Archaeological Data Recovery Investigations at 9GE1649: The Early Nineteenth Century Lawrence-Wooten Farm

In April 2017, Brockington and Associates, Inc., completed a Phase III Data Recovery of 9GE1649, a multicomponent prehistoric and historic site in Greene County, Georgia. The site is located in Reynolds

Lake Oconee, a private residential development. It was recommended eligible for the National

Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2014 and is subject to a Programmatic Agreement between the

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District; the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation;

the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office; and Reynolds Lake Oconee. Phase I and II investigations

of the site determined that the prehistoric component of 9GE1649, dating to the Woodland

Period, is ephemeral and does not contribute to the site’s eligibility for the NRHP. Site 9GE1649 also contains the remnants of the early nineteenth-century Lawrence-Wooten Farm which represents one of the earliest Euro-American occupations in the Oconee River drainage. This historic component was determined eligible for the NRHP under Criterion D and was the focus of this Phase III Data Recovery investigation. This report details the results of Brockington’s archival research, field investigations, and laboratory analyses for 9GE1649, and interprets these results in light of several research questions surrounding Euro-American and African American habitation of the Oconee River Valley in the first decades of the nineteenth century.