Discovery of artifacts halts road widening

Mathis Winkler

Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2001 | 10:39 a.m.

Pieces of Native American ceramic artifacts found near Martin Luther King Boulevard in North Las Vegas have halted the widening of the road.

"We found a few (ceramic fragments) just adjacent to the road," said Bob Harary, the city's assistant director of public works for engineering services. "But close enough that we have to investigate it."

Archaeologists involved in the find would give no information on the artifacts, fearing that publication of the site's exact location would attract looters.

Federal law prohibits the revelation of archaeological sites on federal land, said Bob Leavitt, the environmental consultant in charge of the archeological investigation.

"The minute you print anything about archaeology, you have people out there with shovels," said Lynda Blair, who keeps maps of archaeological sites around the Las Vegas Valley as program director of the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

City Council members are expected to approve $71,268 in additional funding for the investigation Wednesday to supplement federal money, which is paying 95 percent of the $4.4 million project.

There's more at stake than history.

Since federal money will be used to widen the road, city officials have to make sure that no archaeological remains are looted or destroyed during construction, Hal Turner, the chief archaeologist for the Nevada Department of Transportation, said.

"If North Las Vegas thinks there's any chance of damage to this site, they better get their police department involved" to protect it, Turner said.

The city could lose federal funding for the project if it doesn't prevent damage to the site, he said.

City officials appreciate the care that must be taken, but no plans have been made yet to secure the site, Harary said. If more is found, then the city may want to increase security, he said.

Their first concern is the job before them.

"Our primary objective is to widen the road," Harary said. "But we want to work to protect everything we can possibly protect."

"I don't think that the site is ultimately going to in any serious way interfere with construction of the project," Turner said. "But we do have to go through the process."