The Victory Drive Site, 9M50 Muscogee County, Georgia

This report details the results of archeological data recovery on a portion of the Victory Drive site, 9Me50, located in the southern portion of the City of Columbus, Muscogee County, Georgia. The Victory Drive site is best known for its historic Creek, Lawson Field component. However, the site also contains significant components dating to the Early and Late Mississippian periods. As presently defined, the site lies adjacent to the Bull Creek site, 9Mel. Occupation areas of certain components actually overlap across the two sites. The Victory Drive site had been investigated in 1960 and 1970 through salvage operations of Frank Schnell, Jr. and others associated with the Columbus Museum. Those excavations produced substantial amounts of cultural material from the historic Creek occupation.

The Victory Drive site was recently re-encountered during an archeological survey of a portion of the proposed City of Columbus Riverwalk Project, which extends from Rotary Park to Fort Benning. The intensive archeological survey was conducted by Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. in November 1993. Both the Victory Drive site and the Bull Creek site were previously known significant sites and both were recommended eligible to the National Register. While significant portions of both sites had been severely disturbed, areas remained which could provide significant new information. Because final design plans for the riverwalk through the site directly affected the remaining preserved portion of the site, mitigation by data recovery excavation was required. Data recovery within an approximately 7 m wide corridor through the 260 m site area was conducted by Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. in the summer of 1994. Data recovery consisted of the hand excavation of test units, systematic backhoe trenching and machine stripping of larger blocks in the impact zone.

As a result of data recovery, significant new information has been recovered relating the Early Mississippian Averett component, the Late Mississippian Bull Creek component, and the historic Creek Lawson Field component. Averett phase cultural remains were recovered from radiocarbon dated features allowing comparison to other predominantly plain pottery traditions of the region. The most significant discovery relating to the Bull Creek phase was a domestic structure associated with the Bull Creek Village previously investigated during the WP A era. The carefully recovered contents of a large Lawson Field phase trash-filled pit provided important comparative data for Creek pits excavated previously on the site. Cultural remains recovered from past excavations of the site have been re-examined and the results incorporated into this report.