Cultural Resources Survey Proposed Silver Creek Future Development Area Phases IV-X Forsyth County Georgia

R. S. Webb & Associates conducted a cultural resources survey of the proposed Silver Creek Future Development Area, Phases IV - X (202.3 hectares), in Forsyth County, Georgia, April 29 through May 15, 1996. The assessment was conducted on behalf of Law Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc. to locate and identify cultural resources within the project area and assess resource significance based on National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) criteria [36 CFR Part 60.4(d)]. A 6.7-hectare section of the proposed Future Development Area had been previously surveyed as part of the Silver Creek Land Exchange Site (Gantt and Webb 1996a). A related property, the Proposed Silver Creek Development Site, Phases I, II and III (81 hectares), was surveyed in April 1996. A separate report covers the findings of this survey (Gantt and Webb 1996b). The cumulative project area covers approximately 283.3 hectares and is located in Forsyth County, southeast of Cumming and southwest of Buford Dam, on the Chattahoochee River. A total of 87 cultural resources were detected during the field survey of the proposed Future Development Area (202.3 hectares) including: fifty sites, 14 isolated finds and 23 rock piles. Two of the resources, Sites 9FO246 and 9FO250, had were previously recorded during the survey of the Lake Lanier reregulation area in 1986 (Gresham 1987). Forty-two of the sites and 12 of the isolated finds yielded prehistoric artifacts. Over 97 percent of the prehistoric assemblage related to lithic extraction or reduction activities, followed by tool manufacture, hunting, processing and camping. Although unknown prehistoric was the dominate component, three resources yielded diagnostic artifacts. Components represented include Late Archaic (n=1) and Woodland/Mississippian (n = 2). Eighteen of the sites, three of the isolates and the 23 rock piles contain historic components. The historic sites and isolates represent house complexes/remnants (n=9), discard scatters (n=6) and stills (n=6). Based on the artifacts, six of the house complexes were occupied from the middle 19th century and three date from the late 19th century. The discard scatters can be assigned to the middle 19th through the early 20th centuries. One still may date to the early 20th century; the remaining stills were used in the middle 20th century. The 23 rock piles were all interpreted as resulting from 19th and early 20th century field clearing activities. Eighty of the 87 cultural resources detected during the survey are recommended as ineligible for the NRHP. The seven remaining sites are considered potentially eligible. These sites include: a standing house (Site 9FO351), three historic house sites (Sites 9FO338, 9FO353 and 9FO364) and three prehistoric camp sites (Sites 9FO250, 9FO327 and 9F0337). These sites cannot be avoided under the current development plans and have been recommended for testing to evaluate their National Register eligibility status.