Phase I Archaeological Survey of the Little River Mitigation Tract

On behalf of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), New South Associates conducted a Phase I Archaeological Survey of the Little River Tract in Putnam County (Figure 1). The Little River Tract is a 1,548-acre property acquired by GDOT to provide wetland and stream mitigation banking for federal transportation projects. The Little River property was purchased with federal funds for stream/wetland mitigation, and the project was conducted under GDOT P.I. Number 0009828. Additionally, the Little River Tract is located within the Cedar Creek Wildlife Management Area, and is being managed as state-owned property by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC) for activities including, but not limited to, prescribed burns, timber harvesting, and maintenance of roads. Eligible and sites with unknown eligibility will be avoided during these activities.

Therefore, this document fulfills GDOT's obligations under the Georgia Environmental Policy Act (GEPA) and the State Agency Historic Property Stewardship Program for state funded activities and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act when federal activities are proposed. The boundary of the Little River Tract, which was provided to New South by GDOT, can be considered the Area of Potential Effect (APE) for this project, while the 100-foot buffer surrounding the known as the expanded survey corridor (ESC) called for in the GDOT Environmental Procedures Manual (EPM) was not applied in this survey investigation. The APE is bound on the south by Linchburg Road NW, by the Little River on the northeast, by Martin Mill Road on the northwest, and by private parcels on the southwest and the southeast. The tract is wooded, principally in planted pine except for hardwoods along the drainages. The tract consists primarily of upland ridges characteristic of the Piedmont physiographic province, while bottomlands of low topographic relief are found along the portion bordering the Little River. A cleared power transmission corridor extends east to west through the tract.

The fieldwork portion of this work was conducted between January 11 through March 11, 2016 under the supervision of Principal Investigator Scot Keith, with assistance from Crew Chiefs Michael McCaffery and Pam Enlow; and Archaeologists Scott Morris, Tyler Parrott, Hannah Lents, Chloe Stevens, Rory Wheaton, David Ramage, and Jonathan Cooper. Amy Irons oversaw the laboratory analysis; Michael McCaffery and Eli Kilgore conducted the artifact analysis; Justin Edwards took the artifact photography; Justin Arrington and Kelly Palakshappa prepared the materials for curation; and Josh Blackmon provided quality control. Joe Joseph served as Project Manager and conducted the technical review of the report.