Cultural Resource Survey of Beasley Knob Road Area, Union County, Georgia

This cultural resource survey covers 233 acres of proposed timber sale area, with its service roads in the Cooks and Nelson Coves, below Beasley Knob in Union County. All of the area had been previously logged and much of it was farmed; it is now forested. No significant sites were found on the property to be entered and clearance for the road and timber sale projects is recommended. A cultural resource survey of the Beasley Knob Road and timber sale areas was conducted by the author in January 1984. The area surveyed was in Compartment 367 of the Brasstown Ranger District, Chattahoochee National Forest. It was in two pieces within Tract C-1053a. This area was in Section 1, District 7 and Land Lots 286 through 291 of Union County, east of Highway 19/129, just south of Blairsville. Figures 1 and 2 locate the survey area. This survey area is on the south-facing slopes of Beasley Knob, drained by Cooks and Akins Creeks in Cooks and Nelson Coves, tributary to the north-flowing Nottely River. Elevations range from 2000 to 2400 feet AMSL. The parcel is in the Blue Ridge Mountains Physiographic Province (Clark and Zisa 1976), a rugged mountain mass with differences in elevation of 15001 feet between peaks and valleys. These are broad U-shaped valleys, with most of the National forest land in the upper ends and on the upper slopes. The valley is gently sloping to nearly level in the bottom, then rapidly increasing in steepness. The upper slopes are extremely steep: 50 to 60 percent slope or greater. We have no published soil survey for Union County but soils data available in Forest Supervisor's Office, Gainesville, Georgia, indicate that the majority of soils in this valley are Tusquittee, Citico, and Tate soils formed of transported materials on the steep slopes. Mostly moist and medium textured, they are critically steep (25 to 60 percent) on the upper slopes and subject to erosion. The ridgetops have droughty stony gneissic soils of medium texture. They are of the Ashe-Edneyville Association, as are the soils on the upper slopes of the ridges.