Between May 15 and October 11, 2002, SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted archaeological data recovery at 11 sites along the proposed Fence Lake Mine Transportation Corridor (FLTCA) between the New Mexico state line and the Coronado Generating Station in St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona. The project was conducted for the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District (SRP). The lead federal agency was the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Socorro Resource Area, New Mexico. Site ownership was State of Arizona, SRP, and private. Excavations were conducted under Arizona Antiquities Act Project Specific Permit No. 2002-93ps. SRP planned to construct a coal mine in Catron County, New Mexico, northwest of Quemado, to provide coal for the Coronado Generating Station. Coal from the mine would have been transported by a coal haul railroad that would have run approximately 44 miles, 30 miles in New Mexico and 14 miles in Arizona. An archaeological survey of the proposed coal mine area was conducted in 1991, resulting in the identification of 266 sites (Bernard-Shaw 1993). In 1992 additional survey of an expanded area for the coal mine resulted in the identification of another 12 sites (Morris 1993). An archaeological survey of the railroad right-of-way in Arizona and a portion of New Mexico was conducted in 1986, identifying 27 sites, 24 in Arizona and three in New Mexico (O'Brien and Dosh 1987). The rest of the New Mexico portion of the transportation corridor was surveyed in 1991, and resulted in the identification of 37 new sites and two previously recorded sites (Morris 1992). In 1991 and 1992, SWCA conducted testing of 28 sites along the Arizona portion of the proposed transportation corridor, including 23 of the 24 sites reported by O'Brien and Dosh (one site, AZ Q:8:55, had been avoided by corridor rerouting) and five sites that had been identified in new survey areas for expanded portions of the corridor(Greenwald 1993). After review of the testing data, 10 of the 28 tested sites were selected for additional data recovery. Volume III covers chapters 22-25 and references. Ground Stone, Ceramics, Architecture and Settlement Patterns, and the Summary and Conclusion.
