Archaeological Surveys at Elachee Nature Science Center Gainesville, Georgia

This is a brief report on the surveys conducted on the Chicopee Woods Nature Preserve at the Elachee Nature Science Center, Gainesville, Hall County, Georgia (Figure 1) by volunteer members of the Georgia Mountains Archaeological Society (GMAS) meeting at Elachee from 2004-2008. This was a pedestrian archaeological survey at the initial sampling level to determine where major concentrations of archaeological (prehistoric and historic) remains are within the Chicopee Woods Nature Preserve. This survey was sponsored by the Elachee Nature Science Elachee-GMAS Survey, 2004-2008 p.4 Center of Gainesville, Georgia. This sample survey should guide a more detailed survey of the whole Nature Preserve and possible additional surrounding lands under contract at a future date. Previous random surface collections and at least one small test excavation suggest that the Preserve was used by people in nearly all of the known cultural time periods since ca. 9,000 B.C. It was farmed from the 1780s (Dorsey 1991 :1) until purchased by the Johnson family as buffer land for the Chicopee Mills and Village in 1926. The results of this and the final survey will be used to support the educational curriculum of the Elachee Nature Science Center. The initial sampling survey was conducted by members of the Georgia Mountains Archaeological Society under the direction of professional archaeologists and sponsorship of Elachee Nature Science Center (Elachee). Reports on the investigations were submitted by letter to the Elachee Director, and short reports were published in the SGA newsletter, The Profile (Wynn 2005, 2006, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c).