Shine's Corner at Traveler's Rest, A Frontier Community

This report discusses the results of a cultural resources data recovery project conducted at the abandoned frontier community of Traveler's Rest, now in the city limits of Montezuma, Macon County, Georgia. The portion of Traveler's Rest studied by the project included the northwest and southwest corners of the cross roads known as Shine's Corner in the nineteenth century. Traveler's Rest was settled in the early nineteenth century as a way station at the Flint River crossing on the road to Alabama. It declined in 1851 when the railroad was built through nearby Montezuma, and was abandoned by the late nineteenth century. Data recovery included historic documentation of the frontier and post frontier development in Macon County and of the community of Traveler's Rest. The archeological research included the excavation of 16 test units at three structures at Shine's Corner, plus the mechanical stripping of the plow-zone at two of the structures. All of the features exposed were mapped and examined archeologically. Feature distributions, in conjunction with the artifacts, were. used to determine the function of the two lots and the road between them. This approach established the dates of occupation for the three structures and allowed an examination of socioeconomic status on the frontier. A review of the literature of the frontier is provided along with a discussion of the place of Traveler's Rest in frontier studies.