Report on Inspection of Archaeological Sites Being Preserved In Place by Georgia Transmission Corporation

In a Programmatic Agreement among the Rural Utilities Service, the Georgia State Historic Preservation Officer (GASHPO), the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Georgia Transmission Corporation dated October 11, 2001, it is stipulated in Section I.1.a.. the Georgia Transmission Corporation (GTC) will develop and implement with the approval of the Georgia GASHPO a "preservation and monitoring plan for archaeological sites on GTC's properties and easements." The objective of the monitoring is to ensure the preservation of the site. Threats to preservation include but are not limited to natural erosion, erosion accelerated by human activity such as authorized transmission line maintenance (mainly bushhogging) and unauthorized all-terrain-vehicle traffic, vandalism, artifact looting, development on GTC lands (for access roads or substations, for example), and development on leased lands (for farm ponds or roads, for example).

This report summarizes the first round of archaeological site monitoring called for by this agreement. The archeological sites in question were discovered during the course of archeological surveys for proposed transmission lines and substations during the last 30 years. The sites were judged at the time of discovery to be either eligible or potentially eligible (a.k.a. unknown eligibility) for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. One site, Myrick's Mill (9TW79), was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to the archaeological sites, GTC agreed to preserve three cemeteries that were crossed by transmission lines.

Susan Ingall at GTC and Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc., initially identified 48 sites that GTC and consulting firms, with concurrence from GASHPO, had agreed would be preserved in place on properties owned or leased by GTC. Georgia archeological site forms and pertinent information for each of the 48 identified sites were obtained from the Georgia Archaeological Site Files, GTC, and from Southeastern Archeological Services. During the course of compiling information on these sites, an additional 12 sites were added to the original list, bringing the total number of sites for the monitoring project up to 60 sites (Table 1). Hard copy files for each of the sites were compiled, containing the Georgia archeological site form, pertinent sections of the archeological survey report that described the site, and, for navigational purposes, a small-scale map showing the site location.