Rare Chattooga Canoe Recovered

Buzz Williams
From left to right, Chris Amer, Buzz Williams, and Peter Peteet discuss strategies for floating the canoe upstream. Photo courtesy Andy Hinton

Peter Peteet is a soft spoken, thoughtful man with a keen eye for detail. It was his curious eye that first spotted the unusually fine lines of a piece of old wood sticking up out of the sand near the left bank of the Chattooga River about a mile below Earls Ford. That same object had been passed over by the eyes of thousands of recreational paddlers, river guides, and fishermen before Peter waded across the river that dry, hot June day in 2002 to take a closer look that led eventually to the documentation and recovery of one of the most significant cultural artifacts ever found in the Savannah River headwaters.

On the day of the discovery Peter had been camping along the Chattooga River trail with three other friends from Atlanta. The river was running very low after four years of drought; not good for river runners but very good for artifact hunters who have the eye to take advantage of the river’s mood to give up its buried treasures.

His companions were well aware of Peter’s curious nature and had witnessed his habit of artifact hunting since their high school days. But this time they questioned his findings. All but Peter thought the object was just an old log buried in the sand. The ensuing debate resulted in further investigation. As they pulled the sand away from the wood, the swift current swept it away to reveal a long hollowed out log thirty-one feet five inches in length and one foot nine inches wide. The clincher was the object’s well defined gunwales and its taper and rocker characteristics which are indicative of some type of boat. Peter had been right, it was without a doubt an old dugout canoe.

Fortunately, Peter and his friends quickly realized the significance of their find. Together they carefully managed to drag the old boat far enough out of the water onto a sandbar to take digital photographs from several angles. Then with equal care not to damage the artifact, they placed it back in its original resting place in about one foot of water, weighted it down with rocks, and reburied it.

Upon return to their homes in Atlanta, they decided that the proper authorities should be notified. They conducted a preliminary investigation into who the responsible agency might be in terms of ownership and responsibility for recovery. The group concluded that since the canoe was found only a few feet from the South Carolina shore that the practical course of action was to contact authorities in South Carolina. A friend at the Atlanta Journal Constitution who had recently written about the recovery of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley off the coast of South Carolina suggested contacting Chris Amer, Deputy State Archaeologist for Underwater and Associate Director for Marine Research at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina. He turned out to be exactly the right man for the job. Amer, however, was completely tied up with his work with the Hunley at the time and was essentially unavailable.

Undaunted, Peter pursued other contacts. He had concluded that others agencies such as the Forest Service and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation should be notified and would help with the recovery. These contacts were indeed relevant since the Forest Service has ownership of the lands on both sides of the Chattooga River at the location of the find and since there was a good possibility that the canoe was of Native American origin given its similarity to another dugout found earlier in the Chattahoochee River and now on display in the Cherokee Museum of Natural History.

The archaeologists for the Eastern Band of the Cherokee were excited about the find but also recommended that the Forest Service conduct an investigation to determine more about the origin of the canoe. At this point no one really knew if it was of Native American origin or if it was early European. The close examination of the boat for tool marks and type were critical to pin down its origin. With little info about the canoe’s maker somewhat of a dispute arose over just who would be responsible for the extraction and preservation of the artifact. Both South Carolina and the Cherokee urged the Forest Service to send their archaeologist to determine more about the boat.

Peter and crew, not willing to sit idly by while authorities pondered responsibility, continued their investigation on their own. As luck would have it Peter’s sister is employed by the Goddard Institute For Space Studies at Columbia University and was able to conduct carbon dating on a sliver of the damaged gunwale. Test results indicated that the canoe dated to about 1760 plus or minus 40 years! This information and the digital photos of the canoe were forwarded to all the principle authorities.

The old dugout had been found in June of 2002. By December of 2003 no action had been taken by the Forest Service or the South Carolina authorities. Peter and his friends began to wonder if they would ever see their discovery documented and recovered. To our advantage, however, the drought had broken and the old canoe lay buried and submerged under the rising waters, safe from artifact hunters. But the word was getting out. The fear of discovery and potential damage or even theft was becoming very real.

In that same month of December a local forest activist learned of the find in a casual conversation with the Andrew Pickens District Ranger in South Carolina. He requested more information from the ranger and the following memo with Peter’s original photos were sent to him on December 18 via e-mail. “Here are some pictures of the canoe that was found over a year ago. Not sure why the state hasn’t made this a priority to at least come and look at. My concern is that it is being discovered by others and if something isn’t done soon, may be lost in full or in part. The Forest Service doesn’t have authority to evaluate and act on this since it is in the river proper.” The recipient forwarded this e-mail to several watchdog groups including the Chattooga Conservancy.

When I read the ranger’s memo and became aware of how much time had passed since the discovery of the artifact, I was astounded in learning that the Forest Service had done nothing to investigate and protect the find. Most curious was the ranger’s statement that they had no “…authority to evaluate and act since it is in the river proper.” The legal ownership notwithstanding I found it unconscionable that the Forest Service would sit idly by and not as a professional courtesy lend a hand in investigating such an important discovery deeply imbedded in national forest lands. Was this not the same agency given full responsibility to protect not only the biological, geological, recreational, and “cultural” values of the Chattooga River as mandated by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act? Was this not the same agency given full authority to regulate and evaluate the outfitting and guiding industry as well as all recreational traffic on the Chattooga River?

Fortunately, several individual Forest Service employees took a keen interest and went well beyond their official capacity to assist in what soon would become a great community effort to extract the dugout canoe from the river. It was one of these Forest Service employees who gave us the general information that the canoe was about a mile below Earls Ford. On December 20th, my staff and I made several attempts to find the canoe by hiking the river bank to no avail. The next day the weather had turned bitterly cold. At dawn, I paddled down the river in another attempt to find the canoe. Dave Martin from my staff followed close behind in his kayak. Dave found the canoe first as he hugged close to the South Carolina shore. We now had the opportunity to see for ourselves just what this artifact really looked like. I was amazed at its simple, exquisite beauty, and how long and narrow it was.

The next day I made a telephone call to the district ranger to ask what his plans were to help recover the dugout. In a brief exchange it became clear that he had no intention of taking the lead. Any hope for immediate action would have to be initiated by the state of South Carolina who legally owned the canoe.

A few days later we retuned to the canoe by hiking down the river from Earls Ford. We then bushwhacked out an old logging road in a short cut back to the Earls Ford parking lot. This old road would later be invaluable in getting extraction crews in and out of the site. Immediately across from the canoe the Bartram Trail dips close to the site and parallels the river back up to Earls Ford, crossing two narrow bridges on the way. We thought this might be a good way to carry the canoe out to a road for transport. It was becoming more apparent that the Chattooga Conservancy would have to initiate any plan save the canoe.

Two days later I sent an e-mail to the archaeologist for the Sumter National Forest and requested assistance. He responded immediately with confirmation that the find was potentially very important but indicated that he would not be able to visit the site until the first of the year.

Time was growing short as rumors were getting out about the canoe. On December 31st I sent a letter to the South Carolina state archaeologist advising him that I had personally examined the canoe and offered the Conservancy’s assistance in its recovery. I informed him of our capabilities to organize volunteers and our knowledge of the area, and I offered to help write a grant request for funds to finance the recovery. In a telephone conversation on January 5th he confirmed receiving my letter and made a commitment to send Dr. Amer to a meeting that the Conservancy would coordinate at the Forest Service office in Mountain Rest. My intention was to also invite other stakeholders including Peter and his friends as well as the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, South Carolina Department of Archives and History/State Historic Preservation Office, and other conservation organizations. While organizing the meeting I also informed our local state senator and asked him to make a phone call to the state archaeologist to lend his support to the recovery. Later I learned from a friend that a local museum would soon be opening in Walhalla, South Carolina and was very interested in acquiring the canoe for a center piece display.

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