The Ford Plantation Project: Archaeological Data Recovery at Silk Hope Plantation (9BN58 &9BN176) Bryan County, Georgia

The Ford Plantation Development includes an area of roughly 720 hectares (1,800 acres) in Bryan County, Georgia, along the south bank of the Ogeechee River. The residential community and recreational complex now occupies land that first saw European settlement in the 1730s and has long been the domain of both prehistoric and historic period Native American occupations. In 1998 Brockington and Associates, Inc., was contracted to conduct a Phase I Archaeological and Historic Architectural Survey of the property. This followed an initial investigation by Wapora, Inc., in 1982 for a previously planned development (which never evolved). The subsequent Brockington work involved Phase II Archaeological Testing of 15 sites identified either by Wapora in 1982, or by Brockington in 1998. This led to recommendations for Phase III Archaeological Data Recovery at eight (8) of the archaeological sites and HABS/HAER recordation of 11 historic architectural resources and one (1) historic landscape. The results of the earlier investigations have been presented in a number of previous volumes (Wapora 1983; Whitley et al. 1999; Whitley and Butler 1999). The results of Brockington's Phase III Archaeological Data Recovery investigations are presented in a series of volumes. This volume addresses the archaeological data recovery carried out at the sites known collectively as the Silk Hope Plantation (9BN58 and 9BN176). The volume first presents a brief overview of the natural environment followed by sections targeting each of the prehistoric and historic cultural periods and a more intensive documentary examination of records dealing directly with the Silk Hope Plantation. We also present an overview of the later history of the tract, principally the purchase and operations in the area by Henry Ford, followed by abandonment and eventual redevelopment culminating in the Ford Plantation residential and recreational community. These sections are then followed with a discussion of the previous archaeological research, the current research design, and the field and laboratory methods. Results of data recovery are presented as an overview of the field conditions encountered, soil and stratigraphic determinations, feature descriptions, and artifact analysis chapters. The results are then compiled and integrated into an interpretative discussion of the principal questions outlined in the research design as well as additional topics.