Cultural Resources Survey of the Proposed West Georgia Regional Reservoir

This report presents information on cultural resources in the area of the proposed West Georgia Reservoir. The principal goal of this survey was to locate, spatially and stratigraphically delineate, and preliminarily describe all sites in the project area. The significance of the sites, in terms of eligibility to the National Register of Historic Places, was evaluated whenever the data permitted. Assessing significance was a secondary goal and could be accomplished on about half (119) of the sites. However, enough information was obtained to determine that no "fatal flaw" sites are present which could prevent construction of the reservoir. This document is to be used as supporting documentation for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' application for a Section 404 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. To obtain the information presented, Southeastern Archeological Services conducted an inventory level, intensive survey of approximately 1619 ha (4000 ac) that is the proposed flood pool for the West Georgia Reservoir. The fieldwork was conducted between 5 February and 3 April 1990 and required 156 person days to complete. Prior to our survey two archeological sites and four historic structures had been recorded in the project area. A result of the earlier site selection phase of this project predicted that there would be a large number of archeological sites in the proposed project area but that no "fatal flaw" sites would occur. This prediction was confirmed by the survey, which located 242 archeological sites, 21 artifact occurrences (isolated artifacts in poor context) and 22 historic structures (buildings or structures more than 50 years old). While many of these sites will require various levels of additional work, none of the sites or structures are of such significance that they would prevent the permitting of reservoir construction. Approximately 95% of the flood pool (to 1010 ft elevation) was surveyed with a uniform method of surface inspection and shovel testing. Three specific areas were not surveyed due to access denial or ambiguity in project area boundaries. These and other areas of potential impact (e.g., the dam construction zone) will need to be surveyed once design plans have been finalized. Slightly over 1630 shovel tests (some to depths of 1.25 m) were excavated in the process of locating and defining sites. In regard to standing historic structures, the project area was more broadly defined to include all structures in or within view of the proposed reservoir.