Submitted by coldrum ---
'Cogged stone' site at Bolsa Chica Mesa listed as eligible with the National Register of Historic Places.
A site that is widely regarded as an ancient American Indian burial ground at the Bolsa Chica Mesa has received national historic designation, exciting preservationists who say the move grants the area slightly more protection against future development.
Federal officials last month determined the “cogged stone” site at Bolsa Chica as eligible for listing with the National Register of Historic Places. The area was named after the hundreds of carved stone disks – cogged stones – found on the site. The disks were possibly used for sacred rituals.
“We value the property as a significant resource,” said National Register of Historic Places historian Paul Lusignan. “There was a tremendous amount of information about the prehistoric site and distinction for the fact that it has the cogged stone site, which is a unique archeological feature found in very few other locations.”
The designation makes the cogged stone site the only archeological spot along the Orange County coast to receive such an honor. The area captures some of the land within the Hearthside Homes development and an estimated six acres of unincorporated land owned by Don Goodell that the city of Huntington Beach is proposing to annex.
Only four other archeological sites in the county have received the distinction.
The honor is just the latest chapter in a decades-long battle among preservationists, tribal members and developers.
In 2008, tensions reignited after an announcement about the unearthing of 174 ancient American Indian remains, half of them found over an 18-month period on a site slated to become a community with more than 300 homes. The land was once shared by the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians and the Gabrieleno-Tongva.
The discovery of hundreds of mysterious cogged stones and human bone fragments that are up to 8,500 years old confirmed the decades-long rumors that the Brightwater Hearthside Homes site was an ancient burial ground of international importance, Native American officials have said.
The site would have ultimately been listed with the National Register of Historic Places. However, the land owners -- Hearthside Homes and Goodell -- opposed the official listing, Lusignan said.
Ed Mountford, senior vice president of Hearthside Homes, did not say in a written statement why they opposed the listing. He said they did not have more information to change their position at this time.
Regardless, the listing is simply a technicality, Lusignan explained. The eligible status still affords the area the same protection as an official listing.
While the national designation is more of an honorary distinction, he said it carries a lot of weight, enough to be taken into consideration during environmental reviews.
In addition, the designation makes it much harder for local governments to issue a “mitigated negative declaration.” The issuance declares that a project does not have enough of an environmental impact to warrant an in-depth study. The new historic designation changes some things for the cogged stone site, which is largely in the process of being developed.
It deems the site a significant resource and therefore does not allow the city to skip an environmental impact report for development, said Susan Stratton, an archeologist who supervises a team at the California Office of Historic Preservation.
“I don’t see how you can mitigate for this,” Stratton said. “In this case you have an archeological site and it’s a non-renewable resource so whatever remains of this particular site, it’s forever. It will never be duplicated. You can’t build a replica of this.”
NO EFFECT ON HEARTHSIDE HOMES
As for Hearthside Homes?
Martz says it’s too late.
“Unfortunately that site has been almost totally destroyed except for buffer areas. If we’d got the site listed sooner it would have applied for this as well,” she said.
Mountford said it essentially would not have made a difference.
“…Eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places does not change the way (the site) has been treated by the landowner or the regulatory agencies,” he said.
The developer said he plans to rebury the last set of human remains and associated grave goods in about a month.
Mountford added that the area had already been recognized in 1983 by the State Office of Historic Preservation.
However, Stratton who works at the state office, said the National Register bears a lot more weight, especially in the realm of public opinion.
“It’s hard to see whether it will grant more protection than 1983,’’ she said. “However, it plays into public opinion. You have the groups out there that will say ‘Oh my gosh. We are going to destroy a national registered site.’ It doesn’t mean you’ll be able to keep if from being destroyed, but in terms of how it’s going to play out there in the public? Who knows.”
For more, see The Orange County Register and the article by CINDY CARCAMO.
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