Category Archives: History

Solar in Brooks County Town Hall 2024-09-12

Tomorrow (Thursday) at 6 PM at the Brooks County Courthouse is a Town Hall for the county to hear from citizens about solar power.

According to a Brooks County Attorney, “At this time there are no active applications for solar in Brooks County. There is a moratorium on solar applications until February of 2025 (unless extended).”

Which of course does not mean there are no applications ready to go in February 2025.

[Solar in Brooks County, Town Hall 6 PM 2024-09-12, Brooks County Courthouse, 100 E. Screven St., Quitman, GA]
Solar in Brooks County, Town Hall 6 PM 2024-09-12, Brooks County Courthouse, 100 E. Screven St., Quitman, GA

Jason Kemp sent two responses yesterday to our open records request for presentation materials for the town hall and any board packet materials for preceding solar proposals in Brooks County. Continue reading →

How Native Americans and Early Settlers used Waterways –Chris Adams, WWALS Webinar 2024-09-12

Update 2024-10-10: Video: How Native Americans and Early Settlers used Waterways –Chris Adams, WWALS Webinar 2024-09-12 2024-09-12.

Well-known local historian and naturalist Chris Adams will give a WWALS Webinar about how people used waterways in the Suwannee River Basin, Native Americans and Early Settlers.

That will be by zoom, noon to 1 PM, Thursday, September 12, 2024.

[Now Native Americans and Settlers used Waterways, Chris Adams, WWALS Webinar 2024-09-12]
Now Native Americans and Settlers used Waterways, Chris Adams, WWALS Webinar 2024-09-12

Register in advance with zoom for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIudOGprToqHNPuxvmCdnt8v3o55Qc3NF_n

WWALS Board President Sara Jay Jones will give a brief introduction, Chris Adams will speak for about 45 minutes, and we will have questions and answers. Continue reading →

Okefenokee Floyd’s Island Campout, Suwannee River, Okefenokee Swamp 2024-11-09-10

Update 2024-09-13: Got a permit for Sunday, November 10. Okefenokee Floyd’s Island Campout, Suwannee River, Okefenokee Swamp 2024-11-02.

Update 2024-09-04: Didn’t get a permit for November 2, so trying for November 9.

Pending a permit, join us to paddle 9 miles upstream on the Suwannee River for primitive camping on Floyd’s Island in the Okefenokee Swamp.

This is the farthest you can get from any road in Georgia, with very dark sky.

You can camp inside the century-old Hebard Cabin, or in your tent or hammock outside.

Yes, you will see gators, and probably other wildlife.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 10 AM, end All Day, Saturday, November 9, 2024
Launch 9 AM, end 1 PM, Sunday, November 10, 2024

Put In: Stephen C. Foster State Park Ramp, 17515 GA-177, Fargo, GA 31631. From Fargo, travel south on US 441 to CR 177; turn left and travel to Stephen C. Foster State Park in Charlton County.

GPS: 30.826833, -82.361333

[Floyds Island Campout, Okefenokee Swamp 2024-11-02-03, Suwannee River, Fargo, GA, Stephen C. Foster State Park]
Floyds Island Campout, Okefenokee Swamp 2024-11-02-03, Suwannee River, Fargo, GA, Stephen C. Foster State Park

Continue reading →

Speakers and last call for songs for WWALS River Revue

Last call, songwriters: August 14, 2024 is the last day to send in your excellent song about the Suwannee River Basin. We mean it this time. Here’s the entry form:
https://forms.gle/ett6ne6DxMc8Ln897

The Finals for the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest will be at the WWALS River Revue, Saturday, September 7, 2024, at the Turner Center for the Arts, in Valdosta, Georgia.

Songwriters will perform for the audience and the three judges will decide, after the speakers from Florida and Georgia.

[Logo: WWALS River Revue 2024]
Logo: WWALS River Revue 2024

Dr. Jason Evans will speak about his many-year study of water lettuce, which establishes definitively that it is native to Florida. This may mean that the state should not spray to try to get rid of it.

He is Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Studies, Stetson University, DeLand, Florida. Jason Evans is an interdisciplinary systems and landscape ecologist who works in the fields of climate adaptation, land cover change, and water quality improvement within the built environment.

[Dr. Jason M. Evans, Stetson University, Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience, DeLand, Florida, speaking to the Santa Fe Springs Working Group, December 14, 2023]
Dr. Jason M. Evans, Stetson University, Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience, DeLand, Florida, speaking to the Santa Fe Springs Working Group, December 14, 2023

Heather Brasell will speak on the impacts of forest management on water quality.

She is the founder of the Gaskins Forest Education Center, Alapaha, Georgia, where she has won state and national forestry awards. She holds frequent events for adults and children, such as the annual A Day in the Woods, where WWALS always has a booth. She has won state and national forestry awards. She owns several miles of the Alapaha River and has paddled many times with WWALS. She is a former WWALS board member. She is a WWALS water quality tester.

[Heather Brasell, Gaskins Forest Education Center, Alapaha, Georgia]
Heather Brasell, Gaskins Forest Education Center, Alapaha, Georgia

“Musicians, we have some songs, but we also want yours,” said organizing committee chair and WWALS President Sara Jay Jones.

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman said, Continue reading →

Georgia House Navigable Streams Study Committee 2024-08-15

Update 2024-09-25: Georgia House Navigable Streams Committee in Nahunta 2024-10-11.

Update 2024-08-15: The livestream is here:
https://www.legis.ga.gov/schedule/house/AQIARgAAAxpEc5CqZhHNm8gAqgAvxFoJAGeQLC1kSDdIixjC7EHFmfIAAAJaYAAAANZQGGA2fqFiaHBHrewZqJ2eET4ABFxyjiQAAAAuAAADGkRzkKpmEc2byACqACGGA2fEWgMAZ5AsLWRIN0iLGMLsQcWZ8gAAAlpgAAAA

A new Georgia House Study Committee was established March 28, 2024, on the fraught issue of navigability of waterways: HOUSE STUDY COMMITTEE ON NAVIGABLE STREAMS AND RELATED MATTERS.

Maybe you’d like to contact your statehouse member before the meeting, since there seems to be no opportunity for public input during the meeting.

[New Navigable Streams Georgia House Studay Committee 2024-08-15: Ownership, Property Rights, Recreation, Economy]
New Navigable Streams Georgia House Studay Committee 2024-08-15: Ownership, Property Rights, Recreation, Economy

About the House Study Committee on Navigable Streams and Related Matters

Continue reading →

Help keep paddle access to Georgia rivers 2024-07-22

Update 2024-08-09: Georgia House Navigable Streams Study Committee 2024-08-15.

The Georgia legislature is trying to define which creeks and rivers are navigable. They are using an antique law to do so.

You can help keep Georgia rivers and creeks navigable by logging your river trips here:
https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/32bc9531a62e4c83971b162a58eb25f2

The goal of this mapping project is to document the upstream extent of recreational descents on as many Georgia rivers as possible. Paddlers documenting their descents through this survey could help protect access to streams for generations to come. We encourage paddlers to submit their earliest and farthest upstream descent on as many rivers as possible.

[Help keep paddle access to Georgia rivers, Contact your statehouse members, Record your paddle outings]
Help keep paddle access to Georgia rivers, Contact your statehouse members, Record your paddle outings

Maybe you’d also like to explain to the Georgia statehouse that the 1863 definition of navigable is outdated: “is capable of transporting boats loaded with freight in the regular course of trade either for the whole or a part of the year.”

Nowadays we fish, paddle, and motor in forms of recreational commerce that were not common in 1863.

Here is one way to contact your Georgia state legislators:
https://action.outdooralliance.org/a/protect-the-publics-right-to-paddle-in-georgia_7_24 Continue reading →

Suwannee River Basin in a map of 1776

Update 2024-12-31: St. Juan River in Map of East and West Florida, 1763.

Welcome to the “Great Swamp of Owaquaphenoga whose Highland is inhabited by an Old Apalachean Tribe who keep the Avenue Secret”.

[Rio San Juan, or Siguane 1776, Map of the Southern British Colonies in America]
Rio San Juan, or Seguane 1776, Map of the Southern British Colonies in America

Maybe we can conserve the Okefenokee Swamp so it will be known to all in another 250 years.

The coasts on that old map are not bad, although the scale is off towards Cape St. Blas. I like “Broken Coast,” a name which seems to have fallen out of favor. That’s southeast from the Rio San Juan, or Seguane, which is the Suwannee River.

There is no mention of the Santa Fe, Withlacoochee, or Alapaha Rivers.

Of course, the GA-FL line wasn’t necessarily where it is now until the not-really-complete survey of 1799. The Orr-Whitner line of 1859 was not accepted by FLorida until 1861, by Georgia in 1866, and the U.S. Congress in 1872.

Maybe they got the scale way wrong and the High Land is Floyds Island, Billys Island, etc. in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp.

Or if they got the scale right, Continue reading →

Troupville Cemetery Number 2: the black cemetery 2024-06-06

Looks like we’ve finally found the second cemetery of old Troupville, the African-American cemetery.

[Troupville Cemetery #2, the black cemetery, Inside Valdosta State Prison, Southwest corner, Tower 5]
Troupville Cemetery #2, the black cemetery, Inside Valdosta State Prison, Southwest corner, Tower 5

John Horton, retired law enforcement, remembers watching when the state prison was built back in the 1980s.

He says he was told they wanted to build a gymnasium at the southwest corner, where Tower 5 is. But they dug up human bones instead.

So the old cemetery is visible on satellite maps as a quadrangle inside the main fence, with the interior drive path curving inwards to go around it. Continue reading →

Suwannee River, White Springs, Florida 2024-04-16

Returning from Lake City Tuesday, I stopped by White Springs.

For once the Spring House is full at White Sulphur Springs, one of the earliest Florida tourist attractions. The Suwannee River has risen inside it and all around it. Its entrance is closed for renovations, but you can see it from the street sidewalk.

The ramp is underwater at White Springs Boat Ramp, aka Suwannee River Wayside Park Ramp. That didn’t stop a couple of guys from backing a trailer down the entrance tarmac, preparing to put in their boat with outboard.

[White Springs, Florida, Suwannee River 2024-04-16, White Sulphur Springs Spring House, White Springs Boat Ramp]
White Springs, Florida, Suwannee River 2024-04-16, White Sulphur Springs Spring House, White Springs Boat Ramp

The White Springs gauge read 71.02 feet NAVD88, which is in Action Stage. The river is still rising, above 72 feet today. NOAA predicts it will peak tomorrow, but will still be in Action Stage for a week. Continue reading →

THE OKEFINOKE SWAMP IN 1890 –Louis Pendleton 1918-03-18 1913-03-13

A century ago, Louis Pendleton of Philadelphia, formerly of Valdosta, published a newspaper story about the Ouaquaphenogan with a version of the ‘daughters of the sun’ legend and references to William Bartram.

Vickie Ledbetter Everitte posted this newspaper page image on March 13, 2024, in the Valdosta Heritage Foundation facebook group. She transcribed the date as March 13, 1913, but on closer inspection those look much more like eights than threes.

She has since clarified, “The date is 1913 – My print at home is much clearer. Sorry for any confusion.”

[THE OKEFINOKE SWAMP IN 1890 --Louis Pendleton 1918-03-18]
THE OKEFINOKE SWAMP IN 1890 –Louis Pendleton 1918-03-18

Here is a transcription of the article.

THE VALDOSTA TIMES, VALDOSTA, GA, THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1918 MARCH 13, 1913.

…

THE OKEFINOKE SWAMP IN 1890

Col. Ebenezer Wakely, of Chicago, has been saving up old copies of The Valdosta Times for many years and occasionally he sends a copy to this office containing some matter of interest. This week we received a copy of the edition of April 5, 1890, containing an article from Mr. Louis Pendleton, which was written for the Atlanta Constitution in regard to the Okefinokee swamps. The article is of interest at the present time and is reproduced here. It is as follows:

“Editor Constitution: Among those who have recently discussed the Okefinokee swamp, looking toward its sale by the State to the highest bidder, there are perhaps some who do not know that the great morass was the subject of history as long ago as a hundred years, and the subject of legend at a still earlier period.

“Not long since, Continue reading →