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Developers, archeologists strive for balance in progress, preservation
By KERRY L. SMITH

   There's a delicate balance between holding back development and holding onto irreplaceable history.

   In Southwestern Illinois, archeologists work hand in hand with commercial developers, trying to stay ahead of the game in terms of thoroughly analyzing tracts for buried records of civilization.

   The archeologist's greatest fear - that a developer, although unintentionally, may bulldoze through precious historical evidence - comes close to matching the developer's fear that he will discover a find after his project is already in motion.

   There is no better example of this give and take than in the American Bottoms territory across the Metro East.

   Some 1,000 to 1,400 years ago, the largest Indian civilization in North America was centered at the mounds that are now part of Cahokia Mounds State Park in Collinsville, but it spread out much further. There are remains of these Indians all over the area, particularly in the American Bottoms.

   Because of the Illinois Historic Preservation Act, it is often necessary to investigate and sometimes excavate sites before construction can take place.

   Anne Haaker, deputy state historic preservation officer at the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, said the IHPA's goal is to work five to 10 years ahead of the developers, intensely studying parcels that are identified as locations for major roadways and other development projects.

   "Usually we don't stop projects," she said. "For at least the past five years, for example, we've been studying all the sites involved with the new Mississippi River Bridge and related roadwork."

   As a step in gaining a permit for development - if the project is not too small - the developer is required to earn a clearance letter from the IHPA, declaring the land mass devoid of historical resources - meaning artifacts or human remains - and fit for commercial development.

   "The federal laws requiring project review for historic research have been around since 1990 when Illinois' state law went into effect," Haaker said. "Any project that has any state or federal licensing, funding or loans tied to it goes through this permitting process. This means most Illinois projects meet this requirement."

   Excluded from the permitting process, she said, would be smaller subdivisions running on septic and other efforts not requiring Illinois Environmental Protection Agency water or sewer permits.

   "We review about 15,000 projects every year, and less than 5 percent require archeological mitigation," Haaker said.

   But if significant archeological findings are discovered, with the understanding of the high cost to mitigate the area, the IHPA's first objective, she said, is to see if the developer can avoid the artifact altogether.

   Projects such as the extension of Illinois 255 regularly encounter history-rich sections of the American Bottoms. Depending on when the find is made in the timetable of such a project, Haaker said, agencies such as the Illinois Department of Transportation will often slightly reroute the planned roadway to avoid costly mitigation - in terms of dollars and of delayed construction schedules.

   "We're finding interdependent villages and farmsteads in the American Bottoms that date back to pre-historic times and include more than 1,000 years of human occupation," she said. "Before its demise, the Cahokia Mounds area had a huge societal structure, with a metropolitan area the size of London."

   Several years ago, Granite City was involved in building the Wal-Mart store along Illinois Route 3. The IHPA determined there was a possibility that Indians may have lived on that property. The agency required the city to hire an archeologist to examine the area.

   Crops needed to be cleared and several acres of the land had to be scraped. More investigation found there were several fire pits on the property that needed to be excavated. The IHPA excavated these pits and found some shards of broken pottery; as a result, construction of the Wal-Mart was delayed and cost the city approximately $50,000.

   Darwin Miles, developer and owner of Miles Properties, says although every developer fears the day he may come across a find during the project's life cycle, developers have a great deal of respect for the laws and for the mission of preserving pieces of Illinois' history.

   "I haven't run into problems," Miles said. "I've ordered a number of archeological studies early in the planning stages of projects. I've been fortunate not to be bogged down. Everyone wants to respect a significant archeological find, but no one wants to be held up by an insignificant (find)."

   If it's the state of Illinois that lays claim to what is considered a legitimate archeological find, Miles says it should be the government that bears the cost to retrieve it. Current state law dictates that the property owner is responsible for this expense.

   "I don't believe it should be the landowner's expense at all," Miles said. "And if a government agency wants to explore a particular find, it has to understand that the landowner has rights. If (the find) is holding up a sale, it's costing that landowner money. We want to respect the situation, but there's also the business side of it, too."

   John E. Kelly teaches archeology to Washington University students and also works as an archeological consultant for developers. Kelly's students are spending the bulk of their summer at Cahokia Mounds, cleaning up and remapping a portion of the site near Monk's Mound.

   "What is hard to get across to the public is that whether it's us (archeologists) or the commercial developer, if the record is destroyed, that's it," Kelly said. "It's like going into the library and tearing pages out of a book. The Indians have left us a legacy, and it's important that we particularly pay attention to that."

   Kelly said working with developers is essential.

   "Once you get into excavating, it quickly becomes an expensive proposition," he said. "We as archeologists try to focus on the resource, but we also try hard to figure out ways to make it work for the developer."

   In Dupo, for example, Kelly said, the Southwestern Illinois community's school district wanted to build a new elementary school. Although when the original school was built decades ago there were no relevant preservation laws on the books, laws created in the 1990s now govern that process.

   "Dupo was able to build the new school adjacent to the old one," Kelly said, "and protect the site where the old school still sits. "We suggested putting the site into a protective covenant."

   Central Mississippi Valley Archeological Research Institute, a nonprofit entity Kelly and other archeologists established, assists communities in projects similar to Dupo's.

   The state of Illinois is bound by acts such as the Cultural Resources Act, yet developers are bound by a whole separate menu of regulations, according to Mark Esarey, site manager at Cahokia Mounds.

   "There are more than 60 laws in Illinois pertaining specifically to cemeteries," he said. "There's also the issue of what we call 'accidental discovery,' wherein artifacts and remains are exposed due to natural occurrences such as erosion. This is definitely something that developers need to stay ahead of."