American Bottom Field Station (ABFS)
During June ABFS field crew completed pedestrian, shovel, and auger test surveys in Madison and Bond Counties as part of IDOT related projects. These investigations resulted in the identification of two new archaeological sites and the revisit to the Mitchell site (11MS30), one of the major Mississippian mound group in the American Bottom. They conducted extensive pedestrian surveys of agricultural fields in vicinity of the Mitchell site to gain a more thorough understanding of the scale, scope, and importance of this major Mississippian mound group. To date at least three new archaeological sites have been documented and five previously reported sites were revisited including the Rathmeyer Mound site (11MS2087) as well as Mitchell itself. Future work will include geophysical survey and geomorphological research by Mike Kolb of Strata Morph Geoexploration Inc. Other upcoming field work includes testing and survey for small bridge projects in Washington, Marion, and Williamson counties.
Central Illinois Field Station (CIFS)
The CIFS office completed two ASSRs this month projects in Effingham County and Will/Kendall counties (Wolf's Crossing Road improvements). The Effingham County project was for a ca. 4-acre borrow associated with improvements for I-70 near Effingham. No sites were found in the project area. Investigations for the ca. 356-acre Wolf's Crossing road project resulted in the documentation of 30 new sites and 10 site revisits. Additional investigations were recommended for nine sites to assess NRHP eligibility. Fieldwork in Will County commenced on a ca. 1-mile long project entailing improvements to East 9th Street in the Village of Lockport. CIFS staff also made final revisions to the US 51 Technical Reports (No 174), which was distriubted on June 22. CIFS staff continued to assist the Bioarchaeology and Curation sections as they relocate in the 732 West Killarney Street facility. Emile Land (Historic Architectural Compliance Specialist) and Mike Smith (Cultural Resources Specialist) continued work on Historic Resource Inventory reports or projects in Chester (Randolph County), Florence (Pike and Scott counties), Quincy (Adams County) and Pickneyville (Perry County).
Northern Illinois Field Station (NIFS)
NIFS completed a number of small surveys in Cook, DuPage, Kane, and Lake Counties, including a FPPC-funded survey for a new land acquisition parcel located on the recently vacated Villa Santa Maria nunnery in Tinley Park. In collaboration with INHS and ISWS, we are also working on the 5 year summary publication highlighting the past accomplishments and future goals of PRI’s contract with the Forest Preserves of Cook County. While documenting some of the Ed Lace collection on loan from ISM, Ken Geier found an Agate Basin point along with additional material recovered by Lace from 11CK597 in the Red Gate Woods Preserve, near Palos Hills.
Western Illinois Field Station (WIFS)
WIFS personnel undertook a number of surveys this past month in Brown, Marshall, Montgomery, Macoupin, and Warren counties, which resulted in the documentation of a new Burlington chert source near Monmouth with associated Archaic and Woodland period workshop and habitation sites. We also began monitoring construction for new gate crossings on the Springfield Track Grade and Station Project along Third Street in the oldest (downtown) part of the state capitol. A number of technical reports stemming from recent large-scale survey and excavation work by our lab on US 34 (Survey [No. 183] and Hawkeye site [11HE194] reports), the new Meredosia Bridge (which just opened to traffic [Burning Sands, 11MG491, Historic Occupations), and a small road improvement project near Eldred (Eileen Cunningham [11GE630]), have made their way through production to distribution this month, completing our Section 106 obligations for two of these projects. In addition, several of our staff took vacation time to help with the joint ISAS-ISU field school excavations at the Noble-Weiting site (11ML24) in McLean County and others produced an informational poster about the US 34 mound revisits and remote sensing investigations for the Henderson County Historical Society with the help of the ISAS production team and Bob McCullough.
