Archaeological Survey of the Proposed Alternate B Suttons Corner Bypass, Clay County, Georgia

Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. (SAS) conducted a Phase I intensive archeological survey of a proposed new alternative bypass of US 27/SR 1 around the crossroads community of Suttons Corner in eastern Clay County for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). The archeological project was executed in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, which requires that federal agencies take into account effects of an undertaking on historic properties. An early historic resources survey had identified the eligible Suttons Corner Historic District, and several alternative routes for a bypass to avoid the district were proposed and archeologically surveyed in 1995 and 2001. A new alternative was proposed in 2007, and this was the subject the survey reported herein. The survey was conducted in June and July 2007. The Scope of Work allowed for Phase II testing investigation of sites for which a determination of eligibility could not be made with survey phase information alone. No such Phase II testing was needed. The area of potential effect (APE) for this project was an initial corridor that was about 152 m (500 ft) wide and 3.5 km (2.2 mi) long. The corridor tapers into the existing right-of-way of US 27/SR 1 at the north and south ends of the project. After encountering a potentially eligible archeological site, the corridor width was expanded to the east as much as 65 m (131 ft) for a distance of 800 m (2,625 ft), and this new segment was then surveyed.