Phase I Survey and Phase II Testing at the Proposed Tenaska Electrical Generation Station, Heard County, Georgia

In December 1998 and February 1999, TRC Garrow Associates, Inc., conducted a Phase I cultural resources survey of an 85-acre tract in Heard County, Georgia. The tract is the proposed site of an Electric Generation Station owned by Tenaska Georgia Partners, L.P. A 50-foot-wide nahual gas pipeline, approximately 1.5 miles in length, was also surveyed. The Phase I study included both archaeological and historic architecture investigations. Five sites were discovered during the archaeological survey. One site (9HE191) is attributable to an Early or Middle Woodland occupation; three other prehistoric sites lacked diagnostics and cannot be associated with a specific culture period or phase. Site 9HE188 is historic and has a late-nineteenth- to early-twentieth-century temporal affiliation. Three of the five sites (9HE188, 9HE190, and 9HE192) are recommended ineligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) under Criterion D based on the Phase I results. Two sites (9HE189 and 9HE191) were recommended potentially eligible for the NRHP under Criterion D because the survey results indicated that they had the potential to yield intact archaeological remains. Phase II testing was conducted at these sites in December 1998, and the information obtained during those investigations resulted in the recommendation that they are also ineligible for the NRHP under Criterion D. In the opinion of TRC Garrow, additional cultural resource investigations are not warranted any of the five sites or three isolates before construction is initiated. Vehicular and pedestrian coverage of the project's Area of Potential Effects (APE) was undertaken to locate historic architectural resources. The architectural APE was defined as an area in which the proposed project would physically or visually affect any historic resources. The historic architecture survey identified one resource in the project's APE. HS-1, a ca. 1920 hall-parlor dwelling at 1740 George Brown Road, is recommended ineligible for the NRHP due to loss of architectural integrity caused by alterations. Based on this recommendation, it appears that no further work is required for this resource.