Archaeological Testing Within the Santa Cruz Industrial Park, Tucson, Arizona

The Institute for American Research, while under contract with the City of Tucson, conducted a program of archaeological testing within the Santa Cruz Industrial Park. The Santa Cruz Industrial Park, which is currently under development by the city, covers 186 acres of city owned land in southwestern Tucson. The purpose of the testing program within the Industrial Park was to evaluate the direct and indirect impacts that construction of a road segment would have on cultural resources within the proposed right-of-way. Assessment was made by excavating a series of backhoe trenches along the proposed alignment and mapping and testing a small historic site [A Z BB:13:105 (ASM )] which will be directly impacted. In addition, two small ceramic period sites [A Z BB:13:103 (ASM) and AZ BB :13:223 (ASM )] located on land adjacent to the proposed right-of-way were intensively surface collected and tested for subsurface features. This testing provided the information for assessing the significance of archaeological sites located on land east of the proposed alignment for which land sales and future industrial development are anticipated. This report describes the results of the testing program, evaluates the significance of cultural resources investigated, and makes recommendations for avoidance and preservation of sites located within the Santa Cruz Industrial Park. The environmental setting, culture history, previous archaeological research within the Industrial Park, and field methodology utilized are briefly discussed prior to describing results of the project.