A Cultural Resources Testing Program, Holbrook, Arizona

By Richard Ciolek-Torrello, Bruce A. Jones, and Robert G. Graham

Technical Series 18

167 pp. / 1989

This report presents results of an archaeological testing program at two archaeological sites east of Holbrook and a historic evaluation of approximately 50 standing structures in the Perkins Addition of Holbrook, Arizona. The work is the result of plans by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct a levee in response to periodic flooding of the town by the Little Colorado River. In the course of the testing program, three components were identified at each of the archaeological sites, and as many as 10 structures in the Perkins Addition were identified as meeting the minimum 50-year requirement for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The three components at the Archer site consisted of a BIII-PI farmstead, a possible PII-III farmstead, and an early-twentieth-century artifact scatter. The Thompson House included (1) a component that might be contemporaneous with earliest historic settlement in the Holbrook area, (2) a component that might be associated with the construction of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad and the founding of Holbrook, and (3) features associated with an early-twentieth-century segment of the Santa Fe Railroad. The results of the testing program suggest that both archaeological sites and two historic structures in the Perkins Addition are eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places and are recommended for protection or mitigation of proposed impacts.