Cultural Resources Survey of Selected Timber Stands on Big Creek and Hart Creek, Thurmond Lake McDuffie County, Georgia

Southeastern Archeological Services Inc., of Athens, Georgia, recently completed an intensive cultural resources survey of five tracts totaling 222.5 ha (550 ac)along Hart Creek and Big Creek on Thurmond Lake in McDuffie County, Georgia. This was a compliance survey conducted under contract with Gulf Engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, in preparation for timbering activities on Corps land surrounding Thurmond Lake. Thirty one new sites and two previously recorded sites were investigated. One previously recorded site, 9MF43, could not be relocated. Twenty one lithic scatters, five lithic and ceramic scatters, and seven historic house sites are recorded in this report. Two historic cemeteries were located, one of which also contains a prehistoric lithic component. Four lithic and ceramic sites, two lithic only sites, two historic house sites, and two historic cemeteries of the total thirty four sites are recommended potentially eligible to the National Register of Historic Places. Overall, site density in the project area is very high (15 per km2), especially in the far southwestern tract where eight sites are concentrated. This clustering appears to be associated with site 9MF37,a previously recorded site located on a bar in the middle of the lake. This site has been known`by local collectors for many years and continues to be looted when the water level is down.9MF37 appears to have been an important focal point in the area and is probably one of several large, intensively occupied sites now under water in the Big Creek and Hart Creek drainages.