Cultural Resource Investigations Stevens Creek Hydroelectric Project
Edgefield and McCormick Counties, South Carolina and Columbia County, Georgia

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requires applicants for new licenses or renewal of existing licenses to operate hydroelectric projects to identify significant archaeological and historical resources within project boundaries and to develop plans for long-term management of such resources. The Louis Berger Group, Inc. (Berger) has assisted South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G) with the proposed re-licensing of its Stevens Creek Hydroelectric facility, located along the Savannah River in Edgefield and McCormick counties, South Carolina, and Columbia County, Georgia, by completing cultural resource investigations and by preparing a cultural resource management plan for significant resources located within the project area.

In 1994, Berger developed a research plan for supplementary archaeological investigations within the project area. The cultural resource investigations included background research, pedestrian reconnaissance, and archaeological and historical identification and archaeological subsurface testing. In addition, a geomorphological study was undertaken to document the present soil conditions in the project area and to determine the potential for locating intact buried deposits of cultural material. As a result of the field testing, 15 previously unrecorded sites, 12 located in South Carolina and 3 located in Georgia, and several isolated artifact localities were recorded and evaluated. Site boundaries were refined and determinations of eligibility were made for 16 previously recorded sites. Of these 31 sites, five were recommended as eligible, seven were recommended as potentially eligible, and the remaining sites were recommended as not eligible for the National Register.

Berger has drafted a Cultural Resources Management Plan for the Stevens Creek Hydroelectric Project, which will serve as a practical guide for SCE&G personnel in understanding and meeting their cultural resource responsibilities. The draft was reviewed by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and will be finalized within the coming year (2001). Berger has also prepared a document for public distribution which outlines the significant historic and archaeological resources within the Stevens Creek project area.