Eighth Addendum Phase I Archaeological Survey for the Widening and Improvements of SR 61 from South of CR 467/Dallas Nebo Road to SR 6, Paulding County, Georgia

Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc. (EP) conducted an eighth addendum Phase I archaeological survey for the proposed road improvements for State Route (SR) 61/Villa Rica in Paulding County, Georgia for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) in compliance with the Georgia Environmental Policy Act (GEPA) (Table 0.1). EP was contracted by RS&H to locate and evaluate archaeological resources within the area of potential effect (APE) of the proposed undertaking. EP’s involvement in this project follows multiple previous surveys conducted by GDOT (Duff 1995; Lotti 2007a, 2007b; Lotti et al. 2013; Richardson 1993, 1997), as well as the most recent (seventh) addendum survey completed by EP (Woodliff and Lewis 2019), and was required when the APE was updated so as to exceed prior survey coverage. Previous work on this project has been completed under P.I. No. 621570 (GDOT Project No. NH-018-1[59]), which included widening along SR 61, and P.I. No. 641830 (GDOT Project No. BRN-NH-018[60]), which included the Silver Comet Trail bridge and culvert. The bridge and culvert project has now been combined into the roadway widening and the whole corridor, is now state funded, and has been reprogrammed as P.I. No. 0013702. The current eighth addendum survey was required following slight alterations to the APE that extended beyond previously surveyed areas. These areas of the APE, referred to as the addendum survey areas, consist of 40 non-contiguous tracts totaling 0.3 hectares (ha) (0.8 acres [ac]). This report is a descriptive analysis of the archaeological resources encountered during EP’s survey of the addendum survey areas. All identified archaeological sites were evaluated for their National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility. The proposed undertaking extends 6.6 kilometers (km) (4.1 miles [mi]) along SR 61 starting (667.5 meters [m]) (2,190 feet [ft]) southwest of County Road (CR) 467/Dallas Nebo Road, crossing SR 120 Connector/Hiram Sudie Road, and ending 60 m (197 ft) north of Thomas B. Murphy Drive, which is north of the heavily developed intersection of SR 61 with United States Highway (US) 278/Jimmy Campbell Parkway. The width of the APE is approximately 150 m (492.1 ft) on average, for a total area of 1,018.2 ha (2,516 ac). The widening and reconstruction of SR 61 is needed to provide additional capacity required for future growth in the area. SR 61 is the only continuous north-south corridor in Paulding County linking Dallas to both Cartersville (north) and Interstate (I)-20 (south). Survey for this eighth addendum was completed on October 6, 2020 to address the most recent design changes resulting from further refinement of the APE that extend beyond previously surveyed areas. The APE was defined as all existing and required right-of-way (ROW), as well as easements, within the project limits, as currently designed. The additional areas surveyed by EP and documented in this report are referred to as addendum survey areas. Presently, existing ROW varies between 15 and 61 m (50 and 200 ft), and the proposed ROW varies between 15 and 107 m (50 and 350 ft). The addendum Phase I investigation of the survey areas was conducted in accordance with the methods described in GDOT’s Environmental Procedures Manual. No Expanded ii Eighth Addendum Phase I Archaeological Survey for the Widening and Improvements of SR 61 from South of CR 467/ Dallas Nebo Road to SR 6, Paulding County, Georgia Survey Corridor (ESC) was added to the 40 non-contiguous tracts comprising the addendum survey areas to maintain consistency across project documentation, as this project was originally surveyed prior to the introduction of the ESC to GDOT survey guidelines. This eighth addendum survey included visual inspection, systematic shovel testing, systematic metal detecting within potential Civil War battlefield areas, and systematic cemetery probing. No artifacts were recovered, nor were any new sites, features, or potential unmarked burials identified. Two previously recorded sites, 9PA587/the Battle of Dallas battlefield and 9PA593/Mt. Zion Cemetery were revisited for this survey. Site 9PA587 has been recommended as eligible for the NRHP under Criteria A and D, with Local, State, and National significance. The eighth addendum survey investigated a total of ten small parcels of addendum survey area within the extent of the archaeological site boundary of the battlefield site. The lack of artifacts and features and the generally disturbed nature of the investigated addendum survey areas demonstrate a lack of subsurface integrity and a lack of data potential. Overall, however, 9PA587 remains eligible for the NRHP under Criteria A and D, with Local, State, and National significance and EP recommends all of 9PA587/Battle of Dallas outside of the surveyed areas, which have been determined to lack potential data, be considered an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA). Site 9PA593/Mt. Zion Cemetery was subjected to revisit investigations via visual inspection and systematic subsurface probing. These efforts did not reveal any potentially unmarked interments in the addendum survey area that extends into the site boundary. This site has been evaluated as a historic resource and found to be ineligible for the NRHP under Criteria A and C, with no basis for evaluation under Criterion B. As only a small portion of the overall cemetery has been investigated during previous and current archaeological survey efforts and subsurface investigations have been limited to probing, EP concurs with the previous NRHP recommendation that 9PA593 is of unknown eligibility for the NRHP under Criterion D. An ESA is recommended for 9PA593, however the area investigated during the current addendum survey an be excluded from the ESA boundaries, as it was found to lack evidence of graves and other cemetery-related features. EP recommends that an ESA be established for the cemetery that excludes the areas of the APE that extend into the site boundary, since they have been found to lack evidence of graves and other cemetery-related features. As the proposed project requires ROW or easement from within the cemetery boundary, but no graves would be impacted, GDOT is exempt from state cemetery permit requirements pursuant to OCGA 36-72-14(c).