Mitchell Ridge

Robert A. (Bob) Ricklis and Steve Black are the authors of this exhibit.  Black put together the exhibit.  Web development was done by Kathy Chung of the Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services, the University of Texas at Austin.

The Mitchell Ridge was underwritten by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Texas Preservation Trust Fund (Texas Historical Commission), and the Mitchell Family Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Department of Anthropology, Texas State University and the College of Liberal Arts, the University of Texas at Austin.

Artist Frank A. Weir painted the Mitchell Ridge grave scene, a work commissioned by Meredith L. Dreiss. Dreiss also analyzed the shell artifacts from Mitchell Ridge. The exhibit photographs and graphics come from several sources including the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory Archives, Robert Ricklis, and Lou Fullen.  Fullen also provided background materials and advice.

Bob Ricklis received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and lives in Corpus Christi. For the last two decades he has carried out many research projects along the Texas coast.  His dissertation research resulted in the UT Press book The Karankawa Indians of Texas: An Ecological Study of Cultural Tradition and Change.  He has directed major excavations at the Mitchell Ridge and Buckeye Knoll sites as well as many smaller-scale testing and survey projects.  His ecological approach has led to a sophisticated understanding of the inseparable relationships between development of estuary and bay systems and the human exploitation and settlement of the Texas coast.

Print Sources:

All sources with the Adobe Acrobat symbol——can be downloaded as PDF files.

Anderson, John B.
2007   The Formation and Future of the Upper Texas Coast: A Geologist Answers Questions about Sand, Storms, and Living by the Sea. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.

Aten, Lawrence E.
1976    "Descriptions of Boys School and Other Galveston Bay Area Mortuary Data" and "Analysis of Galveston Area Mortuary Practices. In: Excavations at the Harris County Boys School Cemetery. by Aten, Charles K. Chandler, Al B. Wesolowsky, and Robert M. Malina, Special Publication 3, Texas Archeological Society, San Antonio.

1983    Indians of the Upper Texas Coast. Academic Press, New York.

Aten, Lawrence E., Charles K. Chandler, Al B. Wesolowsky, and Robert M. Malina
1976   Excavations at the Harris County Boys School Cemetery.  Special Publication 3, Texas Archeological Society, San Antonio.

Bell, Ann L. (translator) and Robert S. Weddle (annotator)
1987   Voyage to the Mississippi Through the Gulf of Mexico. In: La Salle, the Mississippi, and the Gulf: Three Primary Documents, Robert S. Weddle, editor, Texas A&M University Press.

Brain, Jeffery P.
1979    Tunica Treasure. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1988    Tunica Archaeology. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Burger, Barbara
1976   Reading History in the Soil. Rice University Review, 10(4):16-21.

Ensor, H. Blaine, editor
1998    Eagle's Ridge: A Stratified Archaic and Clear Lake Period Shell Midden, Wallisville Lake Project Area, Chambers County, Texas. Wallisville Lake Project Technical Series, Reports of Investigations 4, Geo-Marine, Inc.

Ensor, H. Blaine
1999    Comparative Review and Discussion of Rangia cuneata Dating Methods on the Upper Texas Coast. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 70:467-478.

Fisher, W. L., J. H. McGowen, L. F. Brown, and D. G. Groat
1972    Geological Atlas of the Texas Coastal Zone. Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin..

Folmer, Henri
1940   DeBellisle on the Texas Coast. Southwestern Historical Quarterly 44(2):204-231.

Fullen, William L.
1990   Affidavit, Civil Action No. G-78-1888. United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division. [Legal document relating a history of the archeological investigations at Mitchell Ridge and the facts and opinions of the author regarding the cultural significance of the site.]

Kibler, Karl W.
1999    Radiocarbon Dating of Rangia cuneata: Correction Factors and Calibrations for the Galveston Bay Area. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 70:457-466.

Krieger, Alex D.
2002    We Came Naked and Barefoot: The Journey of Cabeza de Vaca across North America, edited by Margery Krieger. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Moore, Rodger G. and Madeleine J. Donachie
2001   The Southeast Texas Indian Response to European Incursion. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 72:55-61.

Richmond, Jean A., William L. Richmond, and John W. Greer
1985   “1978, Galveston Island” excerpt from “Texas Archeological Field Schools, 1962-1982. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 54:105-184.

Ring, E. Raymond, Jr.
1963   Opened By Accident. Newsletter of the Houston Archeological Society 10:27 [Initial report on the Jamaica Beach site.]

Ricklis, Robert A.
1990    A Historical Cultural Ecology of the Karankawan Indians of the Central Texas Coast: A Case Study in the Roots of Adaptive Change. Ph.D. dissertation, The Department of Geography, The University of Texas at Austin.

1994   Aboriginal Life and Culture on the Upper Texas Coast: Archaeology at the Mitchell Ridge Site, 41GV66, Galveston Island.  Coastal Archaeological Research, Inc., Corpus Christi.

Download Mitchell Ridge report as PDF documents: 

Ricklis, Robert A.
1996   The Karankawa Indians of the Texas Coast: An Ecological Study of Cultural Tradition and Change. University of Texas Press, Austin.

1999   Atmospheric Calibration of Radiocarbon Ages on Shallow-Water Estuarine Shells from Texas Coast Sites and the Problem of Questionable Shell-Charcoal Pairing. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 70:479-488.

Rodriquez, A. B., John B. Anderson, F. P. Siringan, and M. Taviani
2004    Holocene Evolution of the East Texas Coast and Inner Continental Shelf: Along-strike Variability in Coastal Retreat Rates. Journal of Sedimentary Research 74:406-422.