Phase II archaeological investigations by Panamerican Consultants, Inc. (PCI) documented the Christian Commonwealth (Site 9ME766), a Christian socialist community established in 1896 just east of Columbus, Georgia. A portion of Site 9ME766 is scheduled to be impacted by the construction of a perimeter fence and road along the base's northern boundary. The site, as mapped, encompasses 3.21 acres within Fort Benning boundaries and of this total, 2.0 acres were mitigated. Due to an extremely limited and deflated area of potential effect (APE), mitigation efforts were best accomplished archivally rather than through excavation. The Commonwealth's founding had been inspired by the plight of the nation's urban industrial poor and the violence directed towards labor forces. The intellectuals behind the colony's creation included most of the major names in the reform movements of the period. The colony was intended to create the proverbial "city on a hill" that would transform the world by its example. Its publication, The Social Gospel, had a worldwide audience and was quite influential within the various reform movements of the time. Ideological disharmony and motivational problems within the colony's population led to its eventual failure but its history offers interesting insight into the complexities that are the human condition.
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