Reconnaissance Survey of the Proposed Stamp Creek Water Supply Reservoir, Bartow County, Georgia

The City of Cartersville, the centrally located county seat of Bartow County, is considering constructing a raw water supply reservoir and is examining a potential site in the east central portion of the county, on the upper reaches of Stamp Creek. They have contracted with the engineering consulting firm of Jordan, Jones and Goulding Inc. to conduct initial feasibility studies of this site. One consideration is potential adverse effects to significant cultural resources (those listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places) that might result from the construction and maintenance of such a reservoir. This concern is prompted in part by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, which mandates that efforts be made to minimize adverse effects to significant sites on projects that use federal funding or that require federal licensing or permitting. It is anticipated that the project will require a Section 404 permit from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Because the project is still in the early stages of development, final design plans have not been formulated. To aid in the early planning phase of the project, Southeastern Archeological Services was asked to conduct a literature search and reconnaissance survey of the project area, with the goals of detecting any "fatal flaw" sites and assessing the general archeological potential of the proposed reservoir basin. The reservoir basin is located on privately-owned land leased to the state as part of the Pine Log Mountain Wildlife Management Area, located around Stamp Creek just north of the Corps of Engineers' Lake Allatoona. 

The proposed reservoir encompasses about 148 ha (366 ac) at its projected pool level of 350 m (1150 ft) amsl. The area of potential effect for our survey was defined as the 353 m (1160 ft) elevation mark (Figure 1). The dam would be placed across a constriction of the Stamp Creek valley, and would impound portions of Stamp Creek and smaller portions of two other side creeks. The project area today is entirely wooded or clearcut, and is composed of gently undulating stream valleys bordered by steep slopes of ridges, many of which to the north and west are labeled as mountains (namely, Hanging Mountain and Pine Log Mountain). The project area is accessed by a graded, graveled road that forks at the proposed dam.