Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 16 - History, Humanities and Arts › Part 3 - Historic Preservation Division › Chapter 12 - Mississippi Standards and Guidelines for Archaeological Investigations › Appendix 16-3-12-A - Linear Resources

Current through June 25, 2024
Linear resources are a collection of features that are
				  substantially longer than they are wide and usually are in the form of
				  monuments usually associated with transportation, communication, and power
				  networks. They include roads, trails, railroads, ships, shipwrecks, flumes,
				  canals, telegraph lines, power lines, and power poles. The linear shape of
				  these sites presents unique problems when being addressed in the field and for
				  their significance. Until recently this type of site has been largely ignored
				  within the state of Mississippi. Our main goal is to raise awareness of these
				  resources and provide information about how to approach their recordation and
				  assess the significance of them.
Background research is essential to understanding the
				  significance of the Linear Resource and developing an approach to dealing with
				  the site in the field. Research should minimally include resources such as
				  archaeological site files, Google Earth, GLO maps, USGS Maps, Earth Resources
				  Data Center, National Register of Historic Places, published county histories,
				  published water histories, and published power histories. The research
				  conducted should be sufficient enough to identify potential resources that may
				  be present and to provide a context for each resource. Additional research may
				  require the use of secondary sources of data. These secondary sources should be
				  used when a project area has a potential linear resource, especially if the
				  project is likely to affect the site. Secondary sources include historical USGS
				  maps, Sanborn fire insurance company maps, historical aerial photographs, land
				  patent information, old county highway maps, and the Mississippi Department of
				  Transportation. Other sources of information such as online digital historic
				  newspaper databases, military maps, railroad company maps, GLO surveyor notes,
				  utility company maps, and direct oral history interviews may need to be used to
				  answer specific questions raised during field work.
When recording a linear site basic dimensions (or range of
				  dimensions) of the main linear feature as it appears within your project area
				  (railroad berm, roadbed, canal ditch, etc.) should be described in detail.
				  These dimensions include the top width, the bottom width, the height or depth
				  of the feature, and the length of the segment recorded. It should also be
				  indicated how this dimension was determined (measured with a tape, estimated,
				  etc.).
Determining if a feature or artifacts are associated with a
				  linear site can be difficult. Artifacts and features of a linear site fall into
				  two categories: functionally or spatially associated with the site.
				  Functionally associated features/artifacts are things that exist solely because
				  they serve a function of the linear site. These features/artifacts would not
				  exist without the presence of the site. Headgates, flumes, bridges, railroad
				  depots, trestles, water towers, rest areas, and right-of-way fences are just a
				  few examples of functionally associated features. If these functionally
				  associated features merit an architectural survey form, the form should be
				  filled out and referenced within the archaeological report. That is to say if
				  you have a railroad depot that is still standing, an architectural form would
				  still need to be filled out and turned in with the final report; because the
				  depot would still be a feature of the archaeological site it shall be addressed
				  and cross referenced as such.
Artifacts/features of the linear site should also be
				  spatially associated with the main feature of the linear site. For example
				  trash is often disposed of alongside a road or a railroad. Isolated artifacts
				  or small assemblages of artifacts that would not otherwise merit recordation as
				  a site and which are closely spatially associated with a road or railroad
				  should be recorded as artifacts associated with the resource. These small
				  scatters of artifacts would be an associated feature of the linear site and
				  should be treated as such.
There is some variability within these categories. There may
				  be towns, trash dumps, construction camps, etc. close to the site. If the town,
				  trash dump, etc. could be considered a site in and of itself, it should be
				  treated as such. Also, if the linear site happens to cut through a site of a
				  different time period, the linear site and the unrelated site should be
				  considered two different sites. For example, if you have a major historic road
				  that bisects a mound complex, the mound complex and the historic road would be
				  considered two different sites. The reason the historic road and mound complex
				  would not be considered a multi-component site in this case is because the
				  historic road (or linear site) is not solely contained within the same site
				  boundaries as the mound complex. That is to say the historic road has radically
				  different site boundaries than the mound complex. Therefore the historic road,
				  while it should be considered a site, is also considered an impact agent of the
				  mound complex.
When it comes to recording the details of associated
				  features (headgates, culverts, etc.) it is important to have the appropriate
				  level of detail for the project. This can be established by providing a
				  narrative, map and GPS locations, and photographs of the overall main site and
				  each of the associated features so that an agency can determine where the
				  feature is relative to the overall site, what the feature is, and what the
				  current condition of the feature is. However, you do not need to provide
				  detailed measurements for every associated feature, unless these measurements
				  are necessary for distinguishing between the individual features. What is
				  needed is a good picture, a good location, supplemented with enough
				  measurements to convey scale and whatever else is not clearly seen in pictures
				  or is unique or key to the construction of the feature. In other words, it is
				  not necessary to measure every dimension of a culvert and associated wing
				  walls, but it may be necessary to distinguish between culverts with a 12 inch
				  diameter and culverts of a 30 inch diameter. When multiple redundant features
				  (culverts, small trestles, etc.) are present, it is generally sufficient to
				  describe one and show the location of others.
While Mississippi does require a 1:24,000 scale map on our
				  site cards, this map is not sufficient enough on its own to relay information
				  about features that may have been found during survey. Therefore, we would like
				  to see a detail map showing the features and their overall relationship to the
				  recorded segment of the linear site. During survey features should be assigned
				  a feature number and used to cross reference descriptions, photographs and map
				  locations. Features that should be mapped in detail include (but are not
				  limited to) roadbeds, borrow ditches, culverts, bridges, headgates, flumes,
				  poles, pole stumps, and artifact concentrations.
Once your site has been recorded and mapped, you still need
				  to consider the eligibility of it. In Mississippi the majority of our linear
				  resources have been written off as insignificant because they do not meet the
				  requirements of Criterion D of the National Register of Historic Places; which
				  makes sites eligible to the NRHP because they have yielded or may be likely to
				  yield information important to history or prehistory. While most archaeologists
				  concentrate on Criterion D, linear sites can be eligible under criteria A, B, C
				  and D.
In order to be considered significant, trails and
				  transportation sites must have, or have the potential to have a significant
				  impact upon the interpretation of important historical events or patterns,
				  people, and architectural/engineering types associated with the trail or
				  transportation route. Secondly, the information must have cast, or have the
				  potential to cast, significant light upon important scientific or scholarly
				  concepts, ideas, questions, hypothesis, theories, or models tied to important
				  patterns and themes in local, state, or national history.
Trails and transportation routes can be eligible under
				  Criterion A. Criterion A states that a site that is eligible if it is
				  "associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad
				  patterns of our history." Trails and transportation routes can help interpret
				  or provide significant information about historical events important to
				  national cultural identities, such as ethnic groups or nationalities or social
				  groups. A good example of this in Mississippi would be the Choctaw Trail of
				  Tears, where after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek ceded land in Alabama,
				  Mississippi, and Louisiana to the United States nearly 17,000 Choctaws moved to
				  Oklahoma. Historic trails might also contain information that helps interpret
				  or provide significant information about economic or political developments
				  that are important in local, state, or national history. For example, trails
				  play an important role in understanding the settlement and incorporation of the
				  frontier. Historic trails can also address migration and other historically
				  important demographic events and processes in local, state, and national
				  population history. The material expression of these historic routes often
				  includes archaeological and other material remains that contain significant
				  information capable of helping to interpret and answer important scholarly and
				  scientific questions about settlement patterns in Mississippi.
Historic trails and transportation routes may also help
				  address research issues surrounding the formation of landscapes or episodes of
				  environmental change that are significant to local, state, or national history.
				  Some key landscape research questions include: the evolution of settlement
				  patterns associated with the route (for example the evolution of towns and
				  communities that develop along the route of a railroad); the evolution of
				  vegetation patterns associated with the route (things like deforestation from
				  timber cutting); the evolution of landforms associated with transportation
				  routes; and the evolution of ethnic and cultural landscapes expressing cultural
				  identities associated with the routes.
While these concepts can apply to trails, roads, and
				  railroads, roads and railroads can also be considered eligible under Criterion
				  C. Criterion C specifies that a site should "embody the distinctive
				  characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent
				  the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a
				  significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual
				  distinction." For a railroad to be considered eligible under Criterion C, it is
				  necessary to examine things like rolling stock (or wheeled vehicles) and the
				  railroad beds. For rolling stock (locomotives, train cars, etc.) to be eligible
				  under Criterion C they would need to specifically embody the distinctive design
				  characteristics of a technology. They would also need to retain these
				  distinctive design characteristics so that the integrity of the design and
				  workmanship are still present.
Railroad grades are the roadbed foundations that allowed
				  movement of the rolling stock. In most cases, grades were constructed by
				  depositing ballast of crushed rock or earth to prepare a level, dry base for
				  the ties. Some grades may have been cut into slopes. After use, rails were
				  usually removed and ties were often salvaged by local residents for reuse.
				  Abandoned railroad grades have often been turned into road beds. To be eligible
				  under Criterion C these abandoned railroad grades need to be well preserved
				  enough to convey the design and workmanship of the method of construction.
Trestles are structures that allow the rolling stock cross
				  streams, drainages, and depressions while keeping the incline of the railroad
				  grade at a gentle incline. Trestles are often significant for their method and
				  type of construction and, therefore, might be eligible under Criterion C.
				  Mississippi has numerous railroads ranging from small logging "dummy" lines
				  that made an impact on the local logging industry to major railroads like the
				  Illinois Central Railroad which had a major impact on our nation's history.
Historic roads are another major group of linear sites that
				  are present within the state of Mississippi. Often times these historic roads
				  are ignored, or casually mentioned and not assigned a site number. Historic
				  roads, like railroads, trails, and other methods of transportation can be
				  eligible under Criterion A, but they can also be eligible under Criteria B, C,
				  and D.
A good example of how a road may be eligible under B, C and
				  D is a way station. Way stations might be eligible for their association with
				  specific settlement periods in Mississippi, or for their association with an
				  important person under Criterion B. Location, setting and association are the
				  key elements of integrity; way station properties must be highly visible to
				  retain integrity. In addition, they might be eligible under criterion C as an
				  expression a distinctive technological pattern. Under Criterion D, they might
				  be eligible for their information value. Key research issues include way
				  stations as commercial households, world-system relationships, consumerism,
				  technology, and social structure. In addition to road engineering features like
				  bridges, tunnels, culverts, cut and fill landscape features, road bed remnants
				  and other engineering features could be eligible under Criterion C as examples
				  of a pattern of road engineering technology. To be eligible in this case, they
				  need to retain integrity of materials, workmanship and design. Roadbed remnants
				  are often eligible under Criterion D for their information value. Key research
				  questions include the evolution of transportation, the evolution of regional
				  settlement systems, and road capitalization. Under criterion D, the roadbed
				  needs to retain integrity of association, materials, and workmanship. One thing
				  to note about integrity of materials, is that if the road (during the period of
				  significance) was a paved road, and is now still a paved road, even though the
				  asphalt may have been upgraded and changed over time, the road still retains
				  its integrity because the materials have not changed since that period of
				  significance.
Once it is decided that a linear resource is eligible, there
				  are two ways to nominate your property to the National Register of Historic
				  Places. The first method would be to nominate it as a District. To nominate a
				  linear site as a district it needs to be continuous, with no breaks or missing
				  parts to the main linear feature. This approach is probably best for smaller
				  linear features, like small logging railroads. The other way to nominate a
				  linear site is as a multiple property listing. This approach is used when the
				  linear site is not intact, but rather exists in pieces across an extended area.
				  This approach applies best to major routes of transportation or linear sites
				  that may have stretched across large portions of the state.
In conclusion, linear resources have played an important
				  role in the development of our nation and within the state of Mississippi. With
				  better background research and field methods we hope to improve the
				  preservation and understanding of these resources.