Black bear and elk once roamed here. Sycamores, cottonwoods and cypress trees grew thick. Just left of the five tee boxes pointing toward the 18th green at Dalhousie Golf Club stands a huge oak tree archaeologists believe was a gathering place for people who lived here long ago. Construction of the tee boxes stopped while archaeologists sifted through the earth in a depression near the tees. The spot probably will be fenced off.

An archaeological survey has found artifacts possibly dating back to the Middle Archaic Period (5000 to 3000 B.C.) These artifacts are being gathered and eventually will be displayed for the public when the golf club's permanent clubhouse is built, projected at the earliest to be late next summer.

"We'll be bringing school kids out to see them," said Cord Dombrowski, a partner in the development.

The 900 acres encompassing the golf club and planned residential development called Prestwick Plantation ranks as the largest tract in the United States to have remained in the same family -- the Giboney family -- for more than 200 years, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Dombrowski said the new owners are pursuing the possibility of having the entire development declared a National Historic District.

Louis Houck, locally famed railroad entrepreneur and historian, married into the Giboney family and lived at Elmwood, the estate that overlooks the project area.

The St. Louis office of the national company Archaeological Research Inc. has been conducting the cultural resource management survey of the property.

To get a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the developers were only required to conduct the cultural resource management survey on a 2,000-foot strip of property in which drainage was altered. But Dombrowski said they wanted to find out what was on the entire property because of its historical status.

"It's important to be extremely sensitive to what happened before we got here," he said.

A total of 27 sites have been identified on the development. In most cases, the procedure is to cover the site with three feet of earth so it cannot be disturbed.

Five sites determined to be more significant have been identified. In these cases, the site was dug or is being dug for artifacts. The developers adjusted their plans for the golf course and residential development to make that possible.

"We did that early enough in the process that we could incorporate it with our plans," Dombrowski said.

One hole, No. 9, has been shorted from a par 4 to a par 3 to accommodate digging.

During digs, areas for archaeological digs were cordoned off with yellow tape. "These were no-fly zones," Dombrowski said.

Debris from making tools

Previous cultural surveys in the surrounding area identified prehistoric archaeological sites dating as far back to 8500 to 5900 B.C. Five sites already were on record with the Archaeological Survey of Missouri. They uncovered debris left from manufacturing tools, along with blades and a three-quarter grooved ax, all of which indicated human occupation from the Late Archaic Period (3000 to 600 B.C.) Hide scrapers and a projectile point dating to the Mississippian Period (A.D. 900 to 1500) were found.

Among the findings on the Prestwick Plantation site are a projectile point dating from 1000 B.C. to A.D. 300, part of another projectile point that could be from the Middle Archaic Period (5000 to 3000 B.C.) or the Late Archaic Period (3000 to 600 B.C.) and the remains of a residence that may have been occupied by Robert Giboney at the end of the 18th century.

Many of the more recent artifacts date from the late 1800s into the mid-1900s. They include glass bottles and fragments of bowls. Isolated finds of artifacts such as broken parts of porcelain and stoneware also were discovered.

The course has seven acres of designated wetlands that will never be touched and 50-foot-wide corridors on either side of Ranney Creek that never will be mowed. Corridors also were created to accommodate the movements of deer, foxes and wild turkeys, species that have existed here since prehistory.

"There are some things you do not compromise on," Dombrowski said.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182