Phase I Cultural Resources Survey and Phase II Evaluative Testing Multiple Stream Impact Study Radii Douglas Hills Development Tract Douglas County, Georgia

Background

During June and July 2022, R.S. Webb & Associates (RSWA) conducted a Phase I cultural resources survey of multiple I 00-meter (m) study radii originating within the Douglas Hills development tract in Douglas County, Georgia. These three radii are collectively defined as the "project area". In total, the project area covers approximately 18.9 hectares (ha) (46.7 acres) and constitutes the project Area of Potential Effects (APE). Of this area, approximately I 1.4 ha (28.2 acres) lie within the development tract and make up the APE for direct impacts. The remaining 7.8 ha (19.2 acres) lie outside the development tract and were only inspected for historic resources that might be indirectly impacted by the project. RSWA also conducted limited Phase II evaluative testing at one site, 9DO256.

RSWA conducted the survey at the request of Strategic Development Partners, who provided RSWA with topographic maps showing the study radii around locations where stream/wetland impacts are proposed within the development tract. Areas within these radii are subject to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USA CE) Clean Water Act permitting. Due to this permitting, the development project must comply with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Under the NHPA, a cultural resources survey is conducted to determine if archeological and/or historical resources eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) will be affected by a proposed project. When found within the project APE, cultural resources are assessed for significance using the NRHP eligibility criteria set forth in 36 CFR Part 60.4. The current cultural resources survey was conducted following guidelines set by the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologists (2019) and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior (Federal Register 1983).

Methodology

Literature and Records Search: Georgia Historic Preservation Division (HPD) offices were closed to the public indefinitely on March 16, 2020; therefore, online databases and previously collected in-house data were reviewed. Georgia's Natural, Archaeological, and Historic Resources Geographic Information System (GNAHRGIS) online database and other online resources were queried for cultural resources located within or adjacent to the project APEs. Reviewed files/databases included the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), the Georgia Archaeological Site File (GASF), Douglas County historic structures survey maps/files (as available in-house) and GASF compliance/research reports. Historic maps, and early aerial photographs were examined at various online sources, as was land lottery information. Various Civil War-era documents and maps were consulted for the locations of Civil War-era military actions, associated sites, and/or features.

Archeological Field Survey and Testing: RSWA systematically surveyed lands within the project APE for direct impacts for archeological resources. This survey employed surface and subsurface techniques on a 30- m grid. Exposed surfaces within the project APE for direct impacts were inspected for artifacts and surface features. Subsurface techniques included the excavation of JO-centimeter- (cm) diameter screened shovel tests to sterile subsoil; soils were processed through 0.64-cm hardware cloth. Shovel test profiles were inspected and soil data recorded. Shovel tests were not excavated in areas that have been severely disturbed, on slopes greater than 15 percent, or in well-defined drainageways. In other areas, survey shovel tests were excavated on a 30-m grid. Occasionally, shovel tests were offset slightly to avoid heavily disturbed locations. Shovel test intervals were reduced to 15-m intervals as needed during site delineation. RSWA used these methods to assess the condition/nature of archeological deposits and to evaluate resource significance based on NRHP eligibility criteria [36 CFR Prui 60.4 (a-d)].

At site 9DO256, a one l .0-by-2.0-m test unit was excavated to investigate the physical integrity of the portion of the site within the central study radius. The test unit was excavated in I 0-cm levels to culturally sterile subsoil clay. Level soils were screened and recovered artifacts were bagged by excavation level. Test unit profiles were recorded and photographed. Also during the evaluation period at 9DO256, a metal detector survey was conducted across the site area.

Historic Resources Survey: The historic resources field survey was designed to identify possible historic buildings/features within the APEs for direct and indirect impacts. This survey included a pedestrian inspection of areas within the APE boundaries and a visual scan of portions of the APE beyond the development tract boundaries. The APE was photographed to document its nature/condition and the presence of various modern intrusions.

Results

Literature Search: No NRHP-listed properties are located within 1.0 kilometer (km) of the project study radii. No Georgia Centennial Farms are located in Douglas County. Maps for the 1976 and 1998 Douglas County historic resource surveys show as many as eight resources within 1.0 km of the study radii. The closest of the 1976 resources are Resource No. 333 (Sweetwater State Park), the boundary of which is near the western study radius, and Resource No. 228, a building located approximately 205 m southeast of the project radii (no longer present). These properties are not included in the GNAHRGIS database.

Seven recorded archeological sites are within 1.0 km of the study radii, the closest of which is 9DO2 I I. Site 9DO2 I I is a 20"' century house site located about 226 m south of the project area; it is recommended ineligible for the NRHP.

Based on the historic maps reviewed, one mapped cemetery is within 1.0 km of the project area. A small cemetery, apparently associated with Poplar Springs Church, is located east of the intersection of Factory Shoals and Douglas Hills Roads, approximately 360 m southeast of the study radii.

Following the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (16 km northeast) on June 27, 1864, opposing infantries moved southward and turned east at Mableton (7.5 km northeast), leaving the project area behind Union lines. The New Manchester Manufacturing Company (aka Sweetwater Factory) and worker village (1.4 km south) was an attractive target for Union cavalry who arrived to destroy these facilities on July 9, 1864. Given the proximity of the study radii to the above referenced action, bivouacking, raiding, and foraging could have taken place in or near the study radii.

A Civil War campaign map compiled from various maps (1864-1875) shows the courses of [old] Factory Shoals Road and Douglas Hills Road intersecting at the central study radius. This map shows two buildings, the "Reeves" home and a tanyard in the central part of the project parent tract. The 190 I USGS topographic map, indicating discontinuation of use of [old] Factory Shoals Road north of the project area, depicts the intersection of cw-rent Factory Shoals Road and Douglas Hills Road east of the project area. County highway maps from the period of 1940-1976 show the current road system and four buildings within or adjacent to the study radii. The 1940 map shows three buildings west of the intersection of [old] Factory Shoals Road and Douglas Hills Road, and one building south of Douglas Hills Road, in or near the central study radius. No buildings appeared in the parent tract on highway maps produced after 1953. The 1954 USGS topographic map shows the current intersection of current Factory Shoals Road and Douglas Hills Road with one house/barn building set to its west and one barn in the eastern study radius associated with a house outside the parent tract. The revised 1983 USGS map depicts a group of four new buildings north of Bullard Road within southeast section of the project parent tract.

Aerial photographs from 1942 and 1955 show the distribution of roads and buildings as described above. The photos show access roads from Factory Shoals Road/Bullard Road to the western third of the parent tract along Sweetwater Creek, where extensive cultivation was ongoing. Small areas of cultivation were located immediately west of [old] Factory Shoals Road and along the south side of Douglas Hills Road, with woodlands elsewhere. By 1968, cultivation activities had ceased and the parent tract was entirely wooded with no distinguishable building/structure signatures. By 1988, a group of buildings was present near Bullard Road.

Archeological Field Survey and Phase II Evaluative Testing: Four archeological sites, 9DO255, 9DO256, 9DO257 and 9DO258, were recorded within or partially within the central and westernmost study radii; no archeological resources were found in the eastern-most study radius. Sites 9DO255 and 9DO258 are prehistoric lithic scatters, while 9DO256 and 9DO257 are late 19~' to early or middle 20th century domestic/farm-related artifact scatters within minor pre-contact lithic components. Shovel test profiles across these four sites indicate that all artifacts recovered were confined to the surface or disturbed plowzone contexts. Recovered artifacts point to the following cultural affiliations: unassigned pre-contact lithic (9DO255 and 9DO256); Early Archaic (900257) or possible Early Archaic (9DO258); late 19th to early/middle 20th century with minor earlier 19th century component (900256); and early to middle 20th century (9DO257).

Phase II testing at 9DO256 included the excavation a 1.0-by-2.0-m test unit (TU-1) abutting a partially intact rock/brick syrup boiler/evaporator. Excluding highly fragmentary shingle, brick and burned wood items, 281 historic artifacts were recovered during unit excavation; the majority of these date from the last quarter of the 19th century to the early/middle 20th century. Seventeen pieces of pre-contact debitage were also recovered from TU-1. All artifacts were taken from what appears to be a single disturbed stratum around the syrup boiler.

Hisloric Resources Field Survey: No historic resources were observed or recorded within the project APEs for direct or indirect impacts.

NRHP Eligibility Recommendations

Archeological Sites 9DO255, 9DO256, 9DO257 and 9DO258 were fully delineated, and in the cases of 900256 and 9DO257, it was necessaiy to survey areas outside the central and western study radii. This allowed definitive NRHP eligibility recommendations to be made about the sites. At 9DO256, a test unit was also excavated to support the eligibility recommendation. Based on the study data it appears that these precontact and 19th to middle 20th century aitifact scatters have been significantly disturbed by historic land use practices, contour terracing, road grading and/or erosion. These resources are unlikely to yield significant archeological information beyond that collected during the current investigations. For this reason, 900255, 900256, 9DO257 and 900258 are recommended ineligible for the NRHP under all criteria especially Criterion (d) (archeology).

Potential Project Effects and Future Actions

Assuming that the USACE and HPD agree with RSWA 's NRHP eligibility recommendations, the proposed project will not adversely affect properties eligible for the NRHP. No additional cultural resources work is recommended for this stream-wetlands impact study radius project.