Talk:National Register of Historic Places listings in Powell County, Kentucky

Nada Tunnel 2

The image of "Nada Tunnel 2" does not appear to be petroglyphs. It is a photo of inside Nada Tunnel.

BTW, in the article I created, Nada Tunnel, I have a ref that claims Nada Tunnel itself is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Powell County, Kentucky. - Gilliam (talk) 01:56, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

Relevant resources

The Powell County section of Webb and Funkhouser's state surveys doesn't address any sites here, as far as I can remember. [1] may be relevant, and [2] also. [3], [4], and [5] are definitely helpful. Nyttend (talk) 19:58, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Survey results

I've consulted a local archaeological survey (the final URL in my above comment), which provided the following facts about each of the following sites:

• 17 — Seldon Skidmore Site — Bottomland site recorded in 1966 by Frank Fryman fieldwork in response to dam (17)
• 23 — Martin Fork Petroglyphs — Rockshelter site identified in the 1960s during leadup to dam (18)
• 25 — High Rock Petroglyphs — Rockshelter site identified in the 1960s during leadup to dam (18)
• 31 — Anderson Site — Identified by Cowan's survey (18)
• 42 — Martin Site — Identified by Cowan's survey (18); excavated by Cowan (19)
• 46 — Shepherd Site — Identified by Cowan's survey (18); yielded "Type 12" point that Cowan suggested was Middle Archaic (32)
• 47 — Haystack Rock Shelter — Identified by Cowan's survey (18); excavated by Cowan (19)
• 106 — State Rock Petroglyph Site — In a rockshelter; disturbed in the past (84)
• 107 — McKinney Bluff Petroglyphs — In a rockshelter; disturbed in the past (84)
• 108 — Amburgy Hollow Petroglyphs — In a rockshelter; disturbed in the past (84)
• 154 — White's Rockshelter Petroglyphs — no information
• 155 — Nada Tunnel 1 Petroglyphs — no information
• 156 — Nada Tunnel 2 — no information
• 158 — Branham Ridge Petroglyphs — no information
• 331 — Raised Spirits Rockshelter — no information

All sites discussed in this survey were on private property at the time; surveying federal properties was prohibited without a permit, and the time required to obtain a permit was prohibitive (24). No site descriptions or locations were included in the publicly released edition that I consulted. The citation for the survey I consulted is:

• Weinland, Marcia K., and Thomas N. Sanders. A Reconnaissance and Evaluation of Archaeological Sites in Powell County, Kentucky: Number 3. Frankfort: Kentucky Heritage Council, 1977.

"Cowan's survey" refers to:

• Cowan, C. Wesley. An Archaeological Survey and Assessment of the Proposed Red River Reservoir in Powell, Wolfe, and Menifee Counties, Kentucky. Report submitted to the National Park Service, Tallahassee, Florida, 1975.

The bibliography also lists two others:

• Cowan, C. Wesley. Test Excavations in the Proposed Red River Lake, Kentucky: 1974 Season. Report submitted to the National Park Service, Atlanta, Georgia, 1976.
• Cowan, C. Wesley, and Frederick T. Wilson. An Archaeological Survey of the Red River Gorge area in Menifee, Powell, and Wolfe Counties, Kentucky. Report prepared by the Kentucky Heritage Commission, Frankfort, 1976.

None of these is likely to be publicly available, however. Finally, given the presence of petroglyphs, we might consult the following article, which might well be useful for the Martin Fork and High Rock sites:

• Coy, F.E., and T.C. Fuller. "Petroglyphs fo Powell County, Kentucky". Central States Archaeological Journal 18.3 (1971): no pages given.

Nyttend (talk) 13:27, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

More information

The following materials are taken from Wyss, James D., and Sandra K. Wyss. An Archaeological Assessment of Portions of the Red River Gorge, Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky. Archaeological Report No. 1. Lexington: Ohio Valley Archaeological Research Associates for U.S. Forest Service, 1977. I have copied extensive amounts of text because no copyright notice is present — it's a case of {{PD-US-no notice}}. Nyttend (talk) 06:18, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

[page 33] Cowan's investigations at the Roger's Shelters (Po-26 and Po-27) and the Haystack Shelter (Po-47A and B) have provided ethnobotanical analyses of materials obtained under more controlled conditions. Radiocarbon dates from the Roger's Shelters indicate the site was occupied between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D., and Cowan (1976:97-98) postulates a similar timespan [page 34] for the Haystack Shelter occupation. Plant food remains from the site include six species of nuts (black walnut, butternut, hickory, chestnut, acorn and hazelnut), four species of fruits (pawpaw, sumac, plum and grape), and four or five possible cultigens (squash or pumpkin, bottle gourd, marsh elder, sunflower, and canary grass). No corn was recovered. Fragments of cane basketry, prepared bark, and cordage were also collected (Cowan 1976:87-101).

[page 36] Cowan conducted limited test excavations at two of the bottomland sites (Po-31 and Po-42) in 1974. One of these sites (the Martin Site, Po-42) produced roughened surface pootery which is similar to ceramics from the Levisa Fork in the extreme Eastern Mountains (Cowan 1976:73-82)...In 1973, members of the Red River Historical Society and volunteers from the university of Kentucky, Department of Anthropology conducted excavations at Mf-32, a single-component Fort Ancient rockshelter site. Materials recovered included corn husks, cordage, cut cane, two species of nuts, and shell tempered pottery, in addition to lithic materials. The depth of the deposit (approximately 10-15 cm) suggested a relatively short-term occupancy (Cowan 1975:101-102). Unfortunately, the materials from Mf-32 have not yet been analyzed and reported.

[page 50] This page notes that Cowan's 1975 survey, undertaken in response to changes in plans for the reservoir, gained stratigraphic information on a multicomponent Archaic site (Po-17) in the valley. Cowan returned the following year to complete testing at Po-17 and Po-42, and to initiate excavation at Po-47B, a Woodland rockshelter site. The data recovered from Po-17 confirmed Cowan's 1973 stratigraphic sequence and provided valuable information on the transition between the Late Archaic and Early Woodland cultures in [page 51] the Red River valley (Cowan 1976:ii). Excavations at the Haystack Shelter (Po-47B), a Late Woodland dry shelter site, uncovered a large quantity of well-preserved organic remains. Split cane basketry fragments, plant fiber cordage, leather, quids, paleofeces, and numerous plant food remains including both native and exotic cultigens were among the specimens recovered