Phase I Cultural Resources Investigations and Assessment of Effects of the Savannah River International Trade Park

Between April 5 and 13, on June 16, and between December 12 and 17, 2021, Brockington and Associates, Inc. (Brockington), conducted a Phase I cultural resources survey and Assessment of Effects of the 113-acre Savannah River International Trade Park in Chatham County, Georgia. The investigation consisted of an archaeological survey of the project tract and an architectural survey of the project tract and the surrounding viewshed. This cultural resources investigation was carried out for the Georgia Ports Authority on behalf of AECOM in partial fulfilment of guidelines established for Section 404 of the Clean Water Act permit.

Background research conducted on Georgia’s Natural, Archaeological, and Historic Resources GIS website (GNAHRGIS) identified no previously recorded cultural resources within the project tract. Twenty-nine previously recorded archaeological sites, one previously recorded historic resource (Resource, 5881), and seven previously conducted cultural resources investigations were identified within 1.0 kilometer (0.62 mile) of the project tract.

Brockington conducted both an archaeological field survey and an architectural field survey within the Area of Potential Effect (APE) of the project tract. The archaeological field survey included systematic visual reconnaissance and 30-meter-interval shovel testing. The field survey identified that much of the project tract is situated in low-lying sandy flats, depressions, and drainages, and planted pine stands. Our field investigation identified two isolated finds, two archaeological sites (9CH1546 and 9CH1547), and three historic landscape features associated with Drakies Plantation.

Site 9CH1546 consists of a pre-contact and post-contact artifact scatter. The post-contact scatter dates to the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century and is associated with the enslaved occupants of Drakies Plantation. Site 9CH1546 has an unknown National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility status and requires further testing. Site 9CH1547 is a late nineteenth- to mid-twentieth century cemetery and is recommended eligible for the NRHP. We recommend avoidance of the potentially NRHP-contributing portions of Site 9CH1546 and all of Site 9CH1547, and that a 50-foot wooded buffer should be maintained around their boundaries. If avoidance is not feasible for Site 9CH1546, we recommend conducting Phase II evaluative testing in the potentially NRHP-contributing areas to definitively determine the NRHP eligibility status of those areas of the site. If avoidance of Site 9CH1547 is not feasible, then we recommend the creation of a cemetery relocation plan in accordance with requirements and guidelines established by the State of Georgia (i.e., the Georgia Burial Codes: Code Sections 36-72-1 through 16; 44-12-260 through 264; 12-3-52 through 53; 12-3-620 through 622; 31-21-6; 31-21-45; and 44-12-280 through 285). Current concept designs for the proposed project indicate that no direct or indirect impacts will occur to either the potentially NRHP-contributing portion of 9CH1546 or 9CH1547 or the proposed 50-foot buffers. Therefore, there will be no adverse effect to either 9CH1546 or 9CH1547.

The three historic landscape features (two roadways and a drainage canal) within the APE are associated with Drakies Plantation. The overall eligibility and integrity of a possible Drakies Plantation Historic District is unknown, and additional survey outside of the project’s APE would need to be conducted to determine the eligibility of it. None of the three landscape features identified within the project’s APE are individually eligible for the NRHP. It is currently unknown if the segment of the Plantation Road within the APE is eligible for the NRHP. Avoidance of the roadway is recommended. However, current concept designs for the project indicate that a small segment of the Plantation Road will be impacted and there will be an adverse effect. Therefore, if this impact cannot be altered, then we recommend mitigation through a PAR documentation of this segment of the Plantation Road or a Power Point video presentation that could be submitted to the City of Savannah "Hungry for History Lectures"; no historic narrative should be necessary given the documentation of the plantation history in Granger (1947). The other two landscape features in the APE (the Graveyard Road and the Drainage Canal) are noncontributing elements to the overall eligibility of Drakies Plantation, and additional management consideration of these two features is not necessary.