Appendix A Historic Property Survey Report

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ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY REPORT FAIRVIEW STREET IMPROVEMENTS FROM 9TH STREET TO 16TH STREET AND JUNE 2019 BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECT SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA vegetative communities have evolved in conjunction with fire and require periodic burning for proper growth. Riparian communities occur along watercourses (Schoenherr 1992:153). The riparian (streamside) woodland vegetative community is found along streams leading from mountains to cismontaine plains. Examples of this biotic community in Southern California include the Santa Inez, Santa Clara, Santa Ana, and San Luis Rey rivers (Jaeger and Smith 1966:43). In California, the riparian communities are characterized by small trees and large shrubs, although at higher elevations, vegetation tends to be all shrubs. The density and diversity of species in a riparian community are greater than in any other biotic community in California (Schoenherr 1992:153). The reasons for this are twofold. First, riparian communities are very productive and "lots of food means lots of animals" (Schoenherr 1992:153). Secondly, riparian communities are transitional communities where biotic communities overlap. Zones where biotic communities overlap are known as "ecotones," and these areas share characteristics of the overlapping communities and are therefore diverse. In fact, "the edge of a community is more diversified than its center, a phenomenon also known as "edge effect" (Schoenherr 1992:153). For this reason, passing through the portion of the Los Angeles Plain now in Orange County, the Santa Ana River would have provided water and an abundance of food resources to the local native inhabitants. As it neared the ocean, the estuaries and embayments created by the Santa Ana River would have also provided habitat for shellfish that were collected for food by local human populations. Water was also available in Santiago Creek, which joins the Santa Ana River 1 mile northeast of the current APE. Located approximately 6 miles north of the APE, Carbon Creek also provided water seasonally. However, the main drainage through the coastal plain in this region was the Santa Ana River. Today, the biotic character of this area has been completely altered from its natural setting by a number of land uses, including commercial/industrial, residential, and infrastructure. At the APE, the Santa Ana River is a concrete -lined channel. Natural vegetation along the drainage and elsewhere in the area has been cleared for construction of homes and businesses that completely cover the landscape. Areas with completely natural terrain and vegetation no longer exist. There are few open lots. Where small areas with endemic vegetation do exist, such as the small triangular 1-1.5-acre lot on the south side of the Santa Ana River along the west side of Fairview Street, the vegetation has been artificially reintroduced and is a human construct. Although the likelihood of prehistoric resources existing along the banks of the river were probably great in the past, it is highly unlikely that intact archaeological resources currently exist within the APE. CULTURAL HISTORY Prehistory Of the many chronological sequences proposed for Southern California, the primary regional synthesis most commonly used was advanced by Wallace (1955) and revised two decades later (Wallace 1978). This sequence defines four cultural horizons or periods, each with characteristic local variations: Early, Milling Stone, Intermediate, and Late Prehistoric periods. Employing an QAWKE1702\Cu1tural\ASR\ASR 2019 OS-21.docx (06/03/19) 11