In a message dated 12/15/2005 10:24:33 AM Mountain Standard Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:

> Do any of you have any experience with this type of resource from an
> archaeological perspective? If so, what did you do? How did you evaluate
> and document the resource? Beyond detailed drawings and photographs,
> what else can/should we consider?
> 
> Any help or advice would be sincerely appreciated.
> 
While it was not a corduroy road, a few years ago we were called to 
investigate the discovery of an 1870s wooden bridge structure on 600 North in Salt Lake 
City.  The short bridge (perhaps 20 ft long) was found buried under four feet 
of fill at the end of a freeway offramp which had been removed as the freeway 
through Salt Lake was being reconstructed.  In fact, the impression of the 
end of the ramp from all of its weight had distorted some of the wood at one end 
of the bridge.  However, the bridge was largely intact.  We documented it in 
the midst of road construction all around us (four feet above us as well) 
largely by measurements, photography and plotting of its exact location from known 
points in the vicinity.  There was little to "excavate", though we were able 
to recover a number of artifacts around and on it. Interestingly, it was 
constructed using cut nails (no wire nails were noted) which, with other features, 
helped us to place its age in the 1870s.   

When we had completed our recordation, we had the construction crews pull it 
up to see what was underneath (a few artifacts were found there too), and then 
continued to monitor and photograph as they tore it apart to remove it.

It was a unique resource which really shouldn't have existed at all.  It 
appears that it was placed there to get traffic over a boggy spot in the road.  It 
was marginalized, and over time, abandoned and finally covered over as the 
road was widened and surrounding land was filled in and built upon.


Mike 

Mike Polk
Sagebrush Consultants, L.L.C.
Ogden, Utah