Phase I Archaeological Survey of 1600 Acres of Sugarloaf Farm, Gwinnett County Georgia

New South Associates conducted eight days of Phase I archaeological survey of 1,600 acres on the Sugarloaf Farm in Gwinnett County during the period from October 4 through October 20, 1994. The project area is located west of Interstate 85 and is bordered on the north by Old Peachtree Road, on the west by a branch of Singleton Creek and Bunten Road, on the east by the Sugarloaf transmission line, an unnamed creek tributary, a portion of Old Peachtree Road and a portion of Meadow Church Road. The southern border of the study area is not marked by a major road or creek but extends from Meadow Church Road, crosses Singleton Creek and runs behind Whippoorwill Circle. The terrain within the project boundaries varied from open pasture, to overgrown pasture, to forest. The survey located ten historic archaeological sites. Three of these are late nineteenth to early twentieth century domestic sites, five are historic houses with associated archaeological sites, one is a historic trash scatter and one is a possible historic cemetery. The archaeological component of Site 2, a historic domestic site, lies directly on subsoil and does not appear to be potentially eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Site 3 contains an intact historic structure, but very little topsoil. Site 5 is a historic surface trash scatter collected from the red clay subsoil surface. Site 6 is also a historic domestic site with some structural remains. The site has very little intact topsoil and no artifacts were collected from shovel tests. Sites 7, 9 and 10 were identified by intact historic structure. The sites do not appear to contain any intact topsoil. Sites 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 do not appear eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places and no further archaeological study of these sites is recommended. However, those sites with intact structures, Sites 3, 7, 9 and 10, are recommended for evaluation by an architectural historian. Site 1 appears to have intact topsoil with the potential to contain intact subsurface features. Site 4 contains two structures and intact topsoil with the potential to contain subsurface features. Site 8 is a possible historic cemetery. Phase II testing of Sites 1 and 4 is recommended to further determine their National Register eligibility as well as a historic architectural evaluation of the structures on Site 4. Testing is also recommended for Site 8, the possible cemetery, to determine whether it is indeed a cemetery and therefore falls under the protection of the Georgia Abandoned Cemetery Act (HB 402). In addition to the 10 historic sites, five isolated finds were located by the survey. Four of the isolates are historic and one is prehistoric. All isolated finds were located in red clay subsoil, and no further artifacts were located during shovel testing around the original finds. No further work is recommended for these isolated finds.