Rodeo Chediski Fire Salvage Area Heritage and Ethnographic Inventory
Navajo and Gila Counties, Arizona
Overview:
The Rodeo-Chediski fire, the largest wildfire in Arizona history, burned over 450,000 acres in east-central Arizona in the summer of 2002. Of the acres burned, 167,215 fell within the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest boundary. The National Forest contracted SWCA to survey areas in this region that would potentially be affected by timber salvage operations.
Services Provided:
Services Provided:
- Cultural resources survey
- Archaeology inventory that satisfied compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act
- Ethnohistorical study
Results:
SWCA archaeologists identified nearly 300 sites dating from the Archaic period (5,000 B.C.) to the late historic period (up to 1950). Some of the more impressive sites consisted of Ancestral Puebloan habitations with multi-room above ground structures and late historic logging railroads that crossed the forest in the early 1900s. The ethnographic study determined that both the Hopi and Zuni have strong ties to prehistoric sites affected by the fire. More recently, Navajo and Apache groups used the area on a transitory basis. Finally, Basque sheepherders were intimately familiar with the area, as the Heber-Reno Sheep Driveway crossed the forest.
©2010, SWCA Environmental Consultants
