NEWS

 

DATE

ARTICLE / SUBJECT

MARCH 2007


Hayden Flour Mill Archaeology Update
For information, please contact Victoria Vargas at 480.894.5477 or
Susan Shaffer Nahmias at 480.496.0978.
 

for week ending
21 JULY 2006

 

Our final day in the field for the testing phase was Monday, July 17, 2006. Our final tasks included completing the last trench wall profile maps on the north side of the mill building, final photographs of the trenches and the features they contained (possible prehistoric canals and the substantial rock retaining wall lining the west side of the Hayden Canal), and collecting final shot data of the units, features, and property contours. After completing these tasks, the open units were backfilled. We are now busy reviewing data collection forms and other field data in anticipation of data entry and map production tasks in the weeks ahead.

The field principal investigator and supervisors will begin the task next week of reviewing each feature and assessing its significance to the history of the site, followed by determining if data recovery is advisable for any of them. For example, we know that many features identified during testing will require some level of data recovery, including the gas station, calaboose, and the features on the north side of the building, but we may find that we’ve recovered the important data for others, such as the prehistoric canals, railroad, and earthen portion of the Hayden Canal.

When the data entry tasks are completed in the next few weeks, we can run queries for number of artifacts collected, features investigated, units excavated, square meters of trenching, and cubic meters of earth removed. It will be a number of weeks before the next stage of the archaeological dig begins.

 


AUGUST 2006
 


PHOENIX MAGAZINE
The Phoenix Files - The Flour Mill's Future
 

for week ending
14 JULY 2006

 


The last of our exploratory trenches went in on the north and west sides of the mill building, in addition to explorations in the dirt parking lots on the northeast side of the property above Rio Salado Parkway. Our trenching in the parking lot areas revealed no subsurface cultural deposits or features, only naturally occurring slopewash and alluvial (rock) accumulations in the drainage channels. In the upper dirt lot nearest the large circular concrete pads, we found large chunks of loose bedrock that could be waste materials from quarrying that was necessary to level the surface for the pads. There were no signs of prehistoric occupation or use in either area nor did we encounter any archaeological remains of the historic carpenter’s shop or blacksmith’s shop. This is likely due to the high level of previous disturbance in both areas.

Excavations on the west side of the mill building revealed no historic features below the 1920s warehouse foundations. However, we did find two small canal alignments. These appear to be prehistoric, but with few associated artifacts—which consisted of both prehistoric and historic items—and no burned material suitable for radiocarbon dating, the dating remains uncertain. A review of historic photographs may be of value; no photographs seen thus far of the west side of the original mill building show a canal(s).

 

On the north side of the mill building, our deep east-west trench between the building and the historic concrete pads found earlier, uncovered a massively built dressed stone wall, the top of which was approximately 1 ft beneath the surface. The deep fill on the east side of the wall is dark and full of late 19th to early 20th century artifacts, including bottles and metal items. The deep central part of the exploratory trench went down 8–9 ft on both sides of the wall and its base was not yet encountered. The west side of the wall contained a builder’s trench in natural stratigraphy. Clearly, the east side of the wall is the main Hayden Canal below the water wheel, and the deep cut in natural stratigraphy found late last week in our north-south trench just to the east must be where the waste race rejoined the main canal. We suspect that the waste race stone arch and other potential walls are still buried below our 8–9 ft excavation level. Why there is such a tall, massively-built wall lining the west side of the main canal is still a mystery at this point, but hopefully will be investigated further in the next phase of work.

 

While extending the deep east-west trench further to the west beyond the stone wall, we encountered two large canals that appear to be prehistoric. This finding is not surprising, given that we picked up two canals along the west side of the property, and in Volume 2 of The Lost Itinerary of Frank Hamilton Cushing indicates that Charles T. Hayden told Cushing that he encountered prehistoric canals on the property when they were excavating the race for the mill. Hayden mentioned that he had uncovered “considerable lengths of an ancient irrigating canal and from this canal other and lesser acequias were found to branch off.”

 

Other areas that were investigated include closing out the final hand-excavated unit south of the temporary fence where the earthen Hayden Canal was encountered, and taking out the last of the recent fill at the northernmost bay along the east side of the mill building. A slim concrete foundation was found beneath the fill in the bay, but its function remains unknown at this point.
 
for week ending
7 JULY 2006


Archaeology work continues on the Hayden Flour Mill.
A display has been set up inside the lobby at Monti's La Casa Vieja to help describe the project.

No prehistoric remains were encountered, even though we concentrated units near the Light Rail portion of the project area. In the northernmost hand unit between the railroad and the parking lot, we encountered deep silty deposits, quite unlike the fill and bedrock exposed in the other units. We extended a narrow hand trench to the east and encountered a cut in bedrock. At first we thought this might be a prehistoric pithouse, but further exploration revealed that it was likely the Hayden Canal. This was somewhat surprising as it is slightly offset from the alignment formed by the other exposures. Because of this “irregularity” in the alignment, we will excavate a narrow hand trench to the west on Monday to try to catch the rest of the canal, and will place another hand trench between this unit and the southern temporary fence to catch the canal there as well. With these results and the exposures in the fenced area, we will be able to accurately plot the exact alignment of the canal across the property.

Trenching work continued on the north side of the mill building around the historic concrete pads uncovered late last week. In the northernmost east-west trench along Rio Salado Parkway, we encountered an area of fill roughly in alignment with the Hayden Canal main race, but have not confirmed this assessment yet. At the western end of this trench, near the corner of Rio Salado and Mill Avenue, we encountered two prehistoric canals. They appear to be feeder canals or laterals; neither is large. The north-south trench between these canals and the 1920s warehouse foundation, we uncovered several concrete slabs and areas of disturbance (broken concrete dumped in a large “hole” and other vertical cuts in the natural stratigraphy). At the southwest corner of the mill building, we expanded a trench to uncover the northern portion of the suspected calaboose. We discovered two concrete slabs with a layer of brick and shaped stone beneath. Although the western portion appears to have been disturbed, we are beginning to get a sense of how large the structure is and its orientation. At the southeastern corner of the mill building, we placed another trench that uncovered the concrete “tunnel” for the Hayden Canal and a later concrete slab partly above it and to the east. A remnant of the original earthen canal appeared to be under the slab, which had been filled with debris and sediment. Lastly, we uncovered the concrete tunnel and another concrete foundation to its east at the northeast corner of the mill building. We have not completed fill removal, so we cannot tell if the foundation is part of the waste race. It is possible that it is a remnant of the original mill building. It also seems that the water “dropped” in this area and that the milling equipment must be in the building beneath this point.
[photogallery/photo00027226/real.htm]

 

for week ending
30 JUNE 2006


This was the first week of archaeological testing fieldwork.
The majority of ACS activity this week was in support of the field effort.

No Hayden Flour Mill Committee meeting was held this week.
The next meeting will be held at 4 pm, July 10, 2006 at the City of Tempe Community Development Offices.

ARCHAEOLOGY

Testing began on schedule at the project area, and we’ve already completed a major portion of the backhoe and hand unit tasks within and adjacent to the mill buildings. We’ve excavated 13 trenches and 7 hand units, and made several interesting discoveries thus far. In the lower parking lot area adjacent to Mill Avenue, we’ve uncovered the concrete foundations of what appears to be the 1920s–1940s gas station, and the Hayden Canal beneath the concrete slurry covering at the lot’s eastern end. The canal in this area appears to be earthen; the covering of concrete slurry along the canal route appears to be more recent, perhaps to stabilize the slope. The earthen canal appears to be fairly wide and shallow in this area, and has a silty-clay sediment.

In the mill complex itself (inside the permanent fence), we uncovered a concrete canal culvert, which in fact may be a completely encased concrete “tunnel” for the main canal leading towards the mill grinding equipment. Another concrete slab covering the canal was found beneath the recent fill adjacent to the east side of the mill building. We excavated a trench from the concrete covering eastwards toward the rail line and uncovered the waste race. Like the main canal (mill race), it is encased in concrete, except that it does not have a concrete covering. Its trajectory away from the main canal matches archival map depictions of the waste race. With its trajectory now known, we can extrapolate to the south and possibly pinpoint where the waste race diverged from the main canal. During data recovery, we can open up this area, where we will likely find a headgate for diverting water into the waste race.

We also placed four short east-west trenches between the mill building/rail line and the silos. A moderately thick lens of burned material composed of dark ash and cinder/slag was found covering a large area. Although we at first thought this may represent a fire, it seems more likely that it was burned refuse from the train engine purposefully laid down around the tracks to retard vegetation growth and diminish the chance of fire from engine sparks.   

Near the southwestern corner of the permanent fence, we uncovered what appeared to be the remains of the calaboose. We have a nice stone foundation remnant on the north side of the trench and a brick sidewalk, walkway, or floor on the south side of the trench at this location. The western half has been severely impacted by later construction. We began a cross trench across the feature to document its dimensions and to see how this compares with the estimated size of the calaboose. We immediately encountered a concrete slab remnant and a layer of busted brick and mortar, along with some architectural rock and an old asphalt lens. We will know more once we complete the cross trench on Monday, July 3, 2006.

Just north of the calaboose feature, we excavated a north-south oriented trench to the 1920s concrete slab remnant. Several old pipes were found, which may be SRP related, and a canal-like feature with cobbles along its sides. However, our geomorphologist examined this feature and concluded that it is more likely a builder’s trench or related feature associated with the 1920s structure. No prehistoric artifacts have been found thus far.

On the north side of the mill building, we’ve uncovered another large concrete slab beneath the fill that was under the loading dock slab (which we removed prior to testing). We were expecting to find structure foundations, but may have actually uncovered the floor(s) of the structure(s) that was left intact. Because this is large and we cannot break through the concrete, our remaining trenches will need to be relocated along the edges of the slab where dirt fill occurs. This strategy will still allow us to explore beneath the level of the new slab feature in our search for the earliest remains of the mill. In fact, placing a long east-west trench between the current mill building and the newly discovered concrete slab will cross the Hayden Canal outflow channel—we may pick up evidence for this while conducting deep trenching.

Our final trench excavated thus far was along the north side of the large round concrete slab, which revealed only modern fill to bedrock; no traces of the early blacksmith or carpenter’s shops were found.

The hand units along the railroad tracks and along the butte slope south of the mill buildings revealed that bedrock is generally shallow in this area. In several units adjacent to the tracks, we again picked up dark ash and cinders/slag, which appears to be typical railroad bed materials. In a unit closer to the concrete slurry over what we thought was the Hayden Canal, we encountered a fairly deep deposit of silts then clays, which appears to be canal deposits. We will put in a hand trench to see if we can verify that this is the earthen Hayden Canal; this is scheduled for Monday. No prehistoric remains or artifacts have been found so far in this area.

Visitors this week include Teresa Pinter (ACS preservation plan PI) and Susan Shafer Nahmias (ACS public outreach PI) on Thursday, and Joe Nucci and Chris Messer on Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning. To date, we have not been contacted by any media outlets, nor have any casual or inquisitive visitors stopped by to ask questions. The Tempe police stopped by on Wednesday to ask about our vehicles in the northern dirt lot; we explained again about our bright yellow parking passes, which we are placing on dashboards in plain sight. Next week promises to be just as exciting as the first. As a reminder, we will not be working on the holiday, July 4 (Tuesday). The areas that the fire department identified as their staging zones are completely available to them.

ARCHIVAL RESEARCH

Victoria Vargas delivered Bill Mitchell’s Hayden Flour Mill slides to Richard Bauer at the Tempe Historical Museum for duplication. The Museum will scan the ca. 1980 slides and provide ACS a copy of the images on a CD or DVD.

Victoria continued compiling and reviewing archival materials and worked on historic context development.

Historic Architecture

Victoria Vargas and Don Ryden met on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 and completed negotiations of Ryden Architects’ Scope of Work and budget for the Hayden Flour Mill project. A copy of that scope and budget was submitted to Margerie Green, ACS President and Owner, for her approval. Once approved by Margerie Green, it will be submitted to the Hayden Flour Mill Committee for their approval.

Historic Preservation Plan

No activity on the HPP this week.

Educational + Public Outreach

The electronic files for the Monti's La Casa Vieja exhibit were delivered to Eric Hansen at COT on Wednesday, June 28. The printed panels will be available from COT on Monday, July 3 and will need to be laminated prior to display. We anticipate the exhibit will be installed at Monti's late next week or early the following week, subject to their schedule.

 

15 JUNE 2006

 

The City of Tempe approved an agreement to settle the litigation on the Hayden Flour Mill on June 15. The major terms of the development agreement include:

        ·        MCW will purchase the Flour Mill property from the City for $7.4 million.  The City shall credit MCW $7.1 million for public amenities to be constructed as part of the project, but only at such time as MCW is ready to pull construction permits.  Such public amenities include a reconstructed trail head with parking for Hayden Butte, traffic signalization and infrastructure, publicly-accessible exhibits and displays outlining the prehistoric and modern history of the site, as well as preservation easements in favor of the City on the Mill and Silos.

        ·        The City will provide $6 million [net present value] in additional payments to offset the extraordinary costs of the preservation and restoration of the Mill and Silos.

        ·        The Flour Mill property will be entitled to 469,160 square feet of development [the same as allowed for in the previous development agreement].  The Hayden Ferry South Development Guidelines approved by the Rio Salado Advisory Commission in May 2000 shall be used to guide development on this site except for subsection D relating to building heights and massing.  All building heights on the Flour Mill site shall be limited to the height of the Silos or 168 feet.

        ·        The ultimate project on the Flour Mill site is intended to be a mixed use development including retail along Mill Avenue, office, residential [amount and unit type to be determined], and potential for  a boutique hotel. 

  •       MCW reserves the right to assign all or part of the Development and Disposition Agreement.     

  •       MCW, or its Assignee, shall perform under specified time deadlines.

 

for week ending
23 JUNE 2006


ARCHAEOLOGY

Work with the backhoe began Monday morning; Staff inspected the fill uncovered beneath the concrete slabs near Rio Salado Parkway to see if they could use their 4-foot grader blade without damaging anything or hitting large rocks. Staff will strip some of the loose fill off of the planned trench locations in this area so that we can reach the natural or original ground surface.  A site walkover was done on 20 June to ground truth the placement of hand excavation test units.[photogallery/photo00010392/real.htm]

 

for week ending
9 JUNE 2006


Hayden Flour Mill Testing Project
ACS Weekly Progress Report

The majority of effort this week was dedicated to prefield tasks for the upcoming archaeological fieldwork, preparing and giving the public presentation at the Tempe Historical Museum [8 June],
and continuing development of the Monti’s exhibit.

ARCHAEOLOGY

As reported last week, The concrete removal was completed at the end of May. Some prefield logistical tasks were begun this week, which will intensify next week, including preparing field paperwork,
conducting a pre-field logistical meeting of the archaeology component supervisors,
preparing the database for data entry, etc.

ARCHIVAL RESEARCH

Victoria Vargas continued research into the Hayden Family context study. She also put together a detailed outline of the testing report, identifying how each of the component’s results will be presented in relation to each other and how they will be synthesized into a single interpretive chapter. Introductory sections of the report are currently being composed.

On 8 June, the team presented the kickoff PowerPoint presentation to a large audience assembled at the Tempe Historical Museum building, hosted by Dr. Amy Douglass. Work is being done on an exhibit for Monti’s La Casa Vieja on this project. The exhibit will be put up before the end of June.

 


8 JUNE 2006
 

The Business Journal
 Hayden Flour Mill Moves Toward Rebirth


3 JUNE 2006
 


AZ Republic
Milling Grains of History
 

event date
8 June 2006


Learn About Hayden Flour Mill Archaeology

 

Those interested in the archaeology of the Hayden Flour Mill can learn about it next Thursday night.

 

Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd. [ACS] will present an overview about the current Hayden Flour Mill Archaeological and Historic Architecture Testing project  at 7 p.m. on 8 June at the Tempe Historical Museum, 809 E. Southern Ave. [SW corner of Southern Avenue + Rural Road].

 

The City of Tempe, with funding from the Salt River Pima and Maricopa Indian Community, is sponsoring the testing project to further preservation efforts of the Hayden Flour Mill buildings, while preparing for future redevelopment of the property. This project is the first stage in that process.

 

ACS staff will discuss goals, present an explanation of the different components of the project, which include archaeology, historic architecture, archival research and a historic preservation plan. ACS also will present a schedule of the coming archaeological fieldwork and overall project. There will be time for a question and answer session at the end of the presentation.

 

 Call Dr. Amy Douglass at 480.350.5100 for more information.

 

22-30 MAY 2006

 

ARCHAEOLOGY

For the period between 22-30 May 2006, Tom Jones monitored the crews assigned to remove the concrete floors of the New Warehouse, CMU Addition, and Grain Warehouse; the footings have remained in place. For the most part, monitoring was uneventful. A small number of historic debitage was observed under the floor of the Grain Warehouse, suggesting the fill may have been an informal trash pit for placement of unwanted trash and debitage.

The original concrete slab entrance [or exit] of the northside Grain Warehouse was identified approximately 1-foot below the modern construction fill (under the CMU Addition). A portion of this slab was obliterated, but most has been preserved for recording. Additionally, asphalt remnants and segments have been exposed under the CMU Addition, indicating the ca. 1960s parking area evident in archival photographs. While the asphalt may be modern, it does reveal and expose the original ground level for this portion of the property, which may also help identify ground levels for the New Warehouse and Grain Warehouse.

Archaeological trenching and test excavations will begin 26 June 2006. The prefield logistical tasks will continue until that time, including production of field forms, additional mapping of the site, crew assignment, equipment requests, pre-field meetings regarding the field database being developed, etc. The kick-off meeting for the entire crew will be held the week of 19-23 June 2006, where specific field methods will be discussed with the field crew and all protocols for working at the site explained.

 

ARCHIVAL RESEARCH

Kelly Nelson [ACS Document Production Manager] entered into EndNote the majority of the master Tempe historical bibliography – she has thus far entered 1,245 of 1,642 bibliographic entries into the database, providing an extremely useful foundation for the archival research ACS is conducting for the Hayden Flour Mill property. Additionally, she is entering all archival research references gathered by ACS that are not included in the bibliography provided by Joe. A copy of the complete electronic, searchable bibliographic database will be provided to Joe Nucci and the City of Tempe Planning and Development at the end of this project. A copy can also be provided to the Tempe Historical Museum if they so desire.

 

22 MAY 2006


ARCHAEOLOGY
This week, staff documented the various building episodes evidenced in the concrete pads and their characteristics. Staff also worked on total station mapping of them and the rest of the standing architecture at the site. Feature and unit numbers were assigned to the different concrete pads. This completes the pre-field site recording efforts; more in-depth recording and mapping of the project property will continue throughout the fieldwork efforts.

On Friday, 19 May 2006, staff met All Cut at the property and did one final walk through to ensure that everyone was clear on what areas of the concrete pads are to be removed and the sequence of work. Concrete removal began Monday, 22 May 2006 at 6 am.
 

5 MAY 2006


Press Release
Hayden Flour Mill Archaeology to Begin
 

 


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