A cultural resources inventory study of over 2.300 acres within the interriverine Piedmont of South Carolina (Clarks Hill Lake) was conducted for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District. The focus of this study was a federal land surplus tract within the lower Little River-Buffalo Creek drainage area. Field survey located 108 previously unrecorded sites, including prehistoric campsites, late historic (19th/early 20th century) homesteads, 19th century cemeteries, and historic period rock pile sites. Of particular research and historical significance were a stratified upland Paleoindian campsite: James L. Petigru's Badwell plantation; a Probable black yeoman farmstead: a tenant farmstead; and a rural black schoolhouse site (Martha's Chapel School). Based on the combined results of the field survey and testing program, archival-documentary-informant research, and prior archaeological study of the Savannah River drainage, a general model of prehistoric and historic site location for the Piedmont sector of this drainage system is proposed for use by federal managers, with emphasis on the Little River watershed.
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