An Archeological Survey of Two Proposed Reservoir Areas, Rocky River Basin, North Carolina

• Main Authors: Abbott, Lawrence E , Jr, Sanborn, Erica E, Marshall, R J , III, Woodall, J N, Vacca, Michele N
• Other Authors: WAKE FOREST UNIV WINSTON-SALEM NC ARCHEOLOGICAL LAB
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1987
• Subjects: Humanities and History; *ARCHEOLOGY; NORTH CAROLINA; STREAMS; VALLEYS; RESERVOIRS; LAND AREAS; SITES; SURVEYS; ARCHEOLOGY; BASINS(GEOGRAPHIC); CLUSTERING; CONSTRUCTION; DAMS; EROSION; FORESTS; LABORATORIES; PILE STRUCTURES; RIVERS; ROCK; SAMPLING; STRATIFICATION; STRUCTURES; UNIVERSITIES; WAKE; WALLS; Rocky River; Indian; Archeological Survey
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA191340; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA191340

Beginning in October of 1985 the Archeology Laboratories of Wake Forest University undertook a survey of two potential reservoir areas in Stanley and Union countries, North Carolina. For each reservoir area a 100% pedestrian survey was conducted in the sector to be disturbed by dam construction, with the floodpool area sampled by means of a stratified cluster sampling design. In the Lambert reservoir area (Stanley Country) a total of 169 hectare was surveyed, 81 in the dam site and 88 in the flood pool area. In the Marshville reservoir area another 81 hectare dam site survey was conducted, and an additional 124 hectares studied from the floodpool. Seventy-one archeological sites were found as a result of these efforts, along with nine standing structures, several historic cemetemes and various field-clearing sites (rock piles, walls). The prehistoric resources are almost exclusively lithic sites, most assignable to the Archaic stage. No Paleo-Indian sites were located. Of the 71 archeological sites recorded, only one prehistoric site, 31Un65, appears eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The remainder are deflated, removed from context by erosion and otherwise disturbed, or else contain so few artifacts and no subsurface features that it is unlikely they would yield information important to history or prehistory. The standing structures include a mill and a farmstead of the post-Civil War period, both apparently eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.