Archaeological investigations of two prehistoric sites on the Coleto Creek drainage, Goliad County, Texas

The Coleta Creek Project, including the construction of a coal-fired electric generating plant with dam and reservoir, is a joint undertaking of the Central Power and Light Company and the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (Fig. 1). An assessment of the archaeological potential of the project area was made in 1975 (Fox and Hester 1976). This was followed in 1977 by an intensive survey and testing of several prehistoric archaeological sites (Fox, Black and James 1978). Two of these sites, 41 GD 21 and 41 GD 30, were nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. As a result of a meeting in October 1977 between representatives of the Texas Historical Commission, the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, URS Forrest and Cotten, Engineers, and the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, the archaeological mitigation of 41 GD 21 was proposed. (41 GD 21, an extensive occupational area, is hereafter referred to as sites 41 GD 21 and 41 GD 21A.) Mitigation efforts were to be focused on portions of site 41 GD 21A which are to be affected by the construction of a dike and spillway, and on the low-lying portion of site 41 GD 21 which will be inundated. Under the supervision of Thomas R. Hester, Director of the Center for Archaeological Research, UTSA, the archaeological investigation was conducted during December 1977 and January 1978. Following is a documentation of that work.