A cultural resource assessment of Fort Stewart Military Reservation, Georgia reviews prehistoric, through modern settlement and land use patterns in a 280,000 acre tract representative of the southeast interior coastal plain. Besides Construction of culture 'history narratives, the research involved a 5 percent sample survey of fire lane exposures (randomly chosen and stratified according to soil associations), examination of known prehistoric and historic site locations, as well as an architectural inventory. Sites were discovered, recorded, and assessed ranging from Paleo-Indian through World War II periods. Generally speaking, prehistoric and 'historic habitation was not dense and land use patterns remain agricultural for most of the historic period. Sixty-eight prehistoric, artifact loci, three areas of colonial era settlement, and eighteen antebellum and nineteen post Civil War communities were investigated either on the around or through documentary sources. Architectural field survey revealed a potentially significant complex of World War II construction, but nearly all earlier private structures have been razed. Results are presented in terms of a site distribution model which can be useful in assessing archaeologically unsurveyed areas for potential impact by proposed changes in land use. Further recommendations are presented for management of known sites.
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