Buford Reservoir Sites 1951-1955

The Veterans Curation Program utilizes the standard archival practice of unique naming of collections. The purpose of this practice is to avoid redundant and confusing collection names commonly found with archaeological investigations. Therefore, this collection is referred to as “Buford Reservoir Sites 1951-1955.” This name is consistent throughout the finding aid, the file folders, and the box labels. The extent of this collection is six linear inches.

Documentation associated with Buford Reservoir Sites 1951-1955 was originally housed in one box and divided between sixteen acidic folders. These folders were in no particular order and some documents were loose in the box. Some cleaning, mending, and containment removal was necessary. Non-archival pressure sensitive tape was removed. Personally identifiable information (PII) was removed in from field documents and correspondence in accordance with Veterans Curation Program protocols.

Multiple reports were written by both Charles Fairbanks and Joseph Caldwell; however, there is no official final report that represents a culmination of all the archaeological investigations. Most of the available reports or publications focused on specific portions of the project. One report, Appraisal of the Archeological Resources, Buford Reservoir in Hall, Forsyth, Dawson, and Gwinnett Counties, Northern, Georgia, was published by the Smithsonian Institution as part of the 1953 River Basin Survey. There is also an undated manuscript entitled The Booger Bottom Mound: A Forsyth Period Site in Hall County, Georgia that was written by Joseph Caldwell, Charles Thompson and Sheila Caldwell. Charles Fairbanks wrote 1953 Excavations at site 9HL64 Buford Reservoir, Georgia, which is dated January 1954 and was produced through National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. There were photographs and oversized materials that were apparently removed from the report and are no longer part of the collection. It is possible that these materials are housed in a separate location at the University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology.

Other reports or publications were generated by multiple individuals. An article entitled,“The Booger Bottom Mound: A Forsyth Period Site in Hall County, Georgia,” was published in 1952 by Joseph Caldwell, Charles Thompson, and Sheila Caldwell in American Society for American Archeology. Clemens DeBaillou wrote Preliminary Report On Vann Tavern Excavations, Sites 9FO52, 53, 54 and 44 in 1954. The publications are refined versions of the reports mentioned above (or possibly the other way around because one of the reports is undated).

There were 36 photographs removed from this collection into photography storage. The photographs in this collection are different shapes and sizes. Some of the photographic materials were cutouts of artifact photographs pasted onto cardstock, and some of the cutouts were found loose in the original box. Attempts were made to associate the loose photographs with their original documents.The collection also contained 12 oversized items, including numerous field maps, topographic maps, and handwritten maps. These materials were cleaned, mended, and flattened. Most were photographed, encapsulated, and then placed into oversized storage. There is an associated artifact collection from the various sites of this archival investigation housed at the University of Georgia, Laboratory of Archaeology in Athens, GA, but the artifacts were not rehabilitated by the VCP.

The digital materials in this collection were processed by the Veterans Curation Program (VCP), and include archival photographs, finding aid, original report, oversized material database, photographic material database, and scanned asset key. Additional digital materials held by the VCP include accession documents, additional archival photographs, additional report, appraisal documents, box labels, a burial form, container lists, correspondence, document folder listing, environmental impact statement, excavation report, initial data collection, maps, newspaper articles, notes, oversized material labels, photographic material labels, preliminary reports, records inventory sheet, records removal sheet, sketches, survey documents, and telegrams. For additional information on these materials, refer to the finding aid.