Archaeological Consultants of the Carolinas,
Inc. (ACC)
conducted a thorough archaeological investigation of the 515-acre
Summerhouse on Everett Bay tract in Onslow County, North Carolina was requested by the Office of State Archaeology (OSA) to comply with Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA) permit requirements and pursuant to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Regulations for Compliance with Section 106, codified as 36CFR Part 800. R. A. Management contacted Archaeological Consultants of the Carolinas, Inc. (ACC), to assist with this investigation.
The Summerhouse tract is located just outside the town of Holly Ridge, situated between Sneads Ferry Road and Spicer Bay. Kings Creek forms part of the northwestern tract boundary and a small unnamed drainage forms part of the southeastern boundary. The tract is comprised of approximately 100 acres of plowed fields and approximately 400 acres of wooded areas. The plowed fields afforded about 75 - 100 percent surface visibility and field investigations focused on an intensive surface collection strategy. In the wooded areas, systematic shovel testing was the primary survey strategy. Based on aerial photographs examined at the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Soil Conservation Service field office in the town of Richlands, approximately 100 acres of the wooded areas had been fields within the past 25 years.
During the course of this survey, 16 archaeological sites and two isolated finds were recorded (Table 1). Of these, 12 sites and the two isolated finds have undergone severe disturbance or do not contain sufficient deposits to contribute new or significant information to our understanding of historic and prehistoric occupations in the region. The remaining four sites, 31ON1578, 31ON1581, 31ON1582, and 31ON1589, initially appeared to meet National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility criteria. Testing strategies were subsequently developed to further evaluate these sites’ deposits. Testing activities at each of the four sites consisted of the excavation of multiple 1 by 2 meter units and a series of machine scrapes.
