Book Description

US Telecom, Inc. (now US Sprint), installed a fiber optic telecommunications cable from San Timoteo Canyon, California to Socorro, Texas. This report presents the results of Class I cultural resource survey (records and file searches), reconnaissance survey, and limited Class III survey (intensive) along the 35-mile long and 25-foot wide Texas segment of the proposed route. The results indicate that, although the region is rich in cultural resources, the proposed route is very disturbed by prior development and, with the exception of the Ysleta Mission section, no significant cultural resources were directly affected. Outside of El Paso, the cable follows the already-disturbed right-of-way for Interstate 10. No cultural resources were located within intensively surveyed portions of the right-of-way and none were expected along the rest of the rural right-of-way. In the city of El Paso, 19 significant historic buildings lie immediately adjacent to the proposed route and caution was exercised in front of these properties to avoid inadvertent impacts. The route also borders the Evergreen Cemetery, use of which dates from around 1900. Monitoring in the Evergreen Cemetery section did not reveal significant cultural remains. There was a recognized possibility for encountering unrecognized buried archaeological deposits where the route borders the Tigua Indian Reservation and the Ysleta Mission, and therefore, monitoring of construction through that area was recommended. The purpose of such monitoring was to record locational information for future reference, not to stop construction or recommend route changes. This report details, in addition to the survey results, the monitoring activities and the significance of the recovered materials. Artifacts recovered near the reservation and mission possibly represent the entire 300-year historic occupation of the area. Monitoring in the Ysleta Mission area revealed that potentially significant materials are present subsurface. Recovered data provide a baseline for future work in that area of Ysleta del Sur.