Chapter 2 - Cultural Resources Report

Chapter 2 - Cultural Resources Report - 1996

Back to the Cultural Resources Report Contents

EVALUATION OF SELECTED CULTURAL RESOURCES
AT FORT MONMOUTH, NEW JERSEY:
CONTEXT FOR COLD WAR ERA,
REVISION OF HISTORIC PROPERTIES DOCUMENTATION,
AND SURVEY OF EVANS AREA
AND SECTIONS OF CAMP CHARLES WOOD
by
Mary Beth Reed
Mark Swanson
NEW SOUTH ASSOCIATES
Stone Mountain, Georgia
Subcontractor for Geo-Marine, Inc.
and
Rebecca Procter
Marsha Prior

June 1996

MISCELLANEOUS REPORT OF INVESTIGATIONS
NUMBER 125
Geo-Marine, Inc.
550 East Fifteenth Street
Plano, Texas evans logo

for
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Fort Worth District
819 Taylor Street
Fort Worth, Texas

CHAPTER 2
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

The Fort Monmouth area is situated in the Outer Coastal Plain physiographic province, an area characterized by low relief, under 100 feet above mean sea level (amsl). The region is typified by estuarine rivers, small tributary streams, and salt marshes, draining to the south and east into Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The following information on physical environment is derived principally from Fitch and Glover (1989) and the archeological overview and management plan for Fort Monmouth (Klein et al. 1984); the reader is referred to these sources for greater detail.

The coastal plains of New Jersey on which Fort Monmouth is situated were formed in the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era, approximately 135 million years ago. Marine and continental sediments comprise the current landform. During the Cretaceous and subsequent periods, large-scale fluctuations in sea level caused alternating episodes of sedimentation and erosion (Windmer 1964). The resulting deposits consist of sand, clay, and glauconite, interspersed with gravel beds.

Just to the north of Fort Monmouth was the southernmost limit of the Wisconsinan glaciation, and thus between 18,000 and 11,000 years B.P., this coastal zone was a treeless tundra subject to permafrost (Wolfe 1977). The process of deglaciation after 11,000 B.P. caused deposition of a thin layer of quartz sand and gravel, as well as clay, over the earlier sediments. At about 14,000 B.P., rising sea levels due to deglaciation caused inundation of the New Jersey coast. This process slowed after 7,000 B.P., and by 3,000 B.P., the current configuration of the shoreline was in place (Millman and Emery 1968).

Topographically, the area is nearly level, comprised of tidal marshes and river drainages of the Shark and Shrewsbury rivers. Soils are typically well-drained to somewhat poorly drained sandy loams and urban land. Fresh and brackish streams empty into the tidal marshes that flow into Sandy Hook Bay and the Atlantic. Vegetation includes scrubby oak, pine, locust, huckleberry, and fern. Reeds, sedges, and marsh grasses are common in marshy areas. Originally, faunal resources would have included white-tailed deer, muskrat, skunk, opossum, and beaver, among others. Fish, shellfish, and eels would have also been available to prehistoric and historic inhabitants of the area as food.

Back to the InfoAge Homepage

Back to the Cultural Resources Report Contents