Underwater investigations, Houston-Galveston navigation channels: Texas project: Galveston, Harris, Liberty and Chambers counties, Texas

During October and November 1991, Espey Huston and Associates, Inc. (EH&A) conducted an archaeological remote sensing survey of the Houston-Galveston ship channel for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District (COE). This project was conducted under the TAC Permit No. 1128. The work included a magnetometer survey of the channel from Bolivar Roads, at the entrance to Galveston Harbor, to the Beltway 8 bridge crossing, a linear distance of just over 40 miles (Figure 1). In addition, a 3.6 mile section of the Galveston Ship Channel was surveyed. A magnetometer survey was conducted over the entire survey corridor. Side-scan sonar survey was conducted over all points above Morgan's Point, the Red Fish Bar area and all of the Galveston Ship Channel. A table of over 3,400 magnetic anomalies and 570 side-scan sonar targets was compiled from examination of the remote-sensing data. Based on the available data, including modern charts and maps but not archival research which was intentionally excluded from the COE's Scope of Work, recommendations have been made for ground truthing of 18 localities marked by either side-scan sensor targets, magnetic anomalies or, more commonly, a combination of the two.