Virginia and others on the list, Since 1995, Southern Research, Historic Preservation Consultants, Inc., Ellerslie, Georgia has been conducting historical and archaeological research on about 60,000 acres of Fort Benning Military Reservation lands. This work was conducted under US Army contract by myself (Dan Elliott) as Principal Investigator and historians Tracy Dean and Rita Elliott. The tracts under study are scattered over the 182,000 acres of Fort Benning in Chattahoochee and Muscogee counties, Georgia, Russell County, Alabama, and maybe even a little bit of Marion County, Georgia (debatable boundary on the northeast part of Benning). This research was documented in 60 or so technical research reports that are public record (but were produced in limited quantity). The information that we gathered represents years of research and would likely be of great interest to many of the list's subscribers. Most of these reports are complete, but some are still in the editing stage. We attempted to trace property ownership from the original grantee to Fort Benning's acquisition. This research was conducted at the county court houses, Georgia and Alabama state archives, National Archives (Southeast Region, and Washington D.C. and Suitland, Maryland), US Southern District Court (Columbus), UGA Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, Real Estate Division (Juliette G. Low Federal Building, Savannah, Ga) and other various local archives. In a nutshell, here is the deal: About 96,000 acres of Fort Benning was created from 1918 to 1920. Much of the land was acquired through Federal Court condemnation and the court case records for this are at East Point. These records contain lots of details about the property, partial chain of title information, improvements to the property, and value assessments. Rarely, these files include photographs and plats. The lawyers involved in all that work reconstructed the land lots and various acquisition tracts on a Fort Benning map. Army real estate acquisition in that period was administered by the Quartermaster Department and their files are preserved at the National Archives Main Branch Washington DC. Other information from this period is found at the Corps of Engineers office in Savannah. Much of these files at the various repositories is redundant, but each yielded unique information. Fort Benning expanded to its approximate present size in 1942 and additional property condemnations were conducted at that time. Unfortunately, as best as I can reconstruct, most of the documenation from this event was discarded in the 1970s by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Control over Army Real Estate was transferred from the Quartermaster Department prior to 1942. Their records never made it to National Archives for permanent curation and according to several researchers a decision was made (by some idiot) to discard it! A few tidbits from the later period has survived but it is nothing like the information for the 1918-1920 period. So, ironically, the historical information is better for the early period than for the later. I am trying to think of some way to post our research information so as to be of use to the list subscribers. Our task was somewhat overwhelming but we gathered a wealth of genealogical information. It was focused on determining who owned property at various times and was not typical family history, although we do have information on cemeteries and some biographical information on interesting residents of the region. Many hundreds of early house sites (including frontier farmsteads, large plantation, slave quarters, tenant farms, mills, stores, etc) have been identified on Fort Benning by archaeological survey and many have been marked for protection because they may have research value. This research is ongoing and is currently being conducted by another private firm. We are bidding on additional contract work with Fort Benning, so maybe we will have the opportunity to develop this information in a more user friendly form. It might be useful if inquiring minds would contact Fort Benning Environmental Management Division to see if they can obtain copies of our reports, or at least relevant sections of the reports. The reports are organized geographically by land management compartment designation (example, Compartment O-6 is approx. 2500 acres in the forks of Randall and Dozier Creeks). I may be able to handle individual querries, if I am not overwhelmed. Meanwhile, I remain, Dan Elliott, Senior Archaeologist Southern Research P.O. Box 250 Ellerslie, GA 31807 danelliott@aol.com