Flint River Basin Survey, Phase 2

The 11 counties of the Upper Flint River watershed are densely developed, yet resources still exist. Transportation is highly developed and more than a dozen bridges cross the river in this section. The Cove and Flat Shoals settlement is in the lower portion of this segment and appear to have high research potential. Forty-four relic collections were documented for the Upper Flint region. The FRBAS team recorded 83 archaeological sites in the Upper Flint region. Forty-four relic collections were documented in the Upper Flint and photographs were recorded for 20 of these. The survey sites included a wide variety of aboriginal and historic period sites. Historic sites included lost communities, stoneware pottery manufacturing centers, cemeteries, covered bridge, and Civil War battlefields. Prehistoric sites and artifacts consisted primarily of Archaic although a few areas of intense settlement included Woodland and Mississippian occupations. Civil War sites represent important resources in the upper Flint River watershed. Most notably, the battles at Jonesboro and Lovejoy have important archaeological components and are drastically threatened by modern land use and large-scale ground disturbance. Two sections of the upper Flint River watershed, the Cove and Flat Shoals, contain unique environments that greatly influenced human settlement in the area. The Cove is a remote, protected area along the Flint River that is fringed with rugged foothills. The topography of the Cove resembles that of a bowl, which would have affected access through the region. Conversely, Flat Shoals contains a broad flat shoals on the Flint River that would have facilitated access through the region. Flat Shoals became an important settlement in the region during the nineteenth century but was eclipsed, as a result of being bypassed by the railroad network, by the early twentieth century. Each of these areas provide interesting archaeological subject matter that is worthy of further study. Aboriginal settlement in the cove is well represented in a local private collection. The aboriginal settlement in the Flat Shoals vicinity is less well documented but it is reasonable to expect that this section of the Flint River provided important riverine food resources as well as an important river crossing point for early societies. The upper Flint River region contains many historic sites from the mundane to the more unique and complex. Archaeologists commonly encounter ruins of illegal liquor stills throughout Georgia. These archaeological sites are considered commonplace and many cultural resource managers consider them to be ineligible for listing in the NRHP. Legal stills are far less common and have not received any substantive study. The FRBAS team recorded a nineteenth century Federal liquor dispensary and distillery complex in rural Pike County. No sites of this type has been previously recorded within the 43,000 sites in Georgia. The Pike County example is an excellent candidate for a study of Federal distilleries in Georgia. Throughout the region the archaeological resources are facing adverse threats from modern land use. The accelerated rate of urban sprawl in Atlanta's suburbia was most shocking to the FRBAS team. During the course of the survey, many thousands of acres of former woodlands in Clayton, Fayette and Henry counties were transformed into housing. Prior to construction, the development tracts are typically radically altered through heavy equipment reshaping the natural formations and erasing most, if not all, underlying resources. The lower portion is of the upper Flint River region is more remote and to date its isolation has served to protect these resources. However, the development trend for this area is showing initial signs of change. While it is not being developed at the rate of the northern portion, it certainly is not excluded.