Engraver's Marks on Silver Items Recovered from Archaeological Excavations at Upatoi Town.
(Courtesy, National Park Service and Southern Research Historic Preservation Consultants)
By Daniel T. Elliott, copyright 2006.
Following the Treaty of New York in 1790, elements of the Cusseta Creeks established an upland town in what is now rural Chattahoochee County, Georgia. They were led by a prominent Cusseta chief, Tussekiah Mico. Tussekiah Mico settled at Upatoi with his extended family and other Cussetas. The settlement was dissolved after 1826, when the remaining Creek lands in Georgia were ceded by treaty. Therefore, the occupation span for Upatoi can be fairly confidently bracketed between 1790 and 1826. A Euro-American settlement, also known as Upatoi, sprang up in the general vicinity, almost immediately after the Creeks were removed from the land. That settlement, which was soon the second largest town in Muscogee County, was located slightly north of the heart of the Cusseta's Upatoi town.
Today, the archaeological remains of this important Creek town are located in the Kilo range compartments of the Fort Benning Military Reservation. Archaeological study of the cluster of Native American settlements that comprise Upatoi began in the early 1980s with surveys by various research teams, most prominent of which were Chad Braley and Dean Wood and their colleagues with Southeastern Wildlife Services, later manifested as Southeastern Archeological Services. These included survey of the Carmouche Range by McCullough and Wood in 1982, testing by McCullough of four sites in 1983, and survey and limited testing by Elliott of several sites in the area in 1992. It was not until the mid 1990s, however, that substantial evidence of Upatoi town was discovered. Survey by Elliott and Wood in 1996 on Compartments Kilo 6 and Kilo 7 revealed convincing evidence of the Upatoi settlement. Four of these sites were tested by Elliott and Wood and their colleagues with Southern Research.
Subsequently remote sensing studies, by Fred Brieur and his colleagues with the U.S.A.C.E. Waterways Experiment Station (Vicksburg District) were conducted on several of these sites. Archaeological "ground truthing", or verification, of the remote sensing data was then performed by Elliott and his colleagues. Additional test excavations were conducted on other Creek settlements in Upatoi town. Later intensive surveys of the other Kilo compartments by Elliott and others provided a more complete picture of this unique upland Creek settlement. These included surveys of Compartments Kilo 5, Kilo 8, Kilo 10, and Kilo 11. Additional survey by Panamerican Consultants provides some additional information on the horizontal extent of the Upatoi settlement.
Magnetometry Image from 9Me395, Upatoi Town.
(Brieur et al. 199*).
Conductivity Image from 9Me395, Upatoi Town.
Ground Penetrating Radar Image from 9Me395, Upatoi Town.
The Upatoi Town was Located in the Portion of this Fort Benning Planning Map Labeled "North Upatoi.
Selected Bibliography
Brieur
Elliott, Daniel T.
Elliott, Daniel T., and W. Dean Wood
To Learn More!
Contact us have any specific questions regarding the Cusseta town of Upatoi, or archaeology in Georgia. Or click here to learn more about Southern Research Historic Preservation Consultants, Inc. and their continued research on Creek archaeology in the central Chattahoochee River watershed. To Visit Upatoi, Contact the Environmental Management Division, Fort Benning Military Reservation, Fort Benning, Georgia.
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