An Archaeological Survey of the Proposed McIntosh Industrial Park Expansion, McIntosh County, Georgia

The McIntosh County Development Authority wishes to develop a 400-acre tract located about 3 miles northwest of Darien as an expansion of an existing industrial park. The tract is located just to the northeast of River Road and is bounded by King Swamp Road to the north, Interstate Highway 95 to the east and various property boundaries to the south and west. It is an irregularly shaped parcel that is almost entirely wooded, mostly planted pine plantation. Between a third and half of the tract is low lying and wet. During state review for the project, the Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Natural Resources informed the Development Authority that an intensive, Phase I archeological survey of the tract was required. The Authority consulted with Linear Projects, Inc., who contracted with Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. to conduct the required survey. The fieldwork was conducted during the week of May 26 through 30, 2008. The survey located and recorded ten archeological sites (Table 1) and four artifact occurrences. All ten sites have prehistoric components, but one has a major historic component as well. The sites are characterized by generally sparse distributions of prehistoric pottery that occur on upland landforms, which usually are low ridges overlooking swampy drainages. Every site was first detected by artifacts observed on the surface of the clearcut and cleared land. Shovel testing on 20-m intervals helped delineate site boundaries, but most delineation relied on surface distributions, since artifact density in shovel tests was very low. As shown in Table 1, the most common component was Middle Woodland Deptford Phase, which was found on eight of the sites. This was followed by lesser numbers of Late Archaic St. Simons Phase, Early Woodland Satilla and Refuge Phases, Late Woodland Wilmington Phase and Late Mississippian Irene Phase and a single example of a nineteenth century house site. Only one site lacked diagnostic pottery and this was classed as a general Woodland period site. Because all ten sites and four occurrences consist of sparse distributions of artifacts in disturbed contexts (mechanically cleared land) and because shovel testing indicated that all have very sparse subsurface expressions, we conclude that none are likely to have meaningful artifact patterning or contain intact features. Thus, we conclude that none would be likely to yield important new information on the history of prehistory of the area. Therefore, because of the lack of integrity and failure of the sites to meet eligibility criteria, we recommend that none of the sites or occurrences in the project area are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Therefore, in regard to archeological resources, we recommend clearance for the project to proceed with no further work.