Archeological Survey of the Proposed Alternative Transmission Line Segments and Substations for the ThumbsUp Project Morgan, Newton, and Walton Counties, Georgia

In March, April and June 2018, Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. (SAS), conducted a Phase I archeological survey of several tracts of land where the Georgia Transmission Corporation (GTC) proposed to construct transmission lines and substations in eastern Newton, western Morgan, and southern Walton Counties to support new industry. The name of the project is ThumbsUp. The goal of the survey was to locate, describe, and evaluate archeological resources within the area of potential effect for the ThumbsUp project, so that potential effects to those resources could be evaluated in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. At the time of the archeological surveys, final decisions on construction locations of the proposed transmission lines and substations had not been made. A total of four separate tracts identified as Priority 1, Priority 2, Site B, and Site C were surveyed and were considered to be the areas of potential effect. Total area among the four proposed tracts is 326 ac. Among all four tracts that were surveyed, 16 archeological sites and four archeological occurrences (isolate finds) were recorded. Three of the 16 sites were recommended to have unknown eligibility in regard to evaluation for listing on the National Register (Table 1).

A final decision on the location of the proposed 115 kV transmission line was made after all Phase I archeological survey was completed among the four project tracts. This final decision on the 115 kV transmission line location traverses the eastern portion of the Priority 1 project area/tract and most of the Priority 2 project area/tract. Transmission line construction potentially will disturb five of the 16 archeological sites that were recorded among all proposed tracts (Table 2). Description and evaluation of the five sites within the area of potential effect for the 115 kV transmission line has been presented in a separate report (Benson 2018). The present report provides descriptions and evaluations for the remaining eleven sites that were recorded on the alternative proposed transmission line segments and substation tracts. GTC plans no construction on these tracts, but since archeological sites were recorded on these tracts, documentation of site identification and evaluation was necessary.