Surveys of new land bring about discovery, information, preservation

By Angie Thorne, Fort Polk Guardian staff writerMarch 13, 2015

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FORT POLK, La. -- Just as Soldiers protect and preserve the American way of life, the Army protects and preserves the land that falls under its purview. Fort Polk's Environment and Natural Resources Management Division, Directorate of Public Works, implements the regulations that maintain and conserve resources. That management can be actively seen as the Army acquires new land at Fort Polk.

New lands

By federal law, not all of the home sites on newly acquired land are eligible as archeological sites, but these "Heritage" sites -- local lands that have been lived on and purchased by the Army -- are being tracked because it's important to the Families that sold the land and the history of the local area, said Wayne Fariss, Chief, Environmental and Natural Resources Management Division, Directorate of Public Works.

Preparing newly purchased land for Soldier training is a rigorous process, said Fariss. Surveys and archeological digs are the first steps, according to Farris. "There's a full suite of things we do as quickly as we can once the land comes into federal ownership. We take note of the cultural resources and begin a landscape survey. But we also have to go out and look for contaminants, abandoned wells and septic systems. Individual owners may not have had to worry about those things, but it's something the federal government takes care of (due to regulations). We also inventory the trees, endangered species and unique habitats to better manage and protect the forest," he said.

Those who had lands that fall under the Army's Land Acquisition Program and are concerned about preservation should know that the Army looks at those concerns and makes determinations on a site-by-site basis, according to Farris. "Structures might be moved off the landscape and placed on post so they can be maintained and show a picture of what life was like for those with a homestead. Things like double pen dogtrots and barns have historic characteristics. People don't build barns with native timber that's handhewn anymore. Instead, folks go down to the local lumberyard and buy already treated, mass-produced timber to build with," said Farris.

Though Farris said they haven't come to a final resolution yet, structures that meet the criteria will be protected and could then be used for outreach and educational purposes.

One type of site that is automatically protected is a cemetery. Some cemeteries are well known but others have been forgotten and only discovered as new lands are surveyed. "Most of our cemeteries on Fort Polk that have been inherited with Army properties are named after families, with the exception of a few associated with churches or a place. As a local initiative, the Army started putting chainlink fencing and arched gates around these cemeteries in 2007. Fort Polk's Directorate of Public Works maintains these properties within the Army structure," said Farris. Fencing and gates will also protect cemeteries found on the newly purchased property.

Sites and artifacts

A "significant" site is determined by archeological finds such as a fire pit, hearth or potholes where there is a structure, said Brad Laffite, Cultural Resources Manager, ENRMD, DPW. "Things like that are very rare on Fort Polk and in this area in general. So if you find things like that at a site, it's a little more than ordinary," he said. Artifacts from the site will be gathered to see what the survey as a whole has garnered. "Then a determination will be made to see how unique it is," said Laffite.

An artifact is anything that has been modified by humans, said Sherry Wagner, curation specialist DPW-ENRMD. "An animal carcass that died naturally isn't an artifact, but if humans have modified it then it becomes an artifact," she said.

To be considered an artifact, the item must also be at least 50 years old. It's considered historic if it's older than 50 years old, according to Wagner.

When archeologists find things like beer bottles or coke cans, those are not considered artifacts -- just trash, said Laffite. "There are some exceptions in which things can be eligible before 50 years, but we don't really find any of that on Fort Polk. That would be at a major area where something significant happened," he said.

As an example, Farris said families used to take their trash -- which didn't amount to much because people reused things -- and put it in a pile. "If that pile is only 30 years old, it's just trash. But if you find a trash pile that is 100 years old, it's got artifacts in it," said Farris.

Here's how those artifacts get into the boxes that line the curation room's shelves: New Fort Polk lands are surveyed. The standard archeological survey means you dig in a grid pattern every 30 meters for a high probability site and 50 meters for low probability sites, said Farris. "Basically, you go through and put a shovel in the ground and see what you find."

So everything that is owned by Fort Polk right now, including the new land, has been or is being surveyed, he said. "They go out and dig a hole that is roughly square that goes down as far as the shovel will go or until you hit sterile dirt. If five or more artifacts -- an object made by a human being that has cultural or historical interest -- are discovered at a site, it's considered an archeological site. Every artifact found in that location is categorized and put in a box. The artifacts are looked at by archeologists to determine whether or not the site is eligible to be placed on the National Registry of Historic Places. Depending on the probability of significance --archeologists will go back to the area to dig deeper in the hopes of finding other significant artifacts.

If a site is eligible for registry, it's marked off from training and development," said Farris.

Curation facility

Though some artifacts are on display at the Rock Shop, bldg 2515, most are stored behind locked doors in an air-conditioned, temperature-controlled curation room with boxes and boxes of artifacts lining shelves at least 10-feet tall. Much of what is stored in the curation facility are prehistoric stone artifacts. "There weren't a lot of people that lived around here, but they used the land here for procurement sites because of the gravel beds. You need gravel to make arrowheads and darts and things of that nature," said Wagner.

The records for each dig are stored with the physical artifacts that make up the collection in Fort Polk's curation room, located at the rock house. "Researchers can actually see the shovel tests, field notes, maps and more to recreate the dig," said Wagner.

Though the curation room isn't open to the general public, the curation specialists do allow researchers with legitimate needs to study and examine the archeological finds.

For Wagner, the most important part of archeology is curation. "One hundred years from now archeologists who dug a site will be gone, but their work and the artifacts they discovered will still be here. If the items are curated properly, researchers in the future will be able to get even more information from the artifacts. That's the archeologist's legacy," she said. Each box has everything archeologists have excavated during one of their surveys, said Fariss. "It has to be kept in order and curated in a way that doesn't degrade it. Arrow heads made from rock don't tend to degrade but other things, like wood, must be cared for," he said.

Heritage families

In addition to archeological finds, the curation facility houses Heritage Family collections. "We have many artifacts that have been donated by our Heritage Families -- photographs, ceramics and glassware, furniture and historic documents. We also have a large selection of photos and historic documents stored on a computer database," said Wagner.

There's a finite amount of space within the curation room, which means that they can't take everything people want to give them, said Farris. "If we opened it up to taking everything that is important to someone, we would fill up our shelves and not have any room left. Instead, we try to curate things that are of significance. Our artifacts are curated in perpetuity," he said.

Part of what the Fort Polk curation specialists are working on is a curation database. They are going back through items collected in the 1970s -- before the computer age -- and trying to make a searchable database, according to Laffite. "It's good for researchers investigating the prehistoric items, but also for Heritage Family members who have a connection to some of the homesteads that we've gone through and done archeology on," said Laffite.

Though you won't be able to get a peek at the artifacts in the curation room, you can visit the Rock Shop and enjoy the displays of many of the collections that have been discovered on Fort Polk. The artifacts range from heritage collections filled with pictures, information, tools and even soda and medicine bottles, to Native American tools and weapons, as well as rocks and petrified wood found on Fort Polk. "We manage all the artifact collections gathered from the Fort Polk sites. Some of the collections are put on display in different buildings around Fort Polk. Outreach is an important part of what we try to do here," said Laffite.

The archeology conducted on the newly acquired lands, according to Farris, is just one facet of the many ways the Army guards and maintains, not only the history, but also the quality and condition of Army owned lands. If you are interested in more information, go to www.polkhistory.org there are pictures of Heritage family members, homesteads and cemeteries.

Related Links:

Fort Polk History