An Archeological Survey and Testing of the Southern Portion of Colonels Island, Glynn County, Georgia

Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) wishes to develop much of the southern two-thirds of Colonels Island, the portion south of U.S. Highway 17 that has not already been developed. Because of wetlands issues, the project is likely to be subject to review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. An archeological survey was called for to ensure that Georgia Ports Authority is in compliance with Federal regulations (Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act) concerning the identification and protection of significant cultural resources. Archeological investigations in the mid-1970s, conducted mostly by West Georgia College, showed that there were 19 sites south of U.S. 17 and another six sites to the north, including the Parland Plantation complex. The island is best known for its occupation in the 1830s by John Parland and later by his descendants. Of the 19 sites in the south, most were moderately large, dispersed shell middens with few artifacts located around the edge of the island. Most, if not all, of these were presumed to be of prehistoric origin. One interior site in the south was a cluster of tabby chimneys that may have been a slave quarters for the Parland Plantation, but which was also inhabited in the late nineteenth century. The investigations in the 1970s included reconnaissance survey, intensive survey and selective site testing. However, site limits had not been established for any of the sites. In 2009, the GPA commissioned Southeastern Archeological Services (SAS) to conduct a comprehensive, intensive survey of the undeveloped portion of Colonels Island south of U.S. 17, an area comprising about 700 acres. The three goals of the archeological survey conducted by SAS in 2009 were locating all sites, defining site limits and assessing to the extent possible the significance of the sites. Because we knew from earlier work on Colonels Island that most of the more significant sites would occur along the marsh edge and because we had been informed that the GPA would attempt to avoid sites along the marsh edge, our primary focus was on delineating interior boundaries of marsh edge sites and locating new sites. In 2010, the GPA commissioned SAS to conduct archeological testing of three of the potentially eligible sites, ones that were in close proximity to one another in an area that was likely to be first developed. The results of this testing has been combined with the survey results to create the present report. Sixteen of the previously recorded sites were relocated and delineated with systematic shovel testing (two previously recorded sites were outside our survey area) and one other previously recorded site could not be relocated. In addition, we located 12 new sites, most of which were small, interior shell middens or scatters, likely of prehistoric origin. In two cases pairs of previously recorded sites were found to merge together to form one large site. Thus, in sum we describe in this survey report 27 sites located in the GPA project area in the southern two-thirds of Colonels Island. Table 1 presents summary information on the 27 sites, including our assessment of site significance in terms of eligibility to the National Register of Historic Places.