Field Trips

Shovel testing near mortars at Loyal Valley during the April field trip. More photos HERE.

Field trips are usually held on the third Saturday of each month, and feature visits to local archeological sites and areas of interest.  LUAS members contribute time and effort to help ensure the cultural resources of central Texas are recorded for posterity.

May

There IS a field trip for May, on May 17, to House Mountain. See the May Newsletter for more information.

December

Due to the Holidays, there is no field trip planned for December. It usually too cold in January spend a morning running around outside, but stay tuned...

November

A field trip was held at a private ranch near Fredericksburg. LUAS members documented a burned rock midden and nearby large quarry site. The midden may be older than many, as a possible early Middle Archaic dart point was found there. See the December newsletter for more information.

Survey at the Frishkey Ranch	Dart Point

Large bifaces from quarry

October

Field trip activity has been slow lately. If you have any ideas let Chuck or Doris know.

September

A field trip is planned, we're jusyt not sure where yet. Check the newsletter, come to the September 12 meeting, or drop Chuck a line.

August

There is NO field trip scheduled for August.

July

There is NO field trip scheduled at this time, although one may be decided upon at the July 11 meeting.

June

There will be NO field trip this June.

May 19

We visited LCRA's Gloster Bend tract to try to locate two reported wells and a possible historic house site.
Results in the NEWLSETTER.

April 21

We returned to Loyal Valley to visit and record another mortar hole site. More information in the NEWSLETTER.

March 17

We visited a private ranch known to have at least one burned rock midden (Indian mound),  which we documented, as well as surveyed for additional sites. 


LUAS members at March field trip - see April newsletter for results

Results of February 17 Field Trip - Town of Bluffton
Click HERE for report and photos

March field trip to Old Bluffton at Lake Buchanan

We went out to the old town of Bluffton, normally submerged under the waters of Lake Buchanan.  See the
NEWSLETTER  for more information.

Special Field Trip December 16 - 41BT407

On Saturday, December 16 we plan a special field trip to the Soika-Quinn (41BT407), a prehistoric campsite on the east side of Lake Buchanan normally under water. but now exposed because of the drought. Looters in boats have struck late at night on several occasions and the owner of the property, Nick Soika, and his daughter Nikki Quinn want the site declared a State Archeological Landmark and placed on the National Register of Historic Place so it can be given more legal protection. We can help them by collecting more information on the site, especially through shovel testing to determine the depth of the deposits. As with our last field trip we will meet at the LCRA's Western District Office at 9:30 and then drive to the site. It would be a good idea to contact me ahead of time if you want to go in case plans have changed.

Artifacts from 41BT407

Saturday November 18 - Cedar Point

The November field trip to the LCRA Cedar Point Park proved to be quite productive.  Members Joanne Hanifan, Pat Hatten, David Houston and his friend Johnny Burkett, Marvin Shelly and his grandson Brody Tadlock, and myself surveyed an area at the northwest end of the park that is normally underwater.   That day's big discovery was the remains of an old house probably originally built in the "dog trot" design with two rooms divided by a breezeway.   Two other historic house sites have been recorded in the park but these are by far the best preserved.   The piers and two massive collapsed fireplaces have remained undisturbed and Marvin located several unbroken snuff and patent medicine bottle nearby.    The artifact inventory belongs mainly to the first two decades of the 20th century but the structure itself could date back well into the 1800s.   Also more information was collected on the prehistoric component at 41LL31, a large prehistoric campsite that unfortunately has suffered from uncontrolled digging by looters.  David found a Fairland point that belongs to the same time period as another point collected from the site last summer.  From these finds we can tentatively state that site was occupied between about AD 1 to AD 500.

LUAS members test a rockshelter during a recent field trip.

In September, 2006, LUAS visited a mortar hole site in San Saba County.