Millers Ferry 1963-1968

The Millers Ferry 1963-1968 investigation is the responsibility of USACE, Mobile District, and is curated by the OAR in Moundville, Alabama. The collection consists of historic and prehistoric artifacts recovered from the archaeological investigation of 27 sites in the area of the Millers Ferry Lock and Dam reservoir, Wilcox County, Alabama. USACE, Mobile District planned the construction of the Millers Ferry Lock and Dam on the Alabama River under the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1945. The reservoir was planned to cover 17,200 acres and create 500 miles of coastline. USACE, Mobile District was mandated to perform archaeological mitigation prior to construction of the dam to preserve cultural and historical resources that would be inundated during construction of the reservoir (Rose 1964).

The University of Alabama was contracted to perform the archaeological investigation under a cooperative non-profit arrangement (Millers Ferry 1963-1968 archives, on file at the Office of Archaeological Research). David L. DeJarnette, Curator of the University of Alabama and Associate Professor of Anthropology, served as the overall project director. Field investigations were directed by graduate students John W. Cottier and Craig T. Sheldon (Cottier 1968). The university’s initial field work consisted of surveys in 1963 which identified 27 prehistoric sites - 1WX1, 1WX10-1WX25, 1WX25X1, 1WX26, 1WX27, 1WX27X1, and 1WX28- 1WX33 - in the anticipated reservoir flood plain. Sites 1WX25X1 and 1WX27X1 were subsequently renamed 1WX39 and 1WX40 during a revision to the Alabama site files (Office of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District Millers Ferry 1963-1968 Curation Management Project Archaeological Research 1990). These sites underwent further archaeological exploration between 1964 and 1966. A final report on the 1963-1968 investigations titled “Archaeological Salvage Investigations in the Millers Ferry Lock and Dam Reservoir” was submitted by John W. Cottier in May 1968. An addendum titled “The Alabama River Phase: A Brief Description of a Late Phase in the Prehistory of South Central Alabama” by John W. Cottier was published in August 1970.

In March of 2001, Brockington and Associates, Inc. performed a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) analysis of the Millers Ferry 1963-1968 collection (Atz and Huddleston 2003). Materials from a provenience with known NAGPRA-related materials were separated from the main collection. Labels were affixed to each box upon completion of the inventory and tags placed inside secondary containers to indicate that they had been inspected. A NAGPRA compliance report on the collection, incorporating the results of the 2001 inventory, was submitted to USACE, Mobile District in 2003 (ibid).

In 2012, the Augusta VCP initiated the first phase of a rehabilitation project on the Millers Ferry 1963-1968 collection. Fifty-one boxes of artifacts were transported from OAR to the Augusta VCP, which was staffed at that time by Brockington and Associates, Inc. These boxes contained artifacts from 23 of the 27 sites making up the Millers Ferry 1963-1968 collection, including 1WX10–1WX14, 1WX16, 1WX17, 1WX19–1WX31, 1WX33, 1WX39, and 1WX40 (Roberts 2012). Artifacts from other sites in the Millers Ferry 1963-1968 investigation were not processed during the first phase of the rehabilitation project because of the large numbers of burials associated with those sites.

All artifacts in the first phase of the rehabilitation effort were processed according to the standard procedures utilized by the Augusta VCP and OAR guidelines. The associated archives collection was also digitized and conserved during the first phase of the rehabilitation project. After processing, the artifacts were rearranged by site number and assigned lots based on Artifact ID. The artifacts were packed into 43 new acid-free cardboard boxes which were labeled according to OAR guidelines with a new box number, the project name, and the site numbers and lot numbers in each box. In 2012 these 43 boxes were returned to OAR for storage until the completion of the final phase of the rehabilitation project. The Augusta VCP report “Collection Management Project Report for Millers Ferry 1936-1968” was submitted to USACE, Mobile District the same year (Roberts 2012).

The digital materials in this collection were processed by the Veterans Curation Program (VCP), and include the artifact catalog, artifact report, finding aid, original investigation report, oversized material spreadsheet, photographic material spreadsheet, scanned asset key, and select archival and artifact photographs. Additional digital materials held by the VCP include additional artifact photographs, box labels, budget documentation, contracts, daily reports, document folder listing, field specimen forms, initial data collection, maps, notes, OAR document, OAR photo inventory, records removal sheet, sketches, survey documents, and trench profiles. For additional information on these materials, refer to the Finding Aid.