Archaeological Testing for the Mcintosh County Industrial Authority Bulkhead Construction

The McIntosh County Industrial Authority proposes to develop a commercial/recreational complex on the Darien, Georgia waterfront. The initial phase of this development consists of construction of a 281.47-foot bulkhead along the river bank east of the U.S. 17 bridge (Register-Moody, 1984). In order to fulfill Department of the Army permit requirements, a cultural resource evaluation was requested from Water and Air Research, Inc. (WAR), Gainesville, Florida. The Savannah District Corps of Engineers (COE) delineated the "permit area" (impact area) as the "immediate project area and only that portion of the adjacent land and river bottom which would be affected by construction and operation of the proposed project" (COE, 1984). Because no scope of work was provided, the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) was contacted for guidance as to the level of effort required to satisfy state requirements (SHPO, 1984). It was understood that the state would require sufficient information to determine the potential for encountering cultural resources within the project area. If WAR could determine this potential based on previous work in the area, that would be acceptable. WAR's archaeologists believed that the previous excavations were not conducted within a distance that was close enough to the project impact area to make a sound evaluation. Therefore, a limited series of machine trench excavations (reconnaissance level effort) was proposed for the project. There was no discussion of evaluating possible impacts beyond the "permit area" (WAR, 1984a.).