The Land Connection
February 2019
The Georgia Piedmont Land Trust (GPLT) protects land where you live, work and play.
We protect land that supports healthy habitats where wildlife thrives and people can connect with nature.
GPLT Attends
Whitfield County Stakeholder Meeting

In 2016 GPLT partnered with the American Battlefield Trust and Whitfield County to protect a 300 acre battlefield at Rocky Face Ridge. This property will become an iconic park for the Dalton area providing visitors outdoor recreational amenities that will include hiking, biking, picnicking and historic interpretations. Whitfield County is thoughtfully preparing this park for public access. The process, involving key stakeholder groups, will result in brand and design standards to ensure clear identity and communications.
On February 12 GPLT attended the first of 3 branding meetings where the stakeholders brainstormed possible names for the park and ideas for logo images. Kaizen Collaborative, the creative organization guiding the group through the process and creating the designs, will present the name selected by the majority of the stakeholders and develop logo ideas based on the group's input at the next meeting in March.

GPLT is excited and honored to be part of this process.
GPLT Attends
Revolutionary Days Celebration
The Battle of Kettle Creek

GPLT board members, Carol Hassell and Rebecca Spitler, attended Revolutionary Days activities celebrating the 240th anniversary of the Battle of Kettle Creek sponsored by the Georgia Society Sons of the American Revolution.

In 2018 GPLT partnered with the American Battlefield Trust and Wilkes County to protect a 180 acre battlefield at Kettle Creek. This property is becoming an iconic park for the Washington area providing visitors outdoor recreational amenities that include hiking, picnicking and historic interpretations.
The Importance of Kettle Creek
On February 14, Valentine’s Day, 1779 the Battle of Kettle Creek was fought during the American Revolution. 600 loyalists from Georgia and the Carolinas were camped on the creek, which flows into the Little River in Wilkes County, Georgia’s backcountry in those days.

The British believed if they marched an army through Georgia and the Carolinas, thousands of Southern loyalists would flock to the royal banner. The loyalists at Kettle Creek were headed to Augusta when 340 Patriot Militiamen under the command of Andrew Pickens of South Carolina and John Dooly and Elijah Clarke of Georgia caught up with them. The Patriots routed the Loyalists. It was a small victory, but it was significant, and provided a morale boost for the American cause, after Savannah had fallen two months earlier.

The Patriot victory frustrated the British and dealt a severe blow to loyalist recruitment in Georgia, after Americans fought Americans at Kettle Creek.
Discoveries at the Kettle Creek Battlefield

GPLT attended the Kettle Creek Battlefield Association's Annual Banquet where guest speaker, David Noble, presented "Discoveries at the Kettle Creek Battlefield". Mr. Noble discussed the cutting edge technology that is currently being used to better understand the area and who might have been there, they are: drone LiDAR and Mitochondrial DNA analysis.

LiDAR is a remote sensing light detection and ranging technique which has recently been used by archaeologists to discover fortifications, roads, abandoned villages, foundations, graves and rock structures. Doing aerial data collection using LiDAR with drones instead of airplanes is a relatively new land surveying technique, which is based on high precision laser scanners, the Global Positioning System (GPS), and Inertial Navigation Systems (INS). These three technologies combined allow for incredibly precise 3D mapping. A LiDAR sensor, which is capable of projecting seven million points per second in a three dimensional pattern over the ground surface, is attached to a drone that is flown at a height of 200 feet over a subject area. LiDAR measures the distance to a target by illuminating that target with a pulsed laser light and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor. The differences in the amount of time it takes for the laser to return, and also in the wave lengths, are then used to make digital 3D representations of the subject area.

Mr. Noble presented some of the 3D images that have been generated and showed a comparison of these results to hand drawn maps created during the time-frame of the Battle at Kettle Creek. The accuracy of the LiDAR analysis was astounding.

With the prior discovery of 18 possible Revoluntionary War Soldiers' graves on the battlefield, in 2019 the Kettle Creek Battlefield Association authorized the opening of 8 graves to verify the contents using Mitochondrial DNA analysis.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is stored in specialized parts of cells called mitochondria and is only passed down from an individual’s mother. Each cell can contain hundreds of mtDNA. Because mtDNA is present in higher numbers than nuclear DNA, it is more likely to survive intact in ancient remains and/or the soil where ancient remains once resided.

Soil samples from graves across the battlefield were sent to the Paleo-DNA Laboratory at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada for analysis. Seven of the soil samples tested positive for human DNA.
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Photos taken at 2 different GPLT protected properties.
Top: Jack in the pulpit.
Bottom: Yellow daisy.
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Photos Courtesy of Hank Ohme, Carol Hassell & Dale Higdon