Preliminary Report: Cultural Resources Surveys of the Blizzard Salvage Areas in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests

A cultural resources survey was conducted on portions of all eight Ranger Districts in the Chatahoochee-Oconee National Forest in North and central Georgia. This effort has included survey of National Forest lands in Walker, Whitfield, Floyd, Chattooga, Murray, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Jones, and Greens Counties, Georgia, and occurs prior to timber salvage operations made necessary by recent storm damage accuring from the March 1993 Blizzard. The surveys were conducted under a letter of agreement between the US Forest Service and Georgia SHPO, (APPENDIX I), Signed April 6, 1993. This emergency timber salvage proposes to include two types of operations, the first of which recommends salvage along roadsides within a 100 meter corridor to either side of the road. This neccesitated the cultural resource survey of a series of roads in the Brasstown, Chatooga, Toccoa, and Tallulah Districts. The second type of operation would include the removal of timber in larger blocks scattered across the Armuchee, Cohutta, Chestatee, and Oconee Districts and involved the use of log landings and access roads. Accordingly, those compartments in the Armuchee District which held proposed log landings and access roads for this salvage and which were therefore the focus of archaeological survey include: Compartments 903, 904, 905, 913, 916, 917, 918, 9Z5, 9Z6, 9Z7, 9Z9, 937, 945, 967, 949, 950, 95Z, and 953. These compartments range throughout the district, but fall into thirteen general sale areas. In the Cohutta District, Compartments 711, 712, 713, 717, 771, 772, 774, and 782 were surveyed. These compartments were concentrated in the southern portion of the district. The Chestatee District survey included the Boggs Timber Sale Compartments 541, 543, 549; the Wahsega Road Timber Sale Campartmeat 566; Nimblewill Road Timber Sale Compartments 585, 586; and Upper Nimbelwill Sale Compartments 576, 577, 580, 581. Other survey areas in the Chestatee District include Ccmpartsents 564, 565, 571, 573, 575, 382, 583, and 588. In the Oconee District, Compartments 4 thru 10, 101, 123, 132, 134, 135, 136, 155, 156, 157, 173/183, 181, 182, 191, and 192 were surveyed. These compartments were scattered throughout the Forest (Figure 1). In the Armuchee District, one previously recorded site (GA01-270), was encountered and twelve sites and two isolates were recorded. Ten of these may be described as historic house sites, another likely represents evidence of a Civil War period entrenchment, and the last site exhibits terracing and rock piles associated with former cultivation. Both isolated finds were prehistoric lithic materials. In the Cohutta District, four sites and one isolate were recorded. These included one historic logging rail grade, one historic house site, and two prehistoric lithic scatters. The isolated find may be described as a prehistoric flake. On the Chestatee District, eight sites and two isolates were recorded. These included six prehistoric lithic scatters and two historic house sites. The isolated finds were prehistoric flakes. On the Oconee District, two sites were recorded, including one historic house site and one prehistoric lithic scatter. One site was recorded as a result of road corridor survey in the Tallulah District. This was a prehistoric lithic scatter. This intensive archaeological survey resulted in the identification of a total of 28 prehistoric and historic sites and 5 isolated finds. Approximately 60 miles of road corridor as well as 250 landings and 22 access roads were investigated.