Bear Creek Archeology Inc.

Bear Creek Archeology Inc., a Cresco, Iowa–based small business, conducts Phase 1B archaeological investigations, cultural resource inventories, and intensive-level architectural surveys for federal conservation and infrastructure projects as a prime contractor (99% of recent awards), competing predominantly under small business set-asides and full-and-open procurements with no federal contract vehicles held.

Bear Creek's customer base is heavily concentrated in the Army Corps of Engineers. The top five funding agencies account for 91% of recent awards by count and 99% by potential value, dominated by the Corps of Engineers Engineering District Rock Island (81 awards, $7.7 million combined potential value). The remaining active customers are the Natural Resources Conservation Service Central Region (5 awards, $1 million combined potential value), the Corps' Savannah and St. Paul districts, and the Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3. This concentration is structural: Bear Creek's primary vehicle portfolio consists of five Army Corps of Engineers IDIQs — contracts W912EK08D0002 (40 task orders, $1.5 million), W912EK12D0001 (26 task orders, $443 thousand), DACW2503D0001 (24 task orders, $185 thousand), DACW2598D0001 (12 task orders), and DACW2592D0008 (9 task orders). Recent Corps work includes Phase 1B archaeological investigations and architectural surveys at lock and dam sites across the Rock Island, Savannah, and St. Paul districts. Outside the Corps footprint, Bear Creek holds a single-award $1 million BPA with NRCS Central Region (running through October 31, 2029) under NAICS 541620 (Environmental Consulting Services), with four calls issued since November 2024: cultural resource investigations in Audubon County ($3.7 thousand, September 2025), a cultural resource inventory in Allamakee County ($6.8 thousand, August 2025), cultural resource assessments in Des Moines ($8 thousand, May 2026), and Phase 1B investigation and architectural survey work in Ely, Iowa ($11.6 thousand, November 2026).

The capability portfolio centers on archaeological field investigations, Phase 1B survey methodology, and Section 106 compliance documentation for federal projects in the Midwest — work driven by NAICS code distribution (78 awards under Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities; 30 under Environmental Consulting Services) and PSC coding (81 awards under Special Studies/Analysis — Archeological/Paleontological). Activity has been episodic: 134 total awards since 1988, but recent annual volume has declined from three awards in 2017 to one in 2024 and four in 2025, with only one award (the NRCS BPA call of August 19, 2026) in the current fiscal year. Recompete exposure in the next twenty-four months is minimal: only one award ($12 thousand) faces completion before August 2028. Bear Creek also carries one sub-award — a 2022 cultural resources survey sub-task under Stanley Consultants Inc. for the LaGrange Lock and Dam design-support contract in Illinois.