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In compliance with Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act (54 U.S.C. 306102), the Bureau of Reclamation, Phoenix Area Office (Reclamation) contracted with Tierra Right of Way Services to relocate, re-evaluate, and re-record previously identified cultural resources situated on Reclamation-managed lands near Lake Pleasant, in Maricopa and Yavapai Counties, Arizona. Between November 2, 2020 and March 18, 2022, Tierra Right of Way archaeologists conducted several field sessions to revisit and update site cards for 82 cultural resources in Lake Pleasant Regional Park. Of the 82 cultural resources identified for assessment, Tierra Right of Way was unable to relocate 16 and was unable to visit two sites, due to unforeseen prohibitions on access during mating season. Tierra Right of Way also recommended combining 3 sites following relocation and re-recording. Tierra Right of Way recommended 27 cultural resources eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, 9 not eligible, 25 remain unevaluated.

In the summers of 1979 and 1980, Arizona State University (ASU) conducted a cultural resources survey of Lake Pleasant Regional Park (LPRP) (Rice and Bostwick 1986). The completion of New Waddell Dam in 1993, increasing recreational development, and new park boundaries spurred the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to survey the park. Reclamation performed the new survey on their land to fulfill their Section 110 requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act. Upon completion of the fieldwork in July 1995, Reclamation archaeologists, under the supervision of Carol Telles, had identified 65 new sites, 19 isolated petroglyphs, and 308 isolated artifacts. A recent records search by ACS also revealed 87 previously recorded sites. Only two had been field-checked by the Reclamation crew. In addition to the survey and literature review, Reclamation undertook a separate rock art study that detailed each petroglyph panel and element identified during the survey. Once the fieldwork was finished, report preparation began, but personnel changes made it difficult to complete in-house. Therefore, Reclamation requested that Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd. (ACS), revise and complete the draft under ACS’s on-call contract for cultural resources Class III survey and testing (Contract No. 1425-97-CS-32-028105).ACS performed the work based on existing documentation that Reclamation crews collected during their fieldwork and the cooperative recollections of Carol Telles and Dave Gifford. No field checking was involved. In total, this research identified 183 historic and prehistoric sites (104 previously known/79 newly identified) and 306 isolated artifacts.