The Gardener Site (41CP55): A Late Caddo Settlement on Big Cypress Creek in East Texas

The Gardener site (41CP55) in Camp County, Texas, was first recorded by Sullivan prior to construction of Lake Bob Sandlin on Big Cypress Creek. A surface collection of sherds and daub suggested that the site was the locus of a Late Caddo period (ca. A.D. 1450-1680) settlement and burned house. However, no further archaeological work was done at the site before it was inundated by Lake Bob Sandlin in the late 1970s. Recently, because of lower flood pool levels at Lake Bob Sandlin due to East Texas drought conditions, archaeological materials from the Gardener site have been exposed along the shoreline of the lake. This article concerns the documentation of a substantial aboriginal artifact assemblage collected from the shoreline surface of the site. The Gardener site is located along an upland slope (330 ft. amsl) on the west side of Picket Spring Branch, a small and northward-flowing tributary to Big Cypress Creek, in the Post Oak Savanna. The old channel of Big Cypress Creek lies approximately 1.8 km north of the site. The overall extent of the site is not known, although Thurmond suggests it is relatively small