WSP08941

• File Number: 8282.600.10
• Description: Colorado River Operating Annual Reports
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 1/1/1985
• Author: USDOI/BOR
• Title: Operation of the Colorado River Basin 1985 Projected Operations 1986
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

Lower Basin
Reclamation cooperated in development
of a proposal for a joint study with the
States 01 Arizona and Nevada to evaluate
the potential of increasing the nutrient
level in Lake Mead. It appears that an
increased nutrient level will enhance the
fishery of Lake Mead. The study would
take about 5 years and Reclamation
presently plans to participate in at least 3
years of the effort.

Reclamation again participated in spring
surveys to determine the numbers and
location of the endangered Yuma Clapper
Rail. A study, funded jointiy by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service and Reclamation
to investigate movements and habitat utili-
zation of the Yuma Clapper Rail, is under-
way. Rail populations at Mittry Lake and
Lake Havasu are the subjects to this
Intensive effort.

k, part 01 the salinity Investigations
program, Reclamation initiated a dredging
operation in Mittry Lake. This work will
increase the depth of the water and
provide channels in the marsh habitat to
create open water. In addition, the
dredging program will improve water fowl
habitat.

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28

Central Arizona Project (CAP) will supply
Indian and non-Indian irrigation districts
and municipalities with water from the
Colorado River. The water will be con-
veyed In a series of aqueducts stretching
almost 400 miles across Arizona. These
aqueducts and associated storage reser.
voirs will affect a number of historical
and archaeological properties.

ExtenSive excavation and data recovery
programs have been underway on a
number of archaeological sites affected
by construction of the CAP Salt-Gila and
Tucson Aqueducts. Most of these sites
are related to the HoHoKam culture, a
highly organized agriculturally based
people who lived in the Phoenix and
Tucson Basins from about the beginning
of the Christian Era until approximately
1450 AD.

Arizona State University excavated sites
at the "Marana Complex," one of several
large HoHoKam communities located
during cultural resource inventories on
the Tucson Aqueduct. The "Marana
Complex" is typical ot a number of large
communities that developed nearly lOOO
years ago.

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The HoHoKa.m, while basically
agricultural people, apparently had a well
organized socio-political system. The
communities consisted 01 aggregations of
pit house family dwellings around a
central platform mound. The platform
mounds may have served as residences
for political and religious leaders. These
compounds apparently were the focus of
the socio-political and religious systems
of the HoHoKam people. Agricultural
areas, often irrigated by sophisticated
canal systems, were interspersed with
the residences. The resulting communities
could be as much as 5 10 6 miles across.

The work by Northland Research at two
HoHoKam sites along the Santa Rosa
Canal revealed another fascinating aspect
of HoHoKam culture. The "Road Site"
and "Shelltown," two large HoHoKam
village sites, were apparently prehistoric
shell jewelry manufacturing centers.
Thousands of pieces of ocean shell,
ranging from whole raw shell to exqui.
sltely finished bracelets and pendants,
are being recovered in the excavation at
these sites. Specialized tools and shell
jewelry in all stages of manufacture tell a
story of skilled artisans fashioning
seashell imported trom the Gulf of
California into a variety of jewelry items.
The relative paucity of artifacts normally
associated with agriculture at these sites
may be a further clue to their specialized
nature. It seems possible that the resi-
dents of "Road Site" and "Shelltown"
may have been engaged almost exclu-
sively in jewelry manufacture and there-
fore imported their food and other
necessities. This is unlike the more self,
sufficient nature of most villages where
the inhabitants farmed, gathered, and
hunted to supply their daily needs.

Continuing research at other CAP excava-
tions may stled more light on these and
-- other intriguing questions. The CAP
Cultural Resource Program continues to
make significant contributions to our
knowledge of earlier cultures in Arizona
and the ways in which they solved prob-
lems which, by the way, were not unlike
those that prompted the construction of
CAP itself.