Intensive Archeological Survey of Selected Timber Stands, Cliff Creek and Panther Creek Timber Sales, Chattooga River Ranger District, Chattahoochee National Forest, Habersham and Rabun Counties, Georgia

Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. (SAS) of Athens, Georgia conducted an intensive cultural resources survey of 97.1 ha (240 ac) of timber land on the Chattooga River Ranger District of the Chattahoochee National Forest. The survey was conducted so that planned timber harvesting in seven stands in the Cliff Creek and Panther Creek Timber Sale areas would be in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The primary goal of the survey was to locate all cultural resources that could be impacted by the scheduled timber harvests. Cultural resources were recorded and evaluated under National Register of Historic Paces (NRHP) criteria. Archival research was conducted prior to commencement of fieldwork in late June, 2012. We conducted fieldwork with a two-person survey crew between June 8 and June 21, 2012.     Four of the sites are sparse, small prehistoric lithic scatters with little integrity and little research potential. A fifth site is a probable late nineteenth century historic period house site marked by nails, other metal and small numbers of sherds. We believe that these four sites lack the integrity and research potential to meet the criteria for eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, and therefore recommend that they are not eligible.     The sixth site, prehistoric lithic and pottery scatter site 9RA440 (FS #08-03-06-00533), is a large site (110 m long) with a moderate density of artifacts that extends to as much as 40 cm below surface. While our 17 positive and 22 negative shovel tests yielded 108 artifacts and good information on site size, layout and stratigraphy, it was not sufficient to make a firm determination of site significance. Therefore, we recommend that site 9RA440 is of undetermined eligibility status in regard to listing in the National Register of Historic Places. We recommend that Site 9RA440 be protected from ground disturbing harm during the timbering operations, or that it be archeologically tested before the timber operation to firmly determine its eligibility status. We flagged the boundaries of the site with red and white, candy-striped flagging and flagged each positive shovel test with labeled hot pink flagging.