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 Beginning in the summer of 1997, Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests Passport In Time projects concentrated on Scull Shoals. The first year, 25 volunteers spent two weeks excavating the "Two-Chimney House" under direction of Forest Archaeologist Dr. Jack T. Wynn and Professor Judson Kratzer, of Armstrong-Atlantic State University, Savannah, GA. It was most likely a manager's home, built in the mid-19th century, with a grand view of the village.
For several years, our summer residential camps were housed at the Rock Eagle 4-H Center, where we stayed in air conditioned luxury with hot showers, and bought our meals in the 4-H cafeteria. This provided much-appreciated creature comforts for the volunteers and their professional directors. Cafeteria staff even provided box lunches for us each day. This part of the program was discontinued when we went to weekend work, as described below. In 1998, our volunteer teams investigated the "Four-Chimney house," which probably was the boarding house, built 2,000 feet back from the river by about 1828, well away from the noise of the mills. Later the house was nearly doubled in size, then destroyed in a fierce fire late in the century, and was not rebuilt. The summer of 1999, we turned our attention to the downtown area, and sought foundations of other buildings. There we found both industrial and residential artifacts around foundations of at least two structures, probably mill worker's homes. We also uncovered the foundations an early mill building in dense privet thickets near the river. Abandoning the middle-Georgia summer heat (often over 100 F), humidity (nearly 100% daily), ticks, chiggers, and mosquitoes (too dense to count!), we opted for year-round weekend projects. This came after one of the teachers said they could get credit for weekend and holiday study projects, and weren't restricted to summers. (Why didn't she mention that years ago?)  Mrs.
Caroline Hunt's 1978 historic research had found an 1875 plat map of the
village, prepared for sale of the property. It was a surveyor's map of precise
corners, azimuths and distances. Later someone had sketched in locations
of structures, without much attention to precision. Professor Kratzer's
lab work included scanning and enlarging the central part of the map, and
allowed us to identify with some precision which structures were represented.
It also indicated locations of structures that remain to be found. In November 1999, we began the weekend digs, working Friday-Sunday, one weekend a month, continuing in January through May. Kratzer's laboratory analysis of the summer data showed that the artifacts from downtown were the earliest we had found. They dated to 1780-1820, the time of the earliest Scull Shoals settlements. In the winter of 2000, volunteers found a nicely dated piece of a drinking mug by a large post that may mark the location of that early fort. We also opened foundations of other possible worker houses downtown. Laboratory work on weekends attempts to keep up with excavations. --And all that is just the public archaeology!  Historical
investigations keep pace with the excavations, as volunteers search the
Georgia State Archives, the Special Collections Library at the University
of Georgia, and trace descendants of Scull Shoals villagers. Library volunteers
found census data, newspaper accounts, photographs, letters, records, and
bills. Another found a 1919 county soils map that shows old roads, houses,
and a schoolhouse.Other volunteers pursue oral history of the town. They interview elderly residents of the area, who share stories with us. Descendants tell us of their parents' and grand parents' lives in the village. The Friends members staffed a tent at Greene County's Southland Jubilee in April. 2000. There they found newcomers and natives who volunteered to help, so our local membership expands.  |
