Cultural Resources Survey of Dyar Pasture Pond Oconee National Forest Greene County. Georgia

A cultural resources survey was conducted on March 29 and April 13, 1989, in preparation for the construction of a duck pond water control structure near Dyar Pasture in northwestern Greene County, Georgia (Figure 1). It was carried out by the author, with the assistance of volunteers from the Georgia Mountains Archaeological Society and U.S. Forest Service soil scientists and hydrologists. The waterfowl project will be located on an unnamed tributary of the Oconee River which at times forms part of Lake Oconee. It will involve a large open area which is often flooded by rains or the fluctuations of the present lake level. It was flooded at the time of this survey, and at other times it has been visited by the author. The project is in the vicinity of the confluence of Greenbriar Creek with the Oconee River. Dyar Pasture hunt camp and boat launch, near the duck pond, are approached via Copeland road (County Road 25), off the Greshamville to Farmington Road. The location is shown on the Greshamville USGS Quadrangle. The planned construction consists of excavating borrow soil from a current gullied area and transporting it to the mouth of the unnamed stream, at the south end of the proposed duck pond. There it will be used to form an earthen dike or dam from the main ridge out to a peninsula (Figure 2). That peninsula is formed by an old natural levee parallel to the Oconee River. The peninsula and the dike will then enclose an area of some 52 acres which will be kept flooded to a shallow depth to provide wildfowl habitat. The borrow area will be left open, to provide a watering area for livestock which use the adjacent Dyar Pasture. This will prevent problems now created by their use of a fenced but otherwise open edge of the river at this point.