project. A bid proposal would be advertised by whatever agency wants to do 
the project, not the governmental agency overseeing the project. Usually the lowest bidder is 
awarded the contract to make the survey. Once the survey is completed, the archeological 
contractor must publish his findings. If no archeological site is present, they still have to publish a 
report. If they did find one or more archeological sites within the project area, the contractor has to 
determine if any of the sites are significant, i.e. worth putting in excavation units in an effort to 
acquire useful information. Not all sites are considered significant. Natural and man-made 
disturbances can play havoc on some of the sites, especially the shallower locations. Usually the 
archeological contractor will put in a certain number of shovel tests across a site to determine if the 
site is worthy of further work and at the same time, determine the limits of the site. With some of 
the governmental agencies, they may spell out exactly how many shovel tests are needed on a 
prehistoric or historic site. Once this is all done, a report will be generated by the archeological 
contractor and a certain number of copies will be printed. Several copies will go to the various 
overseeing governmental agencies such as the Corps of Engineers or the Texas Historical 
Commission for review. Also, other copies will be printed for the company or agency which wanted 
to do the project in the first place. And finally several more copies will be printed and given to the 
people who aided in the project. This is the category I usually fell into. Since 1972, I have worked 
on a lot of archeological projects in North Texas. 
 
After the governing agency reviews the recommendations of the archeological contract, they may 
recommend further work needs to be done on the significant sites or no further work is needed due 
to the lack of any significant site. If the governing agency recommends further work, this is referred 
to as mitigation and the archeological contractor enters into a new contract with whoever wants to 
work on the creek. The governing agency will usually spell out how much additional work needs to 
be done on each site and this can vary from site to site. A very small archeological site might 
require only a few one meter by one meter units while a larger site may require a fairly extensive 
amount of excavation. Once all of the requirements for each site have been performed by the 
archeological contractor, he must again generate a new report of his findings. 
 
A major project such as the Richland/Chambers Lake Project went farther with the requirements. 
The first publications dealt with all of the environmental issues. How much land was going to 
covered by the water, what forms of plant and animal life would be affected, and the archeology 
were a few of the items to be addressed in the preliminary report. Then there was a single volume 
report published after the initial archeological survey was completed. Needless to say, when you 
start affecting 45,000 acres of land in a project of this magnitude, there will be all kinds of 
archeological sites. If my memory serves me correctly (which sometimes I can claim it was a senior 
citizen’s moment), there were nearly 800 sites recorded with slightly over 50 percent being historic 
sites. Recommendations were made by all of the various governmental agencies involved in this 
massive project and the archeologists with Southern Methodist University went back into the field, 
the project, to start the mitigation process. Since this was such a huge project, the various agencies 
involved meet on a regular basis here in Corsicana or somewhere on the lake to see if any of the 
recommendations needed to be modified. Indeed this was the case from time to time and changes 
were made as needed. Some sites which were recommended for further work only had a little 
amount of excavation performed while others received more than the original recommendation. 
Keep in mind, I sincerely doubt there ever has been a site totally excavated anywhere in the United 
States or abroad. The main reason is money and manpower. Excavation takes a tremendous 
amount of time which is money. How much information is gained from a certain excavation? When 
does it become uneconomical to keep digging a site? Is the money better spent working on another 
site within this project or even in another project? All of this must be factored in on a project. Some 
of the bigger sites we had in the Richland/Chambers Project we could still be excavating today if the 
lake had not been filled. When SMU finally finished the Richland/Chambers Project, a five volume 
set of books was printed. The first book was an overview of the entire project, the next two volumes 
dealt with the prehistoric sites and the last two volumes with the historical. Some of the graduate 
archeological students who worked on the project also did research on their own for one or another 
of the degree programs such as a master’s thesis or a doctorate degree and printed or published 
their findings. Randy Moir, who is now Dr. Moir, published a huge manuscript about the Mingo 
Burleson family who lived near Birdston Valley south of Cheneyboro. This manuscript met the 
requirements for Dr. Moir’s doctoral degree. 
 
Now back to my original discussion about the availability of archeological books and reports. Most of 
the reports generated were printed on a very limited basis. Generally none were printed to be sold 
on the open market since they were meant to meet a specific requirement. However, every once in 
while one of these publications will turn up in a used bookstore or on eBay. Needless to say, you 
have to keep checking the various places to see if a copy has surfaced. On the other side of the 
fence, every member of the Texas Archeological Society receives one of their annual bulletins. I 
have been receiving one of these every year for 32 years. These books have several different 
articles all dealing with some type of archeology. Maybe not locally and occasionally not even in 
Texas but each article adds some form of new information to the archeological community. 
 
Next week: Back to the boats on the Trinity River