Archaeological research has been ongoing since the 1930s along Bayou Loco in the western part of Nacogdoches County in the East Texas Pineywoods. Bayou Loco is a southward-flowing tributary to the Angelina River.
Jackson note that it was the proposed construction of the Bayou Loco Reservoir (Lake Nacogdoches) in 1972 that led to an important surge in the extent of archaeological research along Bayou Loco, beginning with an archaeological survey, followed up by excavations at several sites that would be inundated by the lake, principally the Mayhew site (41NA21) and the Deshazo site (41NA13/27). The Deshazo site’s Caddo cemetery had been found and excavated by R. L. Turner, Sr. and R. L. Turner, Jr. in 1937, and successful University of Texas (UT) Field Schools led by Dr. Dee Ann Story in 1975 and 1976 uncovered substantial evidence of an historic Caddo farmstead at the expansive site along Bayou Loco.
The sites discussed herein are along Bayou Loco and they have been inundated by the waters of Lake Nacogdoches. They were either recorded by Thomas Mayhew, an art teacher at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, or by Prewitt et al. (1972) during their survey of then proposed Lake Nacogdoches
