Archaeological Survey of Two Industrial Development Tracts, Emanuel County, Georgia

Emanuel County, through its Development Authority, owns two tracts of land in the southern part of the county that it wishes to develop as industrial parks. The smaller northern tract borders on State Route 297 and is referred to as the Hwy 297 Park; the area of potential effect (and thus our project area) is about 145 acres (58 .7 ha). The larger southern tract is referred to as the I-16 Park; excluding delineated wetlands and protected gopher tortoise habitat, the remaining area of potential effect (and thus our project area) is about 492 acres (199.1 ha). The Emanuel County Development Authority intends to submit a Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development application, which requires surveys to determine the presence of cultural resources (archaeological sites and historic structures) within the project's area of potential effect and an assessment of likely consequences (effects) of the proposed project on significant cultural resources. Significance is measured by whether a site or structure is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Neither tract contains any standing structures and no standing structures older than 50 years (as measured from the start date of this project in 2019) are within view of either tract. A standing brick house within view of the Hwy 297 Park is recorded as being built in 1969 and occupied soon after. With the absence of historic structures, our investigation was entirely archaeological.

The nearly 600-ac (242-ha) I-16 Park tract had been surveyed for wetlands and endangered species prior to our survey, and the delineated wetlands and endangered species habitat will be avoided, preserved and protected, and thus did not require archaeological survey. Of the remaining 492 acres (199.1 ha) that required archaeological survey, all but about 20 ac (8.0 ha) of cleared and grubbed land near the entrance was wooded and required systematic shovel testing. That testing resulted in the discovery and recording of seven archaeological sites, three of which are sparse prehistoric lithic scatters, two of which are prehistoric lithic and ceramic scatters (indicative of occupation) and two are historic period (mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century) house sites. As shown in Table 1, we recommend that six of the seven sites on the I-16 Park tract are not eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The largest site with the most artifacts, including the most prehistoric pottery, site 9EM149, is recommended as potentially eligible to the National Register. We notified the Emanuel County Development Authority of our recommendation, and they said they intend to avoid, preserve and protect this archaeological site (which adjoins protected wetlands), allowing no development on the site. With this protection, we recommend that no significant archaeological sites on the I-16 Park tract will be affected by proposed development.