The Repository @ St. Cloud State

Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

5-2022

Culminating Project Type

Thesis

Styleguide

other

SAA

Degree Name

Cultural Resources Management Archaeology: M.S.

Department

Anthropology

College

College of Liberal Arts

First Advisor

Mark Muniz

Second Advisor

Robb Mann

Third Advisor

Sara Stauffer

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Keywords and Subject Headings

Forest Service, Mogollon, Arizona, Apache-Sitgreaves, National Register Eligiblity

Abstract

The Black Mesa Ranger Station on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in northern Arizona, serves as the administrative site for the Black Mesa Ranger District. The station was established in 1949 after Forest Service personnel determined that the current ranger station located in Black Canyon was no longer suitable as an administrative site. The Black Mesa Ranger Station was developed over a period of several years spanning from the 1950s to the 1960s to form the administrative site that it is today.

Due to the station’s construction and development over 50 years ago, many of the buildings and features now represent a historic component within the ranger station that is in need of evaluation for the National Register of Historic Places. Also, the establishment of the ranger station prior to the enactment of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 led to the development of the site within the footprint of a prehistoric Mogollon/Ancestral Puebloan archaeological site with no mitigation measures observed. In order to maintain and ensure the Black Mesa Ranger Station can continue to function as the administrative site for the district, a cultural resource management plan is required in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act and consultation with the Arizona State Historic Perseveration Office and Tribes with cultural affiliation to the Black Mesa Ranger District.

A total of 20 historic buildings associated with the Ranger Station were recorded as well as artifacts and features that are part of the prehistoric component. The site represents that location of a historic Forest Service Ranger Station, that is still currently in use, and prehistoric temporary habitation and resource processing site. The overall site was evaluated for the National Register of Historic Places based on both its historic and prehistoric components. The historic components were determined not eligible for the National Register while the prehistoric components are eligible for the National Register.

Comments/Acknowledgements

Thank you to my thesis committee members, Dr. Mark Muñiz, Dr. Rob Mann, and Sara Stauffer, for sticking with me on completing my thesis as well as for the valuable feedback and advice. I would like to thank my District Ranger, Richard Madril, for allowing me the time to attend classes for my graduate degree and to undertake this thesis project as part of my work priorities. A big thank you the para-archaeologists, Daniel Ruebush, Josh Salazar, Nate Parsons, Nathan Maurer, Curtis Smith, and Steve Fairbank, for helping finish the fieldwork. To my family who never stopped bugging me about when my thesis would be done and if I was working on it! Most of all to my husband, thank you for being by my side every step of the way in this process and for encouraging me to never give up. Through all the craziness of the past year, stress, and life changing events, you pushed and prodded me to the very end with all the support and love I could ever need!

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