Brinker, Ruth (Department of Natural Resources,
Division of Reclamation)
ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA FOR DIVISION OF RECLAMATION
The State of Indiana accepted responsibility for regulating
the coal mining industry and established the Division of Reclamation
for that purpose in 1982. An archaeologist has been a part of the
regulatory program since its inception, enabling the accumulation of
five years of archaeological data. During those five years, a total
of 319 mining permits was approved encompassing 144,499 acres. In total,
10,061 of these acres (7%) was covered by archaeological survey in
advance of mining. The total number of known sites in the permit areas
was 599; this figure yields an average site frequency of 0.6 sites per
10 acres surveyed. Test excavations were conducted at 18 sites, and a
program of data recovery was initiated at 3 of these sites. An additional
17 sites should have been tested but were not examined. Twelve sites
(all on a single permit) currently are protected by "no mining windows."
In every instance of mitigation of effects, whether through data
recovery or site windowing, the initiative for conservation has come
from the archaeological community, not from the Division of Reclamation.
Eighteen of the 599 known sites (3%) were eligible for the National
Register of Historic Places, and one site listed on the National Register,
the Cato Site, was destroyed by mining. Given the extent of the area
surveyed (7%) and the number of known sites in permit areas (599), then
one can predict that if 50% of permitted acres had been surveyed, 4,277
sites would have been located, and 128 (3%) of these would have been
eligible for listing on National Register of Historic Places. [return to 1987 abstracts menu][continue to next]