The Marcus Kolb Site (41CE438), Cherokee County, Texas, Part 2

The Marcus Kolb site is an early to mid-19th century occupation on an upland ridge adjacent to an intemiittent tributary of Gum Creek in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas. The recovered artifacts from the site, especially black transfer-printed pearl ware sherds, a worked stoneware sherd, and possibly a cut and crimped copper-based artifact, suggested that the site could have been occupied as early as the 1820s-early 1830s, during the time when this part of East Texas was occupied by the Cherokee. The tantalizing possibility of a Cherokee Indian occupation is negated to some extent by the chronological evidence that can be drawn from the decorated whiteware sherds from the site, as the preponderance of that evidence is more consistent with a ca. 1840-1860 occupation, one that postdated the Cherokee occupation of East Texas. That would mean that the historic occupation of the Marcus Kolb site is most likely the product of an Anglo-American settlement. Subsequent to the analysis of the Marcus Kolb artifacts described above, additional historic artifacts from the site were provided for study by the Kolb family. These artifacts came from surface collections on the slope south and southwest of a test unit near what was described as a House Site Area. The location of this area relative to the other identified archaeological deposits at the site is not known. The size of the test unit is also not known, but its coordinates (N6-8 and E 1-4 as well as W3) suggests it may have been 3 x 7ft. No depth measurements were specified for the test unit excavations