Civil War ironclad’s ‘treasures’ to be shown, discussed in free lecture June 2 May 22, 2015

SAVANNAH, Ga. – The long-buried life of the Confederate ironclad CSS Georgia is being resurrected and will be discussed in a free lecture given by two of the lead archaeologists preserving the ship’s artifacts. Speakers will bring recently recovered artifacts to the free event June 2 at 7 p.m., at the auditorium of the Savannah History Museum, 303 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., in Savannah, Georgia.

Underwater archaeologist Stephen James, M.A., with Panamerican Consultants is a principal investigator on the project. He and underwater archaeologist Gordon Watts, Ph.D., of Tidewater Atlantic Research, co-principal investigator, will share the discoveries about the CSS Georgia in a free public presentation. Topics will include the unique ship’s construction, its funding, and life aboard the civil war gunboat. Attendees will also learn how divers are documenting and recovering the vessel, the laboratory work involved, and what happens next in this complex project.

The Savannah History Museum will be open at no charge from 6-7 p.m. and light refreshments will be served in the auditorium lobby before the lecture. The lecture is sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District and is free of charge and open to the public. The lecture and museum entry is hosted by Coastal Heritage Society.

This lecture was previously announced for an earlier date. The date of the lecture has changed.

Quick Facts:
• Deepening the Savannah River channel for the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project would damage the vessel; therefore, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing archaeological excavation of the CSS Georgia to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act.
• Divers have been excavating the 150-year-old wreck since January and are preparing in June to recover cannons and large portions of casemates.
• This lecture marks the first of eight public outreach efforts focused on the CSS Georgia.
Follow the project and discover additional outreach opportunities at http://1.usa.gov/1G6S2Hn

Nice letter from the Davenport House Museum in Savannah May 7, 2015

Click here to read a Nice Letter from the folks at the Davenport House Museum. The LAMAR Institute recently completed a historical archaeology project for the Davenport House Museum and the Historic Savannah Foundation. The results of that effort are detailed in LAMAR Institute Publication Series, Report Number 195, which is available for free download online at this link.  We hope you enjoy, 195. Deep, Dirty Secrets: 2014 Archaeological Excavations at the Isaiah Davenport House, Savannah, Georgia. By Rita Folse Elliott, 2015 (29.4 MB). And, Volume 2 [includes GPR survey report and specialized analysis reports, various authors], 2015 (7.2MB).

This research effort, hopefully, will serve as a model for other house museums in Savannah. Remember Savannah has a Serious Underground!

Push back Kinder-Morgan’s Palmetto Pipeline project! May 7, 2015

People of Earth, particularly southeast Georgia: Ponder the Palmetto Pipeline. Remember the last time a bunch of Yankees came and cut a swath through Georgia? It did not turn out so pretty. Déjà vu Kinder Morgan (KM) and its Infernal Palmetto Pipeline—a proposed conduit for a witch’s brew of volatile and toxic liquid petroleum products that will completely cross our delicate coastal marshes and ravage wetlands and swamp ecotones along two thirds of the Savannah River valley. Does anyone out there like the taste of Georgia shrimp, and do you prefer it with or without the petrochemical flavorings? And what about drinking water along the Georgia coast? My tap water already tastes funny from all the folks flushing upstream, so perhaps the Devonian fern flavoring will give it the needed twist. And if there does happen to be a big flood of oil on our coast, perhaps these same pipes can be retrofitted to bring us fresh drinking water from Lake Ontario or Nome, Alaska. Has KM considered that fallback possibility, it could be quite lucrative? Folks in California could use a water pipeline too. Is it too late for Kinder Morgan to declare a do-over? Can the people of the State of Georgia control their own destiny? Has our beloved Republican Governor switched political sides, or is this some carefully crafted maneuver to create a smokescreen for his DOT underlings? We shall see. Imagine if we had a 300 mile long by 50 feet wide solar farm instead, has anyone done a cost benefit comparison? Maybe we could tint the panels so that all the woodstorks are not blinded by the reflection. And maybe we could raise it up about 10 feet so all the quadrupeds could crawl or walk underneath without bonking their collective heads. Or is there no good solution to our energy problems? This week my wife and I attended the public meeting on the proposed pipeline and KMs request for Eminent Domain authority. We were greatly impressed by the wide mix of Georgians who had rallied to oppose the pipeline. We may not stop this confounded pipeline, but at least we can make it wiggle a little, sort of like General Sherman made Georgia Howl. Stand up Georgia. Stand up to the largest pipeline company on the planet that wants to shove this stuff down our throats. Push back the Palmetto Pipeline! Public meeting on the Palmetto Pipeline. Hastily submitted, Daniel T. Elliott, Citizen of Rincon, Effingham County, Georgia and fan of Coastal Georgia and the Savannah, Ogeechee, Altamaha and Satilla River watersheds.