Archaeological Data Recovery at the Cowpens/Grange Plantation Site (9CH137), Chatham County, Georgia

Archeological and historical research at the Grange Plantation Site (9CH137) began in 1994 when a preliminary survey determined that the site contained intact and probably significant archeological deposits dating to the colonial and antebellum periods, ca. 1733 - 1860 (Braley et al. 1994). The property is owned by the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), and the tract in question is now the location of Container Berth 8 (CB-8), where large ships are unloaded and loaded with cargo containers. CB-8 is the largest single container facility on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts, and is part of the much larger Garden City Terminal on the Savannah River. Because construction involved dredging and filling along the Savannah River, GPA needed to obtain a 404 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A 404 permit brought Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (as amended) into play. Section 106 makes provisions for the treatment of significant archeological and historical sites. In addition, GPA had to be in compliance with the Georgia Environmental Policy Act (GEPA), which states that state agencies must be good stewards of significant cultural resources on their property. It was recognized that construction of the container berth would completely destroy the archeological site, so in 2002 and 2004 large-scale archeological excavations took place, funded by the Georgia Ports Authority. Finally, in December of 2006, before the area was paved, archeologists monitored the grading of the site by heavy equipment. The site no longer exists. This is the long-overdue record of the archeological investigations from 1994-2006.