North Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station (Red Bud Farm) Site Relocation and NRHP Re-Evaluation

In 1997, Garrow and Associates identified 15 archaeological sites at the North Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station (Red Bud Farm) in Gordon County, Georgia. The current owner (University of Georgia) intends to sell the property. Therefore, the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (HPD) recommended additional work on the 15 archaeological sites before the sale so that covenants or easements can be enacted for sensitive areas. HPD requested that the boundaries of the 15 sites be relocated and mapped using GPS. They also requested an assessment of the potential for suspected burials within six of the 15 sites. The final task was a reconsideration of the Red Bud Farm sites’ National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility as reported by Garrow and Associates in 1997 (Espenshade and Holland 1997). New South relocated all but one of the 15 archaeological sites recorded during the 1997 Garrow survey. The site that could not be relocated was plotted in an area that was heavily disturbed by land clearing activity and cattle grazing. New South combined sites based on the results of this site relocation. New South recommends one site eligible for the NRHP. Four sites require further work to complete their NRHP assessments. The remaining sites are not recommended for the NRHP. Approximately 420 acres of the Red Bud Farm are floodplains. To date, this area has not been systematically investigated. Given the large sizes of sites as well as the presence of well-drained soils across much of this floodplain, additional archaeological sites with the potential for graves and other subsurface features are quite possibly located in this area. New South recommends additional archaeological survey of the unsurveyed portion of the floodplain to locate any unidentified sites and gather sufficient data to assess their NRHP eligibility. Alternatively, the entire floodplain could be considered culturally sensitive for the purpose of covenants or easements. At a minimum all sites recommended as eligible for the NRHP or are unassessed should be protected.