Archaeological Survey of Alternative Routings of the Propose Ellijay-Roundtop 230 kV Transmission Line South of Carters Lake, Gilmer County, Georgia

From April 21 through April 23, 2015, Southeastern Archaeological Services, Inc. (SAS) archaeologically surveyed two alternative routes for a proposed transmission line corridor across private land south of Corps of Engineers land at Carters Lake. Option A largely follows a route surveyed in 2014, but is slightly more eastward and diverges at the north end. Option B is mostly on new location to the east of Option A and the original 2014 corridor, but all three corridors overlap at the north end, just south of Carters Lake. The Option A corridor is about 1.09 km (3,580 ft) long and Option B is about 1.18 km (3.870 ft) long. Although construction is expected to occur in a 30-m (100-ft) wide corridor, we surveyed a 60-m (200-ft) wide corridor, centered on the proposed center lines. This wider corridor would include any guy wire anchors that might be needed.

Three new sites, 9GI233, 9GI234 and 9GI235, an extension of one previously recorded site, 9GI232, and two isolated finds were discovered within the two 200-ft wide corridors. All six of those newly discovered sites and isolated finds are sparse, ridge-top prehistoric lithic scatters. In addition to these six cultural resources, previously recorded historic house site 9GI231 lies at the extreme western edge of the Option A corridor. In all, parts of four sites, 9GI233 and 9GI235, both isolated finds are in corridor Option B. No culturally diagnostic artifacts were recovered. We recommend that none of the sites or isolated finds are eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places because all are poorly preserved and lack research potential. Therefore, we conclude that the proposed undertaking, the construction of a transmission line within a 100-ft wide cleared corridor at either alternative, will not affect any significant (eligible) archaeological sites.