Archeological Survey of the Dawson to Cuthbert 115 kV Transmission Line, Randolph and Terrell Counties, Georgia

In November and December of 2004, Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. conducted an archeological survey of approximately 19.9 mi (32.1 km) of existing transmission line corridor that extends from the southwest edge of Dawson in Terrell County to the eastern edge of Cuthbert in Randolph County. The survey area was 30 m (100 ft) wide, centered on the centerline of the existing line, which is strung on H-style wooden poles. This line is adjacent to one, and in some portions, two other transmission lines. As an existing, maintained transmission line the project corridor had been bush-hogged periodically and ground cover consisted of either shrubby, weedy vegetation in fallow areas or plowed fields. Surface exposure was poor and generally patchy in the fallow areas and excellent in the plowed fields. While many sites were discovered by surface inspection of plowed fields, most were found by routine shovel testing. This exploratory shovel testing was conducted in two transects (splitting the project corridor width), usually on 30-m intervals. Once a site was detected, it was investigated with several transects of shovel tests along the corridor length at 10 or 20-m intervals (depending on the anticipated size of the site) and with one or several perpendicular transects of shovel tests to explore site width. Because several sites were likely very wide (that is, would extend well beyond the width of the transmission line corridor), we did not always accurately determine width of sites. Based on surface inspection and the excavation of shovel tests, we discovered and recorded 33 archeological sites (Table 1). Most (20) are prehistoric lithic scatters, some small (as little as 10 by 20 m) and some very large (as long as 400 m). Seven sites have small numbers of prehistoric sherds, in addition to larger numbers of lithic artifacts. Four sites are locations of former historic period houses or farm structures. One site is a large prehistoric lithic scatter with some historic period material in portions of the site and the final site is a twentieth century swimming pool on the outskirts of Dawson, once used by the Boy Scouts. We found almost precisely one site per kilometer of line, or one site per 0.6 mile of line. We recommend that none of the historic period sites are eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The prehistoric sites form a near continuum in artifact abundance and density, from a site with just a single positive shovel test (9RH83) to one with 70 positive shovel tests (9RH81). Assessing site research potential (National Register criterion d) at the survey level, based on shovel test results, relies primarily on assessing artifact density, diversity and abundance under the assumption that these reflect intensity of use/occupation. The more intensively a site was used/occupied, the more likely it will have meaningful artifact patterning and features, which would be of research benefit to archeologists. An important additional factor is site integrity, which also can be assessed from shovel test results. One final factor that we used to assess site significance in this survey was the presence and abundance of prehistoric pottery on sites. We assumed that sites with pottery were occupation sites, and thus had a greater chance of having features. Based largely on artifact density and diversity, and taking site integrity into consideration, we recommend that five sites are potentially eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (Table 2). We provide GPS readings for the end points of these sites as measured along the centerline of the transmission line. As stated, we are not sure of the precise width (outside of the transmission line) of some of these sites. Georgia Transmission Corporation has in place a Programmatic Agreement with the Georgia SHPO on how to deal with eligible and potentially eligible sites in transmission line corridors. The fact that this line has already been cleared and has no substantial vegetation (trees) to clear, suggests that the proposed undertaking, the reconstruction of the line, would have considerably less impact to sites than would construction of a new line. We saw no serious, ongoing impacts to any the potentially eligible sites, such as erosion from roads or off-road trails. We believe that each of the potentially eligible sites should be examined under the terms of the programmatic agreement to produce a plan for avoiding adverse effects to the sites.