Archaeological Survey of the Proposed Dawson Crossing to Juno 115 kV Transmission Line, Dawson County, Georgia - Addendum

In December, 2006 Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc., conducted a Phase I archeological survey of a proposed 15.1 km (9.4 mi) transmission line in central Dawson County, Georgia (Gresham 2007). The Georgia Transmission Corporation is proposing to construct a 115 kV line within a corridor that is usually 23 m (75 ft) wide when it runs along a highway and 30 m (100 ft) wide when it runs cross-country. The proposed corridor along 0.63 km (0.4 mi) of State Route 53 was 60 m (200 ft) wide. Most of the project area was wooded, but there was also a moderate density of housing and other buildings along State Route 183. The goal of the survey was to locate, describe, and evaluate archeological resources within the area of potential effect for the proposed project, so that potential effects to those resources could be evaluated in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The area of potential effect was defined as the proposed corridor (of varying widths) plus additional 30 m (100 ft) tangents (for guy wires) at turns in the line. Archival research had indicated that no archeological sites had been recorded in the project area and that few historic period structures would be expected. The additional work conducted in 2007 and reported herein is depicted in Figure 1 and consists of 1. Survey of six segments of access roads, totaling 1.9 km (1.2 mi). 2. Survey of eastern half of existing transmission line south of SR 53, totaling 4.7 km (2.9 mi). 3. Testing of site 9DW171, a large prehistoric lithic scatter centered on the parsonage of McKees Chapel, in which two transmission line poles are to be placed. This additional work was needed because the location of the access roads were not known at the time of the original survey; because at the time of the original survey it was thought that the new corridor would be placed on the west side of the existing corridor south of SR 53 and thus only the western half was surveyed; and because final construction plans had not been formulated on the four sites recommended as potentially eligible and thus precise effects on these sites could not be evaluated. In regard to the four sites recommended potentially eligible by Gresham (2007), adverse effects to three of them could be entirely avoided by careful design. Effects to the fourth site could not be avoided, necessitating Phase II archeological testing of the portion of the site to be affected. The effects to the site would be from placing two poles within the site area.