Phase I Archaeological Survey - Identification and Evaluation of Archaeological Sites on 3,119 Acres on Moody Air Force Base and grassy Pond Recreation Annex, Lanier and Lowndes Counties, Georgia

From December 2020 to May 2021, Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions, Inc. (Wood) in collaboration with Edwards-Pittman (EP) and under contract with Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) conducted a Phase I archaeological survey of 3,119 acres (ac) (1,262 hectares [ha]) on Moody Air Force Base (AFB) and Grassy Pond Recreation Annex (Grassy Pond) in Lanier and Lowndes Counties, Georgia. The purpose of the survey was to identify and determine if any archaeological sites eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) are located within the survey areas. The survey was conducted to meet the requirements of Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966 (Public Law 89-665: 16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.), as amended, and was completed in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Historic Preservation Projects (Federal Register, Vol. 48, No. 190, September 1983, P. 44716-44742, et seq.), the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists (GCPA) Georgia Standards and Guidelines for Archaeological Surveys (GCPA 2019), and the Moody AFB Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plan (ICRMP).

The 3,119 ac (1,262 ha) slated for survey were divided into 14 survey areas (Areas 1, 2A, 28, and Areas 3-10) on the Moody AFB Main Base and three areas (Grassy Pond Areas 1-3) on the Moody AFB-owned Grassy Pond Recreation Annex. Survey methods included shovel testing and visual inspection. Investigations were completed for approximately 1,330 ac (538 ha) of the survey area and included pedestrian and/or shovel test excavations, with a total of 5,727 shovel tests excavated. Ground cover in these areas ranged from highly disturbed urban and developed training areas with paved road and buried utilities to undeveloped forested areas with minor to dense undergrowth. The remaining 1,789 ac (723 ha) was found to be in permanently or seasonally inundated wetlands that did not require intensive survey; most of this acreage (1,243 ac [503 ha]) was located within the large, permanently inundated wetland, the Grand Bay, that encompasses all of Area 10 on Moody AFB.

Prior to fieldwork, a records review conducted at the Georgia Archaeological Site File showed that 11 previously recorded sites were located within the proposed survey area. Only seven of these sites were relocated during the current fieldwork (9LN17, 9LW7, 9LW62, 9LW63, 9LW66, 9LW68, and 9LW246 [former 9LN 18)). The addition of the new data, however, did not result in any change concerning previous recommendations of National Register eligibility (Table 1). Sites 9LN17, 9LW7 9LW62, 9LW66, 9LW68, and 9LW246 were recommended as not eligible based on prior investigation. Site 9LW63, the remaining previously recorded site that was relocated during the current survey, was determined to be eligible for the National Register based on work conducted by Grover et al. (1996) and Warhop et al. (2010). The prior recommendation of the site being eligible for the National Register was not changed as a result of the current survey. The remaining four previously recorded sites located within the project area were not relocated during the current survey (9LN15, 9LN 16, 9LW69, and 9LW74). None of these sites had been recommended eligible for the National Register at the time they were originally recorded.