Identification Of Offshore Cultural Resources Within Tract X-1352, Gulf Of Mexico Eglin Air Force Base

Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) is supporting cultural resources work for Eglin Air Force Base (Eglin AFB) under an agreement with the Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC). Argonne contracted SEARCH to conduct a Phase I marine reconnaissance survey within the Eglin Test and Training Complex (ETTC) waters. The survey Tract X-1352 comprises approximately 1 square nautical mile (865 acres) of federal waters approximately 20 nautical miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. As an agency of the Federal Government, the US Air Force sponsored this wrk to inventory possible submerged archaeological resources within the ETTC to comply with Sections 306101 to 306107 and 306109 to 306114 (formerly Section 110) of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA 54 U.S.C. § 300101 et seq.) and regulations in accordance with Air Force Manual (AFMAN) 32-7003. For the survey area, SEARCH researched the historical background and environmental setting, reviewed previous maritime archaeological investigations, and identified reported archaeological resources to guide development of the research design and to help interpret the marine remote-sensing data. Fieldwork consisted of a nonintrusive geophysical survey conducted on November 7–10, 2023. SEARCH identified 18 magnetic anomalies, 20 acoustic contacts, and 11 reflectors within the survey area, none of which are indicative of submerged archaeological resources that are potentially significant. Analysis of the sub-bottom profiler data did not identify any pre-contact cultural resources or evidence of clearly preserved buried landscape features. SEARCH recommends no additional archaeological work in the surveyed area X-1352.