Archeological Survey of the Hanks Site

A corporate client of the consulting firm ARCADIS, Geraghty and Miller, Inc. is considering developing a ca. 81 ha (200 ac) tract of land about 6 kin east of LaGrange in Troup County. For their planning purposes, the client requested that the tract be archeologically surveyed so that they would be apprised of potentially significant cultural resources that might affect their development plans. Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. conducted a Phase I archeological survey of the tract in mid-October, 1998, followed by Phase II testing of one site later in the month. Five sites and two isolated artifact occurrences were recorded. Two of the sites are twentieth century farmsteads, one is a sparse prehistoric lithic scatter, one is a pair of rock piles and one (9TP912) is the ca. 1830s homestead of Theophilus Flowers, who is buried on the site in a box tomb. The Flowers place was also occupied late in the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century. Because of the potential for early to mid-nineteenth century features and information at the Flowers home site, 9TP912 was tested with systematic shovel tests, detailed mapping and four 1x2 in test units. This testing revealed almost no artifacts and features dating to the first occupation of the site; most artifacts date to the twentieth century. Consequently, we recommend that it and the other four sites are not eligible to the National Register of Historic Places and warrant no further work. If the area near the grave is to be developed, a permit to affect, move or avoid the grave site will need to be secured from the local governing authority in accordance with Georgia Code Section 36-72. We probed around the grave to locate other graves and the results were inconclusive; there could be only the single grave (Flowers' box tomb) or possibly two other graves.