Cultural Resources Survey of the Proposed Mill Branch Impoundment, Warren County, Georgia

Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc., completed an intensive level cultural resources survey of a 48 ha ( 120 ac) tract of land on Mill Branch, a tributary of Brier Creek. The J.M. Huber Corporation is planning to construct a 16 ha (40 ac) impoundment on the tract that will affect not only the proposed reservoir basin (high pool at 330 ft AMSL) but also the dam construction site near Brier Creek and projected borrow areas south of Mill Branch. Using standard archeological survey procedures, 13 archeological sites and one isolated artifact occurrence were located (Figure 1). All 13 sites contain prehistoric cultural material and one of these, site 9Wr3, also contains the early nineteenth century Williams Cemetery. After excavating shovel tests and test pits at all sites and analyzing the artifacts, we believe that three sites (9Wr4, 9Wr11, and 9Wr12) and a portion of a fourth site (9Wr3) are significant. We recommend that these four sites (highlighted in Figure 1) are eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places under criterion D at either the local or state level of significance, as shown in Table 1. These four sites contain substantial, preserved prehistoric deposits that can address a range of issues regarding Early Archaic through Mississippian period utilization of nonriverine areas of the Fall Line zone. Few sites have been investigated near the project area. The nearest excavated sites remotely similar to these are in the Augusta area, 48 km (30 mi) to the east. We cannot confidently evaluate the significance of the cemetery on 9Wr3, but we believe that it, too, may be eligible to the National Register of Historic Places under criterion C or D. Since final designs have not been completed and are, in fact, partially dependent on the results presented in this report, we can only tentatively assess impacts to the site. Based on preliminary designs provided to us by Huber, we can identify the following potential impacts to sites: 1) clearing of the reservoir pool and subsequent inundation. 2) construction of the dam. 3) borrowing for dam fill.