Addendum to Cultural Resources Surveys of Tornado Damage Areas Putnam, Jones, Jasper, Lumpkin Counties, Georgia

This report is an addendum to “Cultural Resources Surveys Tornado Damage Areas Putnam, Jones, Jasper, Lumpkin Counties, Georgia.” A cultural resources survey has been completed for log landings and access roads within the 2,400 acres affected by the November 1992 storm that damaged portions of the Chattahoochee and Oconee National Forests. The first portion of the survey covered six compartments on the Oconee Ranger District, located in Putnam, Jones and Jasper Counties. The second portion of the survey covered four compartments on the Chestatee Ranger District, located in Lumpkin County. A total of seventeen sites were found on the Oconee, plus six isolated finds. On the Chestatee District, no new sites were found, though one isolated find was located. Of these, eight sites will require further testing to determine National Register eligibility. Prehistoric lithic and ceramic scatters were encountered as were early and late nineteenth and early twentieth century house sites with historic ceramic scatters. Five historic cemeteries were located, and marked for protection. A follow-up survey will be completed of the rest of the damaged areas after the salvage timber sales are completed. That second survey will allow revisiting sites which were too obstructed to allow complete recording at this time. They were protected from logging disturbance until they can be revisited.

After the Tornado Damage Survey Report (Taylor, Benyshek and Bruce 1992) was prepared and submitted to the SHPO for review, several things happened which required this Addendum to it. A. First, the review comments were received from the SHPO which required certain changes to the report, among them an important stress in the Abstract that the surveys reported here were conducted ONLY on the log landings and access roads within the tornado damage paths. The Programmatic Agreement on the November 1992 Storm Damage Recovery with the SHPO and the Advisory Council was for these small areas to be done first, then a second survey is to be done after the damaged timber is removed to record any sites within the remainder of the damage paths. In this way, any sites found in the proposed log landings and access roads could be avoided, and thus protected, by moving the landings and roads slightly. B. During the consultations between the FS Timber Sales personnel on the Chestatee District (Lumpkin County), and the helicopter logging contractors, it was decided that a pair of "drop zones" were needed on the lower access road along Waters Creek, to allow the helicopters to drop their logs where they could be easily loaded onto trucks. These areas were not initially accessible to the archaeological surveyors, and since there were initially to be no new landings, no intensive surveys were done there. Because of the need for these new areas, a field survey was done of them on 2/22/93, by Jack Wynn. The results of that survey are reported below.