Archaeological Survey of Proposed Widening of U. S. Highway 129 between Athens and Arcade, Clarke and Jackson Counties, Georgia

The Georgia Department of Transportation is proposing to widen U.S. Highway 129 (also known as State Route 15) from north of Athens in Clarke County northwestward to the south side of Arcade in Jackson County, a distance of 16.7 km (10.4 mi). Most of the widening will occur on the south and west side of the existing highway and will require a right-of-way extending about 38 m (125 ft) from the edge of the existing pavement. However, the widening will switch to the north and east side in places and will straddle the existing highway in some other places, so the width of the proposed right-of-way varies. The area of potential effect for the survey was the maximum width of right-of-way or construction corridor within which the highway is to be widened. The entire project area was archaeologically surveyed in February and March 1999. No previous sites had been recorded in the project area, although several are nearby. Our survey located and recorded 14 archeological sites. These consist almost entirely of late nineteenth to mid twentieth century house sites, as shown in Table 1: We recommend that none of the sites meet any of the criteria for eligibility to the National Register of Historic Places because they lack research potential due to lack of integrity, feature potential, and meaningful artifact distributions. No further work is recommended at the sites. The active Redstone United Methodist Church Cemetery will be affected by the proposed project, and such an effect will need to be permitted by the Superior Court with jurisdiction in accordance with OCGA 36-72.