Cultural Resource Survey of the Proposed Bradley Farms Preserve Mitigation Bank Stewart County, Georgia

Southern Research, Historic Preservation Consultants, Inc. conducted a Cultural Resources Survey of an area proposed for a Stream and Wetland Mitigation Bank in Stewart County, Georgia. The proposed Mitigation Bank is located on an approximately 400 acre tract south and east of the confluence of Rood Creek and the Chattahoochee River. The purpose of the investigation was to identify all cultural resources within an approximately 319 acre Area of Potential Effect (APE) and assess their eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Because the mitigation bank requires U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permitting, compliance with Section 106 is required. Background research determined that there were two previously recorded archaeological sites adjacent to the property. Site 9Sw1 is the Rood Site containing at least eight earthen mounds and a village area. During the Middle Mississippian Period of southeastern prehistory (AD 1200) the location was a major political center. It is located immediately across Rood Creek from the APE. The proposed mitigation bank will have no effect on the Rood Site. Site 9Sw19 is situated west of the proposed APE and dates to many periods of Native American prehistory and history including occupations contemporaneous with the Rood Site directly across Rood Creek. There was also a Historic Creek Indian occupation that probably dated between 1750 and 1827. Site 9Sw19 was subjected to Phase Two testing by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in the mid 1980s. The results of this work convinced the investigators to recommend that the site was not eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The proposed mitigation bank will have no effect on site 9Sw19. The current survey recorded nine previously unknown archaeological sites within the APE. They include sites dating to the Archaic, Woodland and Mississippian Periods of prehistory and the Historic Creek Indian and 20th Century Historic Periods. Most of the archaeological sites within the tract are not significant, having lost their ability to contribute to questions or issues of history or prehistory. Past land uses that have contributed to the loss of integrity include intensive farming. Three sites (9Sw230, 9Sw231 and 9Sw234) are potentially significant as they have archaeological deposits that appear to have escaped serious impact from past land uses.