Cultural Resources

Cultural Resources

In 1966, Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) to recognize the historical and cultural foundations of the United States. Section 106 of the NHPA stipulates that Federal agencies must consider the effects of all Federally funded or permitted projects (such as wetlands and discharge permits) on historic properties.  

Cultural resources investigations conducted by Coastal Environments, Inc., have helped both governmental and private-sector clients meet the requirements of the NHPA for over 50 years. Much of CEI’s research focuses on the Lower Mississippi River Valley and the Northern Gulf Coastal Plain, but we conduct remote sensing and underwater archaeological investigations worldwide. CEI emphasizes a multi-disciplinary approach and utilizes the expertise of archaeologists, historians, geographers, geologists, biologists, architects, and other natural and social scientists.

  • Cultural Resources Surveys
  • Archaeological Site Testing
  • Underwater Archaeology
  • Artifact Conservation
  • Management Plans & Popular Reports
  • National Register of Historic Places Evaluations
  • Museum Displays
  • Remote Sensing
  • Archaeological Data Recovery
  • Historical Overviews & Archival Research

Architectural investigations

  • Architectural Surveys
  • Property and Structure historical Documentation
  • NRHP Evaluations and Nominations
  • HABS/HAER Documentation

Land Use Histories & Documentation

  • Historical Overviews and Archival Research
  • Agreement Documents (MOA and PA)
  • Section 106 Adverse Effects Documentation

CEI’s professional staff of archaeologists, historians, geographers, GIS specialists, and geologists applies a multi-disciplinary approach to the study, documentation, interpretation, and preservation of the past. Since its founding in 1967, CEI has performed over 900 cultural resources investigations, ranging from small-scale surveys to large-scale, multi-year projects, including Phase I survey, Phase II testing, and Phase III data recovery.


  • Artifact Conservation and Stabilization
  • Historical Archaeology
  • Prehistoric Archaeology
  • Cartographic Reconstructions
  • Historical Investigations
  • Standing Structure Surveys
  • Industrial Archaeology
  • Urban Archaeology
  • Geoarchaeological Investigations
  • Battlefield Investigations
A man and a woman are measuring a hole in the ground - Baton Rouge, LA - Coastal Environments, Inc.

Recording profile of backhoe trench excavated at site 41HM61, Hamilton County, Texas, for the Texas Department of Transportation. Pink pieces of flagging tape identify individual artifacts exposed in a buried cultural layer.

TERRESTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS

The Cultural Resources Division of Coastal Environments, Inc., (CEI) has helped governmental and private-sector clients meet the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act for nearly a half century.  CEI’s professional staff of archaeologists, historians, geographers, GIS specialists, and geologists applies a multi-disciplinary approach to the study, documentation, interpretation, and preservation of the past.  Since its founding in 1967, CEI has performed over 600 cultural resources investigations, ranging from small-scale surveys to large-scale, multi-year projects, including Phase I survey, Phase II testing, and Phase III data recovery

  • Artifact Conservation and Stabilization
  • Historical Archaeology
  • Prehistoric Archaeology
  • Cartographic Reconstructions
  • Historical Investigations
  • Standing Structure Surveys
  • Cemetery Delineations
  • Industrial Archaeology
  • Urban Archaeology
  • Geoarchaeological Investigations
  • Plantations Archaeology
A man wearing a yellow hard hat is working in a hole - Baton Rouge, LA - Coastal Environments, Inc.

Crew member excavating at the Dimond Knoll site (41HR796), Harris County, Texas, for the Texas Department of Transportation.

Learn About Our Cultural Resources Services

UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY

A group of fish are swimming around a large rock in the ocean - Baton Rouge, LA - Coastal Environments, Inc.

Remains of a Grumman Bearcat (F8F) fighter plane submerged in the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola, Florida. 

Submerged cultural resources include historic shipwrecks and sunken aircraft, as well as submerged prehistoric archaeological sites and their associated landscapes which have become inundated by rising sea levels since the last ice age.


CEI’s Marine Archaeology Division provides a wide range of cultural resource services to support our private and public sector clients. Since its founding in 1967, CEI has performed over 900 cultural resources investigations ranging from small-scale surveys to large-scale, multi-year projects for federal, state, and local governments, oil and gas developers, engineering firms, and non-profits


 Coastal Environments Inc. staff has experience in providing Section 106 compliance, geophysical surveys, offshore Qualified Marine Archaeologist support, and diver investigations for projects around the United States and worldwide. 

Learn About Our Cultural Resources Services
A diagram of a boat showing the inside of a boat - Baton Rouge, LA - Coastal Environments, Inc.

Plan view of the remaining hull of the Nuevo Constante, a Spanish merchant vessel wrecked off the coast of Cameron Parish, Louisiana, during a hurricane in 1766. 

Survey Types and Services:



  • Geophysical data acquisition, processing, interpretation, and reporting
  • Desktop studies, permit acquisition and advice, and Section 106 compliance
  • Submerged prehistoric landscapes assessment and Paleoenvironmental reconstruction
  • Qualified Marine Archaeologist (QMA) and Client Representative 
  • Shipwreck and historic resources assessment
  • Diver investigations
  • Hazards and obstructions surveys
  • Directing and coordinating ROV and commercial diver surveys for the offshore energy sector
  • Archaeological monitoring plans
  • Processing, interpretation, assessment, and reporting of third-party and legacy data
  • National Register of Historic Places Nominations
  • Artifact conservation and curation
  • Project management


CEI maintains both survey and dive vessels necessary for any underwater investigation within inland rivers, coastal bays and estuaries, and the nearshore margin of the Gulf of Mexico


Notable Projects:

  • Nuevo Constante, a Spanish merchant vessel sunk in a hurricane in 1766 on the southwestern Louisiana coast
  • The USS Eastport, a Union ironclad gunboat sunk in Red River, northwest Louisiana
  • CSS Arrow, a Confederate gunboat sunk in the West Pearl River, Louisiana
  • SS Mary, a nineteenth-century sidewheel steamer sunk in Aransas Pass, Texas
  • Several late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth century vessels sunk in Lake Erie off the coast of Ashtabula County, Ohio.
  • 8,000-year-old drowned and buried prehistoric shell midden located ca. 19 feet beneath the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico about eight miles offshore the mouth of the Sabine River.


Contact: Rob Westrick

Email: rwestick@coastalenv.com 

Phone: (225) 383-7455 EXT 108

Our Clients:

Our clients have included Federal agencies (including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Minerals Management Service [now the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management], the National Park Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Coast Guard, and six districts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—New Orleans, Galveston, Vicksburg, Jacksonville, Memphis, and Little Rock), State agencies (Louisiana DOTD, TxDOT, Mississippi DOT, Louisiana Division of Archaeology, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Texas Historical Commission, and others), local governments (city, and county/parish), private firms of varying sizes, developers, and private non-profit organizations. The firm emphasizes a multi-disciplinary approach in conducting these types of studies and utilizes the expertise of archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, bioarchaeologists, ethnobotanists, cartographers, geographers, geologists, biologists, architects, and other natural and social scientists.

Data-Recovery excavations at site 41CL59, Calhoun County, Texas, for the Galveston District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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