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Abstract <br /> An archaeological investigation of the St . Mary ' s Road Corridor was undertaken <br /> in the summer of 1999 as part of Orange County ' s long term goal of developing a St . <br /> Mary ' s Road Corridor ( S . R. 1002) Preservation Plan. To help develop -that plan <br /> archaeologists used North Carolina state inventory files, historical maps , documentary <br /> research, historical aerial photographs , and informant interviews to determine where <br /> prehistoric and historic sites might be located in the project area. The results of that <br /> research were correlated and numerous potential archaeological sites (exclusive of <br /> architectural survey sites) were marked for possible future field examination. Results <br /> from a concurrent architectural and National Register of Historic Places evaluation <br /> survey of the same project corridor were integrated with the archaeological data. A total <br /> of 23 archaeological sites were recorded through field reconnaissance of the project area. <br /> This included farmsteads, house sites , cemeteries, industrial sites, and abandoned roads . <br /> One area of focus was to search for possible correlation between the existing <br /> route of St . Mary ' s Road and the prehistoric and historic route of the Trading Path. This <br /> was accomplished and it was shown that much of the existing road does follow the path <br /> of that. old trail. Five bypassed portions of the old Trading Path/road have been identified <br /> through interpretation of 193 8 aerial photographs of the project area. Two of those <br /> segments have been verified in the field as obvious landscape features . The other three <br /> segments are not readily visible on the ground surface . <br /> i <br />