Addendum to Phase I and II Investigations Along State Route 255: Archaeological and Historical Investigations for the Proposed Elks Club Golf Course Cost-to-Cure Alterations

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) plans to replace the bridges on State Road (SR) 225 over New Town Creek and the Coosawattee River, as well as realign the road from the New Echota Historic Site entrance to just east of County Road 125/McDaniel Road in Gordon County. This work is being completed under GDOT Project # BHF00-0151-01(006), PI # 631570. This investigation is an addendum to the original archaeological survey conducted for these GDOT projects by URS Corporation in 2006 (Barse and Gill 2007). This work arises from proposed alterations to the Calhoun Elks Club Golf Course that resulted from right-of-way (ROW) negotiations and mitigation. The Calhoun Elks Club Golf Course plans to develop the current study area into a hole in order to offset a portion of the course that will be lost to the impending road relocation. Because this area was not included in the original survey and because there are archaeological National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)-listed and eligible resources located in the area under consideration, GDOT wishes to determine the nature and the integrity of the archaeological resources in order to assess potential adverse impacts to these resources during hole construction. The Area of Potential Effect (APE) for this study is defined by the area of direct effects, which includes an approximately nine-acre parcel immediately south of and adjacent to the confluence of the Coosawattee and Conasauga rivers (forming the Oostanaula River) and the mouth of New Town Creek. A 60-meter wide area paralleling the Oostanaula riverbank downstream to the mouth of an unnamed spring-fed branch is also included in the APE (Figure 1). The APE is part of a parcel owned by the Calhoun Elks Lodge 1883. While the majority of the APE lies within the existing golf course, the eastern portion is wooded. New Town Creek flows northward through the APE. The APE is associated with New Echota, the Cherokee Capitol that is a National Register listed property. New Echota was recorded as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1971. In 2003, FHWA, GDOT, and the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes – the Cherokee Nation, Easter Band of Cherokee Indians, and the United Keetoowah Band, recognized New Echota as Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) through a consensus determination based the importance of New Echota to Cherokee beliefs and identity (Loubser et al. 2003). That same year, the Keeper of the National Register expanded New Echota's National Register boundaries to the boundaries of the TCP, but did not formally recognize New Echota as a TCP. Several previously recorded archaeological and historical resources are present in the APE, including portions of archaeological sites 9GO59 and 9GO297; a section of the New Echota NHL; a portion of the New Echota TCP (Loubser et al. 2003) and NRHP-listed New Echota property; and segments of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (Figure 2). In addition, historic documents and maps place McCoy's Ferry at the confluence of the rivers and the mouth of New Town Creek (which would fall within the boundaries of archaeological site 9GO59). These resources have been documented through several studies including: the original SR 225 archaeological survey (Barse and Gill 2007); a historic resources survey (Carr 2006) and its addendum (Kear and Mustonen 2012); a TCP study (Loubser et al. 2003); salvage archaeological work (Baker 1970, 1971); an overview of archaeological work conducted at New Echota (Elliott et al. 2003); and a recent Phase III Archaeological Data Recovery of 9GO297 (report in progress by New South Associates). An Assessment of Effects (AOE) of the archaeological and historical resources was completed in 2008, and three separate but identical Memorandum of Agreements (MOA) that govern mitigation of the adverse impacts to these resources were ratified in April of 2009 by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA); GDOT; the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Historic Preservation Division (GA HPD); the Georgia Department of Natural Resources State Parks and Historic Sites division; the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; the Cherokee Nation; and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians. New South Associates conducted the Phase I Archaeological Survey and Evaluative Testing fieldwork of the APE between August 13-24 and on November 19, 2012. After the initial fieldwork session, the portion of the APE east of New Town Creek (i.e., 9GO297) was removed from consideration as the Elks Club Golf Course decided not to include this area in construction plans. This addendum is organized into seven chapters. A historic context of the area and a discussion of previously recorded sites are found in Chapter II. Chapter III reviews the methods used. The results are contained in Chapter IV, while Chapter V discusses the recommendations. References Cited are in the final chapter. Appendices include an artifact catalog, updated state site forms, and the resume of the Principal Investigator.