Historic Preservation Through Cultural Resource Management
Cultural resource management denotes a specific set of regulations at the federal, state, and local levels of government as guidelines to preserve cultural resources. Cultural resource management, or CRM, defines places, objects, structures, buildings, and evidence of material culture and life deemed important to shared cultural heritage.
The beginning of the nation’s concern with preserving cultural heritage began in 1906 with the passage of the American Antiquities Act, which authorized the president to establish national monuments and for the secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, and the Army to issue permits for investigations of archaeological sites. Ten years later the National Park Service was established in 1916 and assumed responsibility for cultural resources associated with national parks and monuments.
Over the course of the century, more people became concerned with the preservation of the nation’s resources. The environmental movements in the 1960s restructured cultural resource management to hold the same levels of protection as elements of the natural environment. The National Historic Preservation Act, enacted in 1966, sought to preserve historical and archaeological sites. It created the National Register of Historic Places, the list of National Historic Landmarks, and the State Historic Preservation Office.
Section 106 of the legislation held the most importance for the future of cultural resource management. The section mandates federal agencies to perform review processes of all federally funded and permitted projects that aim to disturb sites listed on, or eligible for listing on, the National Register of Historic Places. It requires agencies to measure the effect a project may have on historic and archaeological properties. The main purpose of the Section 106 review process is to minimize potential harm and damage to historic properties.
Most commonly used by federal organizations like the Department of Transportation and the Department of Natural Resources, as well as many private archaeological and engineering firms, Section 106 is essentially a review process companies need to perform before beginning their intended construction projects. During assessment of both historic and archaeological sites, CRM firms typically do find historic properties.
The image above shows graduate student Hailey Paige of Eastern Illinois University’s Historical Administration program excavating a historic cellar under the regulations of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. A former employee of the Museum Archaeology Program division of the Wisconsin Historical Society she worked with crewmembers to investigate a site slotted for destruction by the Department of Transportation in anticipation of an expansion of State Highway 44. Sites excavated under the Section 106 legislation are not commonly preserved but several significant sites have been recovered thanks to the protections offered by the regulations. A famous example includes the Cahokia Mounds site, which was saved due to provisions that would set the foundations for the National Historic Preservation Act.
Sources
Garrow, Patrick H. "Cultural Resource Management." Oxford Bibliographies. January 15, 2015. Accessed February 17, 2017. http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0104.xml.
