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This report presents the results of a Class III cultural resources survey of a portion of the right-of-way corridor for a new 69 kV subtransmission line that will extend between the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District (SRP) Quail Substation, located southeast of Queen Creek, and the Florence Junction Substation, west of Florence Junction, Arizona. The survey was requested by SRP to determine if significant cultural resources were present within the right-of-way corridor that might be adversely affected by construction of the new electric line and removal of its predecessor. The effort was conducted to comply with the Arizona Antiquities Act of 1960 (as amended) and the State Historic Preservation Act of 1982, as required for leasing right-of-way from the state. Only the portion of the subtransmission line corridor located on Arizona State Trust Land was subject to the current survey (ASLD Lease Nos. RW160 [1931] and 16-4300 [1967]). The cultural resources survey was conducted on 19 and 20 May 2012 by Connie Darby and Sandra Wadsworth of Desert Archaeology, Inc., working under the authority of Arizona Antiquities Act Blanket Permit No. 2012-010bl (Arizona State Museum [ASM] Accession No. 2012-0327). Dr. Kathleen Henderson served as Principal Investigator for the project. One previously recorded archaeological site, AZ U:15:128 (ASM), was relocated and 23 isolated occurrences of prehistoric and historic cultural material were recorded within the surveyed right-of-way corridor. U:15:128 appears to have been subject to considerable amount of erosion since it was originally recorded (Adams 1989b) and, as a result, the site no longer constitutes a significant cultural resource. In the absence of significant cultural resources, a recommendation is made that construction of the new Quail to Florence Junction subtransmission line and removal of the earlier electrical line can proceed as planned.

Between June 12 and 15, 1995, Archaeological Research Services, Inc. performed a cultural resources survey within the 300-to-400-foot (92-122 m) wide right-of-way along U.S. 60/70/80/89, between milepost 198.4 in Apache Junction and milepost 212.0 in Florence Junction, northern Pinal County, Arizona. The survey was undertaken at the request of the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) in order to determine if there were important cultural resources present within the highway corridor that could be affected by the proposed highway improvement project.

This document presents the results of a cultural resources survey of approximately 1,500 acres within the Florence Military Reservation (FMR) and adjoining State Trust Lands held in a special !and use permit (SLP) for military training exercises in Pinal County, Arizona. The project area is located north by northeast of Florence along U.S. 89). In addition to nine firing points, approximately 9.6 km of access roads were surveyed by Statistical Research, Inc. (SRI). A records check at the Arizona State Museum by the Arizona National Guard and SRI revealed that no known sites were within the proposed impact areas, but the specific areas mentioned above had never been surveyed. Other archaeological work had located several sites in the immediate project area so we expected to find cultural resources in the survey areas. The purpose of this cultural resources survey was to investigate the proposed firing points and access roads to locate cultural resources in the project area and make preliminary evaluations of their potential eligibility for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). In all, 51 archaeological sites and 294 additional isolated archaeological resources were identified in the project areas. Although the presence of archaeological resources was anticipated from previous studies, the number of sites was nevertheless surprising. The archaeological resources identified resulted from two very different uses of the landscape during two distinct periods. The earliest evidence of human activities in the project areas is attributable to the Colonial and Sedentary periods (ca. A.D. 775–1125) of the Hohokam cultural tradition. The evidence indicates that the Hohokam were farming on the Cottonwood Canyon alluvial fan, perhaps even using canal irrigation. These agricultural activities appear to have been the central focus of this occupation. The Hohokam are usually characterized as a cultural tradition focused on riverine agriculture, and in fact, the Gila River appears to have been the core of the Hohokam population. The intensive use of these upland, non-riverine areas indicates that the Hohokam agricultural adaptation was diversified and incorporated non-riverine as well as riverine farming strategies.