The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences owns 878 acres of woodland at its Griffin campus in Spalding County. The College intends to harvest timber from 105.5 acres and proposes to construct nine log loading decks adjacent to existing woods roads. To ensure that the clearing and light grading of the proposed decks do not damage potentially significant archaeological sites, the University contracted with Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc., to conduct a Phase I archaeological survey of the nine loading decks in accordance with the Timber Harvest Archaeology Protocol developed by the Georgia Historic Preservation Division and the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division's Forest Management Unit in 2011. The archaeological survey was conducted on July 24 and 25, 2020. Three sites were recorded, a late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century house site (9SP226), a prehistoric lithic and pottery scatter (9SP227), and an early twentieth century trash dump (9SP228). All have been heavily disturbed by razing, timbering, erosion and in some cases, previous grading to create the decks. We recommend that none of the sites are eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and that the proposed construction of the nine loading decks will not adversely affect significant archaeological resources and should be granted clearance to proceed.
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