Black Rock Mountain Maintenance Shed Survey

On September 3,2001, Jack Weeks of PHS Division of DNR, called the Archaeology Unit to survey an area on Black Rock Mountain. The park proposes to enlarge and relocate their existing maintenance shed and fuel depot to another area of the property. Apparently, some land clearing had already taken place at the proposed site. Anthony Lampros, the manager of Black Rock State Park, stopped the clearing and asked us if we could inspect the area as soon as possible. He also informed us that there was an old house site close to the area being cleared, and asked us to evaluate that property also.

On September 5, 2001, members of the Archaeology Unit arrived at Black Rock Mountain and were greeted by Anthony. He drove us to the proposed maintenance shed area, although we had to walk in part of the way due to the road conditions. The road on the way to the proposed maintenance shed was dirt (mud) and had a high ground surface visibility. This was an older road that had recently been graded by the park. No evidence of cultural material was noticed along the road, or in the adjacent dirt bank, where the road was cut through. We followed Anthony to the exact spot that was proposed for the new maintenance shed. The area is located on a small bench half way up a tall ridge. The cleared area was about 50 x 70 meters, and slightly sloping downhill. Since the entire area had been cleared of its groundcover vegetation, giving us 100% ground surface visibility, a surface inspection was all that was necessary to determine the area's cultural activities. A pedestrian survey of the area yielded several historic artifacts. There were no shovel tests taken in this area, as subsoil was visible.