Agenda - Council - 08/22/1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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II !1 II J J II 11 Ii 1 I ! I ,I The project area is located approximately i to 1% miles north of %ne MisSissippi River and 3/4 tc 2 miles west of the Rum River, or: leve~~ to oentlv ~ . ~ox!inc uplands %nas incorporate parts of oeomorp~c reckons: %ne Mississippi Valle>' Outwasb area (western DOrtlOL Of proDect route) and %he Anoka Sand Plain (eastern portion of same). 5o%n areas owe their aeomcrphciocicai characteristics %c processes that occurred during the later suaoes of the Wisconsin glaciation. Low areas are marshy - lsoiamed depressions as well as iaroer wemlands ~na% are linked by poorly deveioDed dralnaoes. UDiands feature we~ drained sandv soils over a substrauum of sand and/or gravel -- alonc proDec~ rogue primarily Nymore and Hubbard sands (USDA Soil Conservation Service !g77; Univers/tv of Minnesota !980). Pollen cores from the recion suggest that it was rather dry for muc~ of the postclacia! period, wiub a predominance of crasslands and dry oak woods (Harrison !978). At %be time of ~nitial Euro-American settlement, oak openings and barrens predominated on the uplands, while narrow belts of river forest wes found along the Rum and Mississippi Rivers (Marschner 1974). While a number of archaeological sites have been identified in ~he northern, central and ~astern parts of Anoka County (Harrison !978), the western portion is sui!! relatively known in this respect -- mainly, we can assume, because of the lack of comprehensive archaeological survey in this area rather than actual lack of such evidence. So far, only one Native American site has been recorded close .to the survey area: 2! AN 6, a group of more than a dozen mounds described in the ia~e !800s as located on the northwestern shore of Round Lake. Another possible si%e, 2'! k~ !0!, yielded a concentration of bison bones from a marsh located between the southeastern shore of Round Lake and the Coon Creek drainage, However, there were no artifacts in association that could !ink the bones, in a positive manner, with earl), Native American cultural activity. A re%~ sitgs have also been recorded to the southwest, on the Hennepin Count), side of the Mississippi River: 2! HE 85, a single mound, and 2! HE S~, a group of i6 mounds, both sites near Champ!in, as well as 21 HE 88, a group of 23 mounds overlookin~ Elm Creek near frs confluence with the u{==issippi. Al%hough there is no evidence on record, as yet, of habitation sites in this area, the presence of burial sites, as well as the topographic configuration of well drained uplands along lakes and major waterways like the Mississippi and Rum Rivers, would suggest that a nu~nber of such sites do exist. 3.0 SURVEY PROCEDURE AND RESULTS Although the proposed alignment__{= 80 =~t wide, survey coverage was widened to encompass approximately !50 ft. The corridor was wa~_ked along transects spaced=~-+ 10 meter interval=_. The feiiowing descriptions are keyed to survey segments on Figure i.