Cultural Resource Survey of a 400 Ac Tract, Muscogee County, Georgia

Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc., conducted an intensive cultural resources survey of 162 ha (400 acres) adjacent to existing Columbus/Muscogee County landfill facilities. The intensively surveyed tract is scheduled for development for landfill expansion. The tract includes 118 acres belonging to Columbus/Muscogee County and an additional 282 acres to be acquired from Fort Benning as part of a land exchange agreement. A pedestrian survey requiring 16 person days of field work was conducted 6 - 9 January, 1992 by four surveyors. All areas with surface exposure were examined for the presence of cultural material and shovel tests at 30 m intervals were placed along landforms in an attempt to locate buried artifacts identifying site locations. The goals of the intensive survey were the discovery and mapping of the location and extent of archeological sites within the survey area and the assessing of site significance relative to published federal guidelines for determining eligibility to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Factors influencing evaluation included site condition, cultural affiliation, and future research potential, all of which can frequently be addressed at the survey level of work. Twenty previously unrecorded archeological sites were discovered during the intensive survey. In addition, four artifact occurrences were recorded and one previously recorded site outside of the project area, for which neither maps nor detailed information were available, was revisited. The archeological sites discovered during the 162 ha (400 acre) intensive survey fall into five categories: historic structure sites, historic artifact scatters, miscellaneous historic sites, upland prehistoric lithic scatters; and prehistoric ceramic sites, which tend to be located near larger streams in the survey area. The survey also recorded one modern well-marked cemetery that borders and is actually just outside of the project area. All historic structures had been razed and the sites were disturbed to such an extent that none met criteria for nomination for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and no further work at these is recommended. The prehistoric sites were also often highly disturbed and all were composed of very sparse distributions of lithics. The sparsity of material indicates that none are likely to yield significant additional information. Therefore, we recommend that all 20 sites and the four occurrences discovered by this survey are not eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and do not warrant any further work. It is the opinion of the Principal Investigator that no significant cultural resources will be impacted by the proposed project.