SBCT Final EIS - Govsupport.us

Chapter 3 ⎯ Affected Environmentbanks, which became the home of the Cold Weather Detachment in 1940. Ladd Field was affected byWorld War II, following Japan’s invasion of the Aleutian Islands in June 1942. The facilities at LaddField expanded rapidly due to increased activities of the Sixth Air Depot Group, the Cold WeatherTest Station, and the Air Transport Command. Auxiliary bases were established to assist Ladd Fieldwith the traffic of the Alaska-Siberia Lend-Lease Program between 1942 and 1945, including BigDelta (Fort Greely). After the formation of the U.S. Air Force in 1947, Ladd Field was designatedLadd Air Force Base. However, the Army’s mission at Ladd Field continued, with anti-aircraft andground defense and cold-weather testing and training. The Army’s cold-weather testing and trainingmissions shifted from Ladd Field to the Arctic Training Center at Fort Greely, including DonnellyFlats, in the mid-1950s. Construction at Fort Greely in the 1950s included the military’s first nuclearpower plant. In 1961, the U.S. Air Force transferred Ladd Air Force Base to the Army, which wasthen renamed Fort Jonathan Wainwright.With the introduction of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile in the 1960s, Fort Wainwright’s antiaircraftmission diminished, and the post’s primary mission became peacetime Army deployment, thedefense of Alaska, and coordination of Army National Guard and Reserve activities in Alaska. In the1970s, Arctic training, including exercises at Fort Greely began to be emphasized. In 1986, the 6 th ID(L) was activated at Fort Wainwright to function as a rapid deployment force.ArchaeologyKnown sites in interior Alaska have been identified predominantly through discoveries by area residentsand road construction crews, and other chance discoveries. Systematic investigations in theDTA area began with site investigations around Donnelly Ridge in 1964. In the 1970s, several studiesinvolved a pipeline route and upgrades on Fort Greely. Less than 1 percent of the DTA had been systematicallysurveyed prior to the FEIS. Twelve surveys were conducted on DTA. Through these surveys,105 known sites were recorded. Eighteen of the sites are recommended eligible for the NRHP,56 need to be evaluated, and 31 are recommended not eligible.CEMML began archaeological surveys of large blocks, particularly in DTA East, in 2002. In contrastto earlier surveys, these block surveys covered entire areas and employed an aggressive sub-surfacetesting strategy (Robertson et al. 2006). Robertson et al. 2006 lists 52,617 acres of new archaeologysurveys on DTA between 2002 and 2005. This is approximately a tenfold increase in the percentageof land surveyed on DTA, but still encompasses a small portion of DTA. These surveys recorded 265sites, evaluated 108 sites (157 were not evaluated), and found 43 sites to be eligible for the NRHP. Asof 2005, 380 sites have been recorded. Of these sites, 167 have been evaluated and 61 have been recommendedas eligible for listing on the NRHP and 213 sites still remain to be evaluated for the eligibilityfor listing on the NRHP. Twenty of the eligible sites are located with the Donnelly Ridge ArchaeologicalDistrict and are all recommended as eligible due to their contributing significance in thedefinition of the Denali Complex.Historic Built EnvironmentNo systematic historic building surveys have been completed for DTA. There are no areas of historicbuildings in DTA outside of Fort Greely, which is the built environment in the northeast of the DTA.Several historic building surveys have been completed Fort Greely and at nearby Fort Wainwrightand Ladd Field.February 2008 3–111 2/25th SBCT Final EIS