Richard Beene Site: A Key Archaeological Discovery in Bexar County
By: William V. Scott
Published: December 1, 2021
Updated: December 1, 2021
The Richard Beene Site is an archaeological site in southern Bexar County near the Medina River and was originally designated as 41BX831 when the site was investigated as part of San Antonio Water System project of the Applewhite Reservoir. The Richard Beene Site is representative of the Early (ca. 8,700–6,500 years ago), Middle (ca. 4,100 and 4,500 years ago), and Late (ca. 3,500–2,800 years ago) Archaic periods and the Late Pre-Columbian Period (ca. 1,200–400 years ago) (see PREHISTORY).
In the early 1980s the Applewhite Reservoir was designed by the Fort Worth-based firm of Freese and Nichols, Inc. The 2,500-acre reservoir was to be owned by San Antonio Water System (SAWS) and used as a supply facility for San Antonio and the surrounding communities. Part of the planning and construction for the reservoir included a survey of the area for archeological sites. Beginning in 1989 and 1990 SAWS contracted with Texas A&M University’s Center for Ecological Archaeology to finish the survey and excavation work. Archeologists began work on 41BX831 in 1990 and subsequently named the site for Richard Beene, the site engineering inspector, in February 1991 when he discovered a well-preserved campsite layer in the dam and informed archeologists. Beene’s involvement prevented the destruction of the archeological site; bulldozers had already moved 16 million cubic feet of dirt and revealed an approximately 8,000-year-old American Indian encampment. Principal investigator Alston Thoms credited the site to be an intact archaeological record of 10,000 years of human occupation. Excavations were conducted in 1990 and 1991. San Antonio residents voted against the Applewhite project in 1991, and construction ultimately shut down and thus ended the archeological surveys. However, some field work continued periodically until 2005. Almost 100,000 artifacts were recorded, including various stone tools, projectile points, ovens, and animal remains.
The Richard Beene Site is unique compared to other sites found in the Gulf Coastal Plain. Alston Thoms stated, "Archeological and paleoecological data from the Richard Beene site provide a long-term perspective on the use of a riverine locality in a subhumid, subtropical savannah setting near the western edge of North America's Gulf Coastal Plain." In the Holocene Period, South-Central Texas was predominately a region of hunter-gatherers. These hunter-gatherers lived off white-tailed deer, rabbits, fish, shellfish, prickly pear, pecans, mesquite beans, and roots. In the Late Pre-Columbian era, they grew corn, beans, and squash.
The Richard Beene Site is a “type site” that displays the prehistoric record of prehistoric peoples who were nomadic and returned seasonally to the area for its plentiful wildlife and accessible food sources. They took advantage of the thick trees of the river bottom to make supports for their huts and fashion their hunting tools. Archaeologists can follow the adaptation over time of hundreds of generations of Native Americans at a single site.
In 2008 the city of San Antonio transferred 1,200 acres of the former Applewhite land, including the Richard Beene Site, to the Land Heritage Institute, a nonprofit coalition of natural and cultural conservationists with the mission to steward the property as a “living land museum” of open space along the banks of the Medina River.
Bibliography:
David L. Carlson, Patricia A. Clabaugh, Rolfe D. Mandel, and Charlotte D. Pevney, eds., Prehistoric Archaeological Investigations in the Applewhite Reservoir Project Area, Bexar County, Texas., Reports of Investigation No. 7, Center for Ecological Archaeology, Texas A&M University, 2007. V. Kay Hindes, “Native American and European Contact in the Lower Medina River Valley,” La Tierra 22 (April 1995). Land Heritage Institute (https://www.landheritageinstitute.com/), accessed November 23, 2021. James Bryan Mason, Analysis of Site Structure and Post-Depositional Disturbance at Two Early Holocene Components, Richard Beene Site (41BX831), Bexar County, Texas (M.A. thesis, Texas A&M University, 2003). Timothy K. Perttula, The Prehistory of Texas (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2012). “Richard Beene,” Texas Beyond History (http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/beene/investigations.html), accessed November 23, 2021. Alston V. Thoms and Patricia A. Clabaugh, “The Archaic Period at the Richard Beene Site: Six Thousand Years of Hunter-Gatherer Family Cookery in South-Central North America,” Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 82 (2011). Alston V. Thoms, David D. Kuehn, Ben W. Olive, John E. Dockall, Patricia A. Clabaugh, and Rolfe D. Mandel, “Early and Middle Holocene occupations at the Richard Beene site: the 1995 Southern Texas Archaeological Association field school project,” La Tierra 23 (1996). Alston V. Thoms and Rolfe D. Mandel, eds., Archaeological and Paleoecological Investigations at the Richard Beene Site, South-Central Texas Volumes I and II., Reports of Investigation No. 8, Center for Ecological Archaeology, Texas A&M University, 2007.
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
William V. Scott, “Richard Beene Site,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/richard-beene-site.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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- December 1, 2021
- December 1, 2021
