Submitted by Coastal Georgia Archaeological Society

This year our Society held its Fall Picnic on November 3 at Fife Plantation, later than usual due to warnings about heat and mosquitoes, the hazards of visiting a Savannah River plantation. Nevertheless, after a slightly chilly start, it was a perfect fall day with brilliant sunshine lending a glow to what were once rice fields and a sparkle to the windruffled waters of the many canals. We took a mile-long selfguided tour of the old rice dikes and “Oscar’s house”, the lone surviving 1920s era tenant house. Prior to our walk, our host, Robbie Harrison, gave us a wonderful hands-on talk about what really goes into preserving an old river plantation. Although no rice is raised there, the fields are kept grassed for the cattle and the canals and sluice gates or “trunks” maintained to regulate water flow. The problems he described ranged from salt water intrusion and repairs to gates, to eagles that killed a herd of sheep.

CGAS members touring Fife Plantation.

On October 18, CGAS members enjoyed attending the “Diversity of Coastal Archaeology” conference in Midway, and contributed by adding yet another dugout canoe to the known inventory. The canoe was probably built in Effingham County around 1870, and is on exhibit at the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal Museum. Our usual December meeting, at the Oyster Roast with the Elderhostel, has been cancelled, and we are in the process of planning another activity. Future events planned for spring 2008 include our annual archaeology lecture jointly sponsored with the Savannah College of Art and Design. Anyone wishing to contact CGAS can do so at (912) 920-2299 or [email protected].

Ca. 1870 canoe from Effingham County.

Posted online on Saturday, December 1st, 2007