Geological and Archaeological Investigations of Airport Wash in the Southern Tucson Basin
Creators: name: Haynes, C. Vance
name: Huckell, Bruce B.
Publisher: name: Institute for American Research
Year: 1985
Subjects: subject: Santa Rita Mountains
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/79262/santa-rita-mountains
subject: Arizona (State / Territory)
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/335/arizona-state-territory
subject: Santa Cruz River
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/76790/santa-cruz-river
subject: Tucson Basin
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/2758/tucson-basin
subject: Airport Wash
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/84476/airport-wash
subject: Rincon Phase
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/5632/rincon-phase
subject: Cañada del Oro Phase
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/6132/canada-del-oro-phase
subject: Preceramic period
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/182/preceramic-period
subject: Hohokam Early Colonial period
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/7734/hohokam-early-colonial-period
subject: Late Pleistocene
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/200/late-pleistocene
subject: Early Holocene
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/6040/early-holocene
subject: Early Ceramic period
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/temporal-keyword/5978/early-ceramic-period
subject: Hohokam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/21/hohokam
subject: Huhugam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/8166/huhugam
subject: Archaic
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/8/archaic
subject: Late Archaic
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/11/late-archaic
subject: Locality 2
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/105268/locality-2
subject: Locality 1
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/105267/locality-1
subject: Locality 4
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/105270/locality-4
subject: Locality 3
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/105269/locality-3
subject: Locality 6
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/105272/locality-6
subject: Locality 5
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/105271/locality-5
subject: Locality 8
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/105274/locality-8
subject: Locality 7
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-name/105273/locality-7
subject: Hearth
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/343/hearth
subject: Isolated Artifact
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/344/isolated-artifact
subject: Ceramic
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/1/ceramic
subject: Chipped Stone
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/2/chipped-stone
subject: Dating Sample
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/3/dating-sample
subject: Chopping Tool
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/2691/chopping-tool
subject: Fauna
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/4/fauna
subject: Charcoal
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/20/charcoal
subject: Fire Cracked Rock
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/5/fire-cracked-rock
subject: Glass
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/material-type/6/glass
subject: Archaeological Overview
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/1/archaeological-overview
subject: Geophysical Survey
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/23/geophysical-survey
subject: Systematic Survey
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/investigation-type/12/systematic-survey

description: As part of the Santa Cruz Industrial Park Project, the City of Tucson planned to bridge and stabilize the banks of a large, deeply entrenched wash that flows into the Santa Cruz River approximately one-quarter mile south of Irvington Road on the right bank of the river. Airport Wash, as it is called, has cut deeply into the ancient sediments filling the valley at this point, exposing a long record of late Pleistocene and Holocene alluvium. Earlier examinations by archaeologists in the mid- to late 1970s had disclosed the presence of buried cultural features in the arroyo walls. Recognizing the potential importance of this geological and cultural information, the City of Tucson made investigation of Airport Wash one of the objectives of the Santa Cruz Industrial Park Project. This report details the results of geological and archaeological investigations carried out at Airport Wash over the past two years. Initial field work began in March of 1983, with subsequent revisitations in April. Flooding caused by the passage of Tropical Storm Octave across southeastern Arizona in the first week of October, 1983, also produced significant changes in Airport Wash, exposing paleontological and archaeological specimens, so a second round of investigations occurred in mid-October. These studies were aided for part of a day by a backhoe, which created short trenches to help clarify stratigraphic relationships at critical locations in the wash and to the south of it on the Santa Cruz floodplain. In April of 1985 construction of the new Calle Santa Cruz bridge and stabilization of the banks of Airport Wash began. One additional Pleistocene paleontological specimen was seen for a brief moment, but was lost to an errant bulldozer. A backhoe trench emplaced at the locality yielded no more bones, but it did permit a more detailed view of the sediments in which the bone had occurred. This report describes the geological and archaeological work accomplished at Airport Wash. First the alluvial units exposed along the wash and their relationships to one another are presented. Following this the cultural remains found along the wash and their stratigraphic contexts are discussed. Both parts of this brief report represent one portion of an on-going, long term research effort by the authors to develop a generalized stratigraphic and geochronologic framework for 1 the Tucson Basin, and to understand the uses to which man has put the Santa Cruz River and its environs through time. The City of Tucson-sponsored work at Airport Wash is an important step in this effort.