Hungry Valley

Weekly Digest Article

Cannabis Watershed Protection Program Cultural Staff Surveys Tataviam Cultural Preserve in Hungry Valley State Vehicle Recreation Area

Story from: Stephanie Gallanosa, Cultural Resources Division

California State Parks’ Cannabis Watershed Protection Program’s (CWPP) Cultural Staff members Darren Andolina, Stephanie Gallanosa, and Megan Webb, with help from District Archaeologist Jairo Avila, seasonal archaeologist Victoria Vargas, and Cultural Resources Division archaeologist Pete Hanchett, recently began a cultural resources inventory of the 450-acre Tataviam Cultural Preserve within Hungry Valley State Vehicle Recreation Area (SVRA). This cultural inventory was prompted by the discovery of two illegal cannabis grow sites within the park in 2021, including one grow site located within the Tatavium Cultural Preserve on an unrecorded precontact Native American site. In December 2021, CWPP Cultural Supervisor Darren Andolina, determined that the unrecorded Native American site had been impacted by the excavation of plant wells and cisterns by the cannabis growers.

This cultural inventory is meant to address the impacts caused by illegal cannabis cultivation while also building a comprehensive historic and prehistoric context of the park through a park-wide records search of the California Historical Resources Information System and an intensive pedestrian survey of the preserve. There are currently 83 recorded Native American sites and 49 historic sites and features recorded in Hungry Valley SVRA, but the park has never had a comprehensive intensive cultural resources survey and the Tataviam Cultural Preserve has not been surveyed since 1980. All work completed as part of this inventory is being done in consultation with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians.

Since the fieldwork portion of the inventory has begun, cultural staff have surveyed roughly half of the preserve, identifying ten unrecorded sites and 14 isolated finds. These sites range from historic-aged fencelines, likely associated with ranching, to Native American lithic scatters and Yucca roasting pits. Isolated finds typically consist of stone tool flakes and historic-aged tin cans. At least two more five-day rotations are planned for this winter and the following spring in order to complete the inventory, record and map newly-identified sites, and to update the site records of sites within the preserve, bringing these records up to modern standards. It is also very likely that this cultural inventory will identify additional illegal cannabis grows, allowing a better understanding of the scope of cannabis cultivation within the park and the impacts of these activities on cultural resources.

This cultural inventory is a prime example of how the CWPP works collaboratively with Districts throughout the state to address the impacts of illegal cannabis cultivation on natural and cultural resources.

Top: California State Parks archaeologists performing a cultural inventory of the Tataviam Cultural Preserve, Hungry Valley SVRA. Bottom left: CWPP Archaeologist Megan Webb and CRD Archaeologist Pete Hanchett recording a historical site. Bottom right: CWPP Archaeologist Stephanie Gallanosa mapping a site using Field Maps with CWPP Interpretation and Education Division Manager Elizabeth Evans in the background. Photos from Doug Johnson, Communications and Marketing Division.