Guadalupe Generating Station Final Cultural Resourse Report - US ...

Proposed Guadalupe Generating Station
Expansion Project, Marion, Guadalupe County, Texas
4.0 ARCHIVAL RESEARCH
In January 2013, Horizon conducted a cultural resources background review of the
proposed 6.9-acre GGS expansion site. The background review examined an area extending
1.0 mile from the proposed boundaries of the project site. Background archival research
conducted via the Internet at the THC’s online Texas Archeological Sites Atlas (Atlas) restrictedaccess
database and the National Park Service’s (NPS) NRHP Google Earth map layer
indicated the presence of no previously recorded archeological sites, cemeteries, historic
properties or districts listed on the NRHP or designated as SALs, historical markers, or other
cultural resources on or within a 1.0-mile radius of the proposed GSS expansion site (THC
2013).
Prehistoric archeological sites are commonly found in upland areas and on alluvial
terraces near stream and river channels. The proposed GSS project site is located on the
south-facing slopes of a broad upland knoll situated within the Blackland Prairie physiographic
province, and no extant water bodies or stream channels are present within or adjacent to the
project area. Soils mapped within the proposed project site consist of clayey residuum that
weathered in situ from calcareous shale, and no Holocene-age sediments occur within the
project area that would have the potential to contain archeological deposits. Typically, cultural
resources associated with Houston Black clay sediments, such as those mapped within the
project area, are constrained to surficial contexts and lack integrity due to erosion, historic-age
farming activities, residential and industrial development, and other sources of disturbance.
In regard to historic-era resources, the lack of visible structures in proximity to the project
site on topographic and aerial maps of the project area suggests a low potential for historic-era
architectural or archeological resources within the limits of the proposed project site.
Three prior cultural resources surveys have been conducted within the 1.0-mile archival
background research radius (Table 1). While 2 of these 3 prior surveys did not cover any
portion of the current project area, 1 of the prior cultural resources surveys covered the current
project’s proposed 6.9-acre APE in its entirety. This prior survey was conducted in 1998 by ACI
for Panda Energy International, Inc., and was associated with the original construction of the
GGS facility located immediately south of the proposed expansion site (Moore and Warren
1999). This prior survey covered a larger, 134-acre proposed electric generating plant site and
an associated 2.6-mile-long proposed gas pipeline,
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