Preliminary Archaeological Data Recovery Investigations of the Proposed Site of a Public Housing Development in Montezuma, Macon County

A preliminary data recovery investigation of a proposed 9 acre site of a public housing development was conducted by Garrow & Associates, Inc. for the Housing Authority of the City of Montezuma, Georgia from December 3 to 8, 1991. The project area is situated on a high terrace near the Flint River in the Coastal Plain region of Georgia. The entire project area was subjected to pedestrian survey, using both surface inspection and systematic subsurface testing techniques to determine the nature and extent of the cultural resources reported by two previous surveys to be present there. The historic frontier town of Travelers Rest is reported to have existed at the project location in the early to mid nineteenth century. The two previous surveys located a wide scatter of nineteenth-century historic materials, but did not determine the site's potential eligibility to be included in the National Register of Historic Places. The data recovery efforts were divided into a two-tiered approach, with Tier 1 tasks aimed at determining whether significant remains of the Travelers Rest occupation are present on the project area and to delineate these significant remains for either avoidance or further excavation to mitigate the effects of the project. The second tier was planned as additional archaeological research, if the Tier 1 research indicated that this was warranted. The Tier 1 research has determined, through a systematic shovel testing program and extensive background research, that the town of Travelers Rest did indeed lie within the project area. In addition, potential intact features below the plow zone were identified, which potentially allow the site deposits to meet criterion D for inclusion to the National Register of Historic Places. The extensive nature of the deposits across the entire project area precludes avoidance within the tract as a viable mitigative measure. Therefore, Tier 2 task implementation at this site is recommended to mitigate the effects of the project construction.