Every period of human use of Crissy Field has left remains that have built up layer upon layer over time. When it was decided to rehabilitate Crissy field and to restore a tidal marsh to the area, there became a need to protect and preserve this wealth of archaeological information. The Crissy Field Archaeological Project was designed to identify critical areas for protection and to excavate and preserve historic and prehistoric sites and artifacts at Crissy Field as the restoration work was carried out.

Prehistoric Deposits

Before Europeans arrived, the Crissy Field area was a rich marshland with a wide variety of foods and materials used by prehistoric cultures that occupied the area. Over a thousand years of hunting, collecting, and living around the marsh resulted in accumulated deposits of refuse from food preparation, cooking pots, tool manufacture, and other remains of daily life. These deposits hold otherwise unobtainable information about prehistoric human adaptation to this locale by the Golden Gate Straits.

Historic Deposits

Historic documents indicate that the Spanish and Mexicans used the Crissy Field area only as a landing site from which supplies and personnel were brought to the Presidio. No archaeological evidence of this use has been found. During the early U.S. period, two wharves were built in the area in the 1860s and the 1870s. Incoming and outgoing personnel and materials flowed through the older private wharf and the slightly later Presidio Quartermaster Wharf. The wharves were reached by roads or causeways across the marsh, along which much material was discarded to produce layers of accumulated debris. The Presidio Quartermaster also slowly filled the marsh adjoining the Main Post, extending buildings and stables out onto a bed of whatever materials were available -- trash, discards, landscaping debris, manure, building rubble, incinerated and partially burnt rubbish, broken ceramics, used bottles, horse fittings, earth, or whatever needed disposal. This dumping expanded to cover over 12 acres of Crissy Field with a plethora of Army discards reflecting all aspects of the material culture of this military post. The final filling of the marsh occurred in 1911-1912 when sand was pumped in from san Francisco Bay in order to prepare the site for construction of the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915. The historical arecheology at Crissy Field focuses of the deposits underlying this final sand fill.