STORIES OF OUR PLACE · HARALSON COUNTY, GEORGIA
What a reservoir survey revealed about Haralson County.
A cancelled water project left a record worth reading: archaeological sites, a rural historic landscape, and a clue to the vanished town of Nitra.
Local history often begins with something we can still see: a depot, a mill, a bridge. Sometimes it begins with plans for something that was never completed.
The proposed West Georgia Reservoir brought researchers into Haralson County’s Tallapoosa River landscape. Their reports recorded places that a familiar drive through the county might never explain. A later state audit supplies the other essential part of the story: the reservoir project was cancelled after the necessary permits could not be obtained. [1] [2] [3]
What the survey counted
Between February 5 and April 3, 1990, Southeastern Archeological Services surveyed roughly 4,000 acres for the proposed reservoir. Thomas H. Gresham’s report records 242 archaeological sites, plus 21 isolated artifact occurrences and 22 historic structures. The study of standing structures also extended to properties within view of the proposed water. [1]
The team covered about 95 percent of the proposed flood pool through surface inspection and shovel testing. Some areas remained unexamined because access was denied or project boundaries were uncertain. The report called for further work as the design became settled. [1]
Those figures deserve careful reading. A count of archaeological sites is not a count of towns, graves, households or displaced families. Nor does a survey inventory tell us that every recorded place survives intact today.
A rural landscape, and a name to follow
A 1997 historic-resources study by Ellen B. Ehrenhard and Jeffrey L. Holland identified the Tallapoosa River–Beach Creek Rural Historic District, with 15 contributing properties within the project’s area of potential effects. It anticipated damage to buildings and changes to the historic landscape if the reservoir went ahead at the maximum proposed level. These were projected effects. [2]
The same report contains an intriguing, carefully qualified lead: the property called the Priest’s House may contain archaeological deposits associated with the vanished town of Nitra. That wording leaves work to do. It does not establish that a town was excavated, explain why Nitra disappeared, or connect its disappearance to flooding by this project. [2]
What happened to the reservoir?
Georgia’s Department of Audits and Accounts answered that question in a January 2012 examination of state bonds. It states that the West Georgia Reservoir project was cancelled because the necessary permits could not be obtained. It also records instructions in the 2004 Amended Appropriations Act to redirect $44 million of its bond funding to other projects. The audit does not establish that archaeology caused the cancellation. [3]
- 1990 · Field inventoryThe archaeological survey recorded sites across the proposed reservoir area. [1]
- 1997 · Historic landscape assessmentResearchers described rural properties and potential effects of the proposed water level. [2]
- 2004 · Funding instructionsThe amended appropriations act directed reservoir funds toward other projects, according to the later audit. [3]
- 2012 · State auditThe published examination documented the cancellation and funding redirections. [3]
Something worth keeping
The useful next step is to connect a name with a record: a dated photograph, an old deed, a family letter or a map. Keep the original wording and provenance—the account of where a document came from—alongside any family memory. A remembered place-name can open a question without having to settle it.
Our companion story, Bremen hiding in plain sight, follows the railroad and the town’s changing center. This county story adds a different scale: the rural landscape around the river. Together they give us more ways to ask what came before the places we know.
Have a source connected with these surveys or an older local place-name? Share a memory or historical source, or suggest a correction. Contributions are reviewed before publication. Please include dates, how you know the story, and permission to reproduce any photographs or documents.
Follow the evidence
The archaeological and historic-resource claims above come from the public abstracts in the Georgia Archaeological Site File’s report catalog at UGA. We reviewed those abstracts, rather than the full field reports. The state audit supports the project’s cancellation and funding history. No folklore or ghost story is used as evidence.
- Thomas H. Gresham, Cultural Resources Survey of the Proposed West Georgia Regional Reservoir (1990), report 1804. Public field-report abstract.
- Ellen B. Ehrenhard and Jeffrey L. Holland, Historic Resources Survey and Assessment of the Proposed West Georgia Reservoir, Haralson County, Georgia (1997), report 4122. Public report abstract.
- Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission: Requested Information on General Obligation Bonds (January 2012), special examination 11-41, printed pages 22–23 (PDF pages 26–27). Administrative audit.
For the present-day picture, read Haralson is growing. Are its towns growing with it?, our population study with a closer look at Buchanan.