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The Los Angeles Water and Power Company Navajo-McCullough Transmission Line Right-of-Way corridor is located for the most part in Clark County, Nevada, but also diagonals across the southeast corner of Lincoln County, Nevada. The total length of the corridor in Nevada is over 100 miles long and the archaeological survey was conducted within a 50 meter distance to either side of the center line. Access roads added to the distance that was intensively surveyed. Where it was observed that there was a possibility of indirect impact on sites visible from the corridor or access roads, these areas were included as a part of the overall survey. The approach utilized to determine the degree of destructive impact on historic and prehistoric sites along the Right-of-Way corridor of the Navajo-McCullough Transmission Line was environmentally oriented. The Right-of-Way corridor cuts through a basin range region of relative aridity with rapid biotic community shifts related to microenvironmental conditions and altitudinal changes. In some sections of the corridor there are springs and flowing water which alter and affect the biota. The archaeological reconnaissance coordinated the multiple factors of local geology, geography, flora and fauna to interpret either the scarcity or clustering of prehistoric sites along the Right-of-Way corridor, in an attempt to predict patterns of aboriginal occupation. The significance of archaeological sites in this region is related to their geographical setting. Aboriginal useage of the environment was such that certain kinds of sites are only found in specific geological or geographical locations. Seasonality is an additional factor that is implicit in the environmental orientation as some site areas ideally would only be occupied during a particular time of year. The archaeological survey and excavation of sites along the Navajo-McCullough Transmission Line Right-of-Way has provided a means of transecting this portion of the state of Nevada. Ordinarily archaeological areas in Southern Nevada are assumed to be concentrated by springs, around playas or along river banks where site potential might be expected. In the case where a direct power line survey cuts across many and various types of terrain, some of which may have been utilized prehistorically, this presents an opportunity to explore new avenues of aboriginal use patterns. The power line survey in its transect encountered area of aboriginal use and concentration that resulted in a broader archaeological interpretation of aboriginal environmental relationships. No previous archaeological research had been conducted in the larger portion of the Transmission Line Corridor, except for the Gypsum Cave area and certain locales in the Muddy River drainage. With the exception of these two areas there is no direct archaeological publication concerned with the terrain crossed by the Right-of-Way corridor.

ln response to Contract Number NV050-417, received from the Las Vegas District Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an intensive cultural resource inventory, or surface archaeological survey, was conducted along forty miles of a proposed fence line construction along the northern boundary of the Nellis Air Force Range from the Tonopah Highway (U.S. 95) to three miles east of Silver Bow, Nevada.

The Bureau of Reclamation, Arizona Projects Office directed the Nevada Archaeological Survey to conduct archaeological investigations at thirteen sites located along the proposed Mead-Davis-Parker 230kv Transmission Line Right-Of-Way #2, for the Central Arizona Project. The investigation was designed to evaluate each site for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The archaeological field work consisted of photography, mapping, and representative collections of artifacts, followed by laboratory analysis. Based upon the field and laboratory analysis of the thirteen sites investigated, twelve sites were determined to consist of only surface deposits and were not recommended eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. One site, Oatman #8, was recommended eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D. Avoidance of this site by construction crews was recommended.