Proposal for Historical and Archaeological Investigations in the Wallace Reservoir of the Georgia Power Company

The proposed Wallace Dam at Laurens Shoals will flood parts of the Oconee and Apalachee Valleys to a point 435.6 feet above sea level. Counties to be affected by flooding will be Greene, Hancock, Morgan and Putnam. The Georgia Power Company plans to have the dam completed in 1975. Clearing of the trees from the reservoir area will begin in 1973. The purpose of the present archaeological survey was to determine what historic and prehistoric sites and monuments lie within the proposed reservoir and will be flooded or damaged. The survey was contracted by the Georgia Power Company to the National Park Service in partial fulfillment of the terms of licensing by the Federal Power Commission. The Park Service, in turn, entered into a contract for survey with the University of Georgia, which has made surveys of other Power Company reservoirs and sites of installations. The survey was made by Archie C. Smith under the direction of Professor Joseph R. Caldwell of the University of Georgia and Mr. Marshall W. Williams of Madison Georgia . Mr. Smith's report, entitled "Specific Results of Reconnaissance ," is reproduced as Appendix A of this Proposal. Much of Mr. Smith 's concern was with prehistoric sites in the reservoir area, but he also noted as many historic sites as he could find. Coincident with the reconnaissance, but taking much more time, were Caroline C. Hunt's historical researches bearing on the reservoir area. These are presented here as Appendix B, "Oconee: Temporary Boundary." The amount of money allotted to these preliminary researches was quite insufficient . More will be said about this in Section IV - The Proposed Research Budget. We therefore must thank various persons who, without renumeration , documented the complex history and prehistory of the area. Our thanks to Caroline C. Hunt, for many hours of historical research and the splendid report which resulted; our thanks to Marshall C. Williams and Mark Williams for many hours of survey and reconnaissance, and finally, our thanks to Sheila K. Caldwell for making the site map which accompanies Mr. Smith's report. We wish also to express our appreciation to various students of the University of Georgia who made test excavations in the Reservoir area, to members of the Staff of the Georgia Power Company, and to landowners in the proposed reservoir area, particularly E. A. Armor and Charles Copeland of Greensboro, Georgia.