Cultural Resource Assessment and Archival Research for the Proposed Galveston-Bolivar Causeway Galveston County, Texas

摘要

In 2008, following a cultural resources remote-sensing survey for the Proposed Galveston-Bolivar Causeway Project, PBSu26J was contracted by the Texas Department of Transportation to perform three studies as supplements to the original investigation. These studies comprised a hydraulic probing investigation at the Old Port Bolivar slip in the area of a charted historic shipwreck; a review of historic maps and aerial photography of the Area of Potential Effect (APE); and an assessment of a collection of abandoned hulks at the northwestern tip of Bolivar Peninsula. All three studies were completed between June and August 2008.The hydraulic probing investigation at the Old Port Bolivar slip located the remains of a potential submerged shipwreck site measuring approximately 40 x 11 feet at a depth of 17–18 feet below the water surface. PBSu26J also examined over 40 historic maps from the collections of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The investigation of historic maps isolated at least 12 shipwrecks within the APE. Historic Tobin aerial photos of the APE acquired by PBSu26J were limited to the sets available from 1930 and 1956. One shipwreck anomaly discovered during the 2007 Galveston-Bolivar Causeway remote-sensing survey was captured in the 1956 aerial. The incomplete coverage area of the 1930 photography prevented a review of other known targets. An investigation of the abandoned hulks at Bolivar Peninsula determined that 16 barges are arranged in three primary groups. These barges have either ferrous or wooden hulls; most of the hulks are submerged. Research did not discover parallels for the types of barges examined by PBSu26J, but review of barge construction history indicates many of these hulks could likely predate World War II.