Archeological Survey of Proposed Improvements to Grande Creek Road, Emanuel County, Georgia

Emanuel County is intending to pave and straighten a 10.67 Ian (6.63 mi) section of Grande Creek Road in southwest Emanuel County. Half of the project consists of minor widening of the existing dirt road, and half consists of building a road on a new location. The new location segments were in part designed to avoid cultural resources such as standing houses and cemeteries. To ensure that the proposed project would not adversely affect significant archeological sites, Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. conducted an intensive archeological survey of the project area. As shown in Table 1, ten sites were recorded during this survey, all but one are late nineteenth to mid‑twentieth century house sites that we recommend as not eligible for listing on the National Register. The tenth site, 9EM70, is a large prehistoric lithic and ceramic scatter on a ridge above Grandy Creek. At the conclusion of the survey, this site was seen as being potentially eligible for inclusion in the National Register. The site was revisited and subjected to archeological testing to firmly determine its eligibility status. The excavation of a grid of shovel tests and three test units led us to conclude that the site is not likely to yield additional important information, and therefore is not eligible for the National Register.

Therefore, we conclude that none of the ten sites are eligible for inclusion in the National Register because none are likely to contribute important information to our understanding of regional history or prehistory. It is the opinion of the principal investigator that no cultural resources eligible to the National Register of Historic Places will be affected by the proposed widening and new construction of Grande Creek Road.