Corps conducts underwater archaeology

Pieces from a sunken ship at a planned levee-erosion repair site along the Sacramento River are nearly stable enough to become a permanent piece of history.
The pieces are the products of six data-recovering dives conducted from Sept. 28 to Oct. 7, 2009, directed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District, and part of an intensive underwater investigation of the historic Clarksburg Ferry, which operated along the Sacramento River between Yolo and Sacramento Counties until it sank in 1928.
"It just so happens that this ferry is resting in an area where we need to place a bunch of rock to stabilize the levee," said Sacramento District archaeologist Nikki Polson. "Because the ferry meets certain criteria, it's eligible for the National Register of Historic Places."
In a lawful intent to balance historical preservation concerns with the needs of federal undertakings, the Section 106 process of the National Historic Preservation Act ensures the Sacramento District will attempt to identify and resolve potential conflicts between its Sacramento River Bank Protection Project activities, public interest and historic preservation.
"We recovered enough archaeological data from the Clarksburg mitigation effort to document the existing remains of the ferry with measured drawings, photographs, video, and wood samples," said Polson. "When we account for our projects' environmental impacts and what we can do in return to minimize those impacts, sometimes the mitigation of historic resources is to learn as much as we can from something before moving forward with the project."
"Learning about the past is not only what I love — it's my job," said Polson, who has worked as an archaeologist for over 13 years.
The Clarksburg Ferry levee repair site is one of over 70 potential underwater resources identified within a 60-mile stretch of the river, tributaries and sloughs that may have to be further evaluated as part of the Sacramento River Bank Protection Project.
More about the project: http://www.spk.usace.army.mil/projects/civil/srbpp/index.html

Video credit:
Panamerican Consultants, Inc. for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• U.S. Army
• Corps of Engineers
• Sacramento District
• SPK
• people
• water
• levee
• construction
• mitigation
• underwater archaeology diving
• Todd Plain
• Nikki
• Polson

[fuzthepoet]

very cool!!!