Page 10 - RAGBRAI2012

DAY 6 - CEDAR RAPIDS TO ANAMOSA FLOOD RECOVERY AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL
OPPORTUNITIES IN CEDAR RAPIDS

Disastrous floods over the past decade have impacted archaeological sites along
many of Iowa’s waterways including the Cedar River in Linn County, Iowa. Bear
Creek Archeology recently conducted test excavations in backyard trash deposits
of the former Bohemian neighborhood of Cedar
Rapids where a new river levee will be built. One
excavation area is directly across the river from the
RAGBRAI campground.

Site 13LN1034: a privy pit
(outhouse) excavation beneath
the concrete City parking lot.

Test Units 1 and 5 profile: This 2.5 m deep
test unit was excavated beneath the tem-
porary City Bus Terminal parking lot and
exposed a prehistoric campsite dating to the
Early Archaic period (ca. 9500 years ago).

Another example of urban archaeology, not flood-related, was that conducted by
Tallgrass Historians, LC. Monitoring of the U.S. Courthouse preconstruction activities
in Cedar Rapids resulted in the discovery of four unrecorded archaeological sites in
areas previously tested with ground-penetrating radar. A limestone house foundation
(13LN915) and a brick cistern/well (13LN916) were considered potentially eligible for
the National Register of Historic Places.

Cindy Nagel and Adam Meseke in the pro- An uncovered cistern, subsequently back-
filled, is currently under the parking lot.
cess of uncovering the foundation.