A Reconnaissance Level Cultural Resources Survey of 7.4 KM (4.6 MI) of a Proposed Gas Pipeline and Six Proposed Bore Staging Areas Along the Tallulah River, Rabun County, Georgia

The City of Toccoa, Georgia, is proposing to construct a gas pipeline from Toccoa to Franklin, North Carolina. Jordan, Jones & Goulding, Inc. is the engineering firm that will design and construct the line.

In February and July of 1998 a reconnaissance level cultural resources survey was conducted on a 7 .4 km ( 4. 6 mi) section of the proposed pipeline in Rabun County, Georgia (Figure 1). This section will follow existing rights-of-way of old U.S. 441 and a short (2.1 km--1.3 mi) section of the abandoned Tallulah Railroad. The section surveyed is adjacent to, or crosses, property owned by Georgia Power Company at Tallulah Lake. The purpose of this report is to ensure compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (as amended) and with 36CFR800, Procedures for the Protection of Historic and Cultural Resources.

The proposed pipeline will be eight inches in diameter and will be buried along the shoulder of existing roads, or beneath the bed of the Tallulah Railroad. Where it crosses Tallulah Lake or the Tallulah River the pipeline will be routed through a small tunnel bored beneath the river bed. In addition to surveying the proposed pipeline corridor, six bore staging areas were examined.

The reconnaissance survey determined that four properties are present which are eligible or potentially eligible to the National Register of Historic Places. Two are bridges, one is the Tallulah Falls Depot, and the fourth is the abandoned bed of the Tallulah Railroad. It is the opinion of the principal investigator that the proposed construction will not adversely affect any of these properties. Furthermore, due to previous disturbances (road or railroad construction) no eligible or potentially eligible archeological sites will be affected by the proposed construction.