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  Redlands Planning Retreat March 9th Our first strategic planning retreat was March 9th at the Redlands WMA Check Station, where 15 members brainstormed under the able guidance of Jim Wynn, retired business teacher. Planners began by listing future vision for Scull Shoals in 2020, then tackled more immediate needs for the next 2-3 years. Two teams worked on major priorities of (1) fund-raising, and (2) site facilities (bathrooms, kiosk, and trails). The financial team stressed the need for a complete long-range plan, to go to foundations and corporations for funding for specific goals as part of the overall plan. Meanwhile they suggested continuing tours, with guidebooks, tapes, and T-shirts as short-term fund-raisers. Later, grant proposal writing should bring in larger amounts for bigger projects. The facilities team felt
that bathrooms on site are a critical need and began to plan for the environmental
review and designs for bathrooms on site, requiring special funds. The
team also planned for trail expansion and the environmental reviews needed
for them as well. Funds for the kiosk are pledged so design and construction
remains to be done. Stabilization of the brick walls and bridge will be
costly, also requiring special funds, but the need is becoming serious.
Friends tours on
March 24 brought in more visitors than expected, and much more money as
well. Tours were scheduled for 10 am and 1:30 pm, both of which were not
well subscribed in advance. When we expected five or six visitors at 10
am, we had a group of over 25 on the tour. That afternoon, we expected
15 or so from the Landmarks Society of Madison. They came, and so did
about 25 others from the public, so that group had more than 40 in it!
Between the tour groups and donations, we took in more than $800 that
day. Of that, $68 went directly to the Forest Service for the parking
fees. Mrs. Alice Curtis of Wrayswood, across the river, was responsible
for bringing in two nice contributions and has promised to find more donors! Work Day February 5th Our Winter work
day was a big success, with 11 Older Americans, three Forest Service employees,
and seven Friends volunteers working together to replace wooden fence
rails around the warehouse, haul and burn huge piles of limbs and other
debris from storm damage and privet cutting. We also brought in white
sand from the Curtis Sand Pit and backfilled two of the Passport In Time
excavations, to better present the chimney and foundation piers of the
mill workers' houses in downtown. The result was a much cleaner, more
appealing village area for the March tours. PIT Volunteers Dig It! The March 24-25th Passport
in Time test excavations in downtown attracted 14 volunteers. FS Archaeologists
Jill Harrell and Becky Bruce directed the project. The teams worked on
two 2-meter squares near the saddlebag house chimney, removing the plow
zone left from landscaping the historic area in the 1960's. The artifacts
found included "the usual": lots of cut nails, 19th century ceramics,
glass, metal tool fragments, and a scattering of prehistoric artifact
fragments such as Lamar period pottery and chipped stone items. The archaeologists
plan to return on April 28-29th to continue in that area. They are testing
for storage pits under the old house place Our membership is growing again. We have received 21 new memberships, including several who signed up at the March 24th tours. Welcome our new members when you see them! Sarah Allen Brown, Atlanta, GA Laura and Charles Carter, Winterville, GA Marie Cole, Canon, GA. Charmaine Day, Orange, Calif. Gale Farlow, Greensboro, GA Cassandra Flowers, Carrollton, GA Raye Germon, Madison, GA Dr. Nancy Hart, Athens, GA Pat LoRusso, Atlanta, GA John Rozier, Atlanta, GA Donna Mercado Shaw, Milledgeville, GA Deborah and Robert Skarda, Atlanta, GA Margaret Sommer, Watkinsville, GA Beth A. Thurmond, Athens, GA Cassandra Flowers is
a new Board member, and Gale Farlow is our new Treasurer. Greensboro's annual community
festival, the Southland Jubilee, will be on Saturday, April 21, 2001.
Friends of Scull Shoals have been invited to participate with a booth
again this year. We will be inside this time, so no need to wrestle a
blowing tent again. We will be adjacent to the Women's Club crafters exhibit.
They will have weavers, basket makers, and other 19th century crafts.
We will need at least two people to staff the exhibit all day, some of
whom will be in 19th century costumes. If you can help for 2-4 hours or
more that day, please contact Martha Jones (706-467-3011; digger@negia.net)
or Jill Harrell (706-485-7110, ext 111; jkharrell@fs.fed.us). Schedule
your time to talk to the visitors as they come by. Lots of interested
people stop to talk, including descendants of the mill town's people.
We will have photo exhibits on the table, and handouts for passers-by,
to recruit folks for membership and sign-up sheets for the tours on April
28th and May 12th. Please contact Martha or Jill today! Spring Friends Meeting is May 12 Our spring quarterly meeting
of the Friends of Scull Shoals will be held at Scull Shoals mill village
on Saturday, May 12 ,
at noon. We will have the PIT volunteers working at the site, and tours
are scheduled for 10 am and 1:30 pm. Hopefully everyone can come out that
day and see all the activity in this beautiful setting. We need to make
some decisions about fund raising, spending money, committees, and planning
schedules, so please put this date in RED
on your calendar! Try to car pool if you can, because there should be
lots of folks present for the tours and the PIT volunteers also! See you
there! This one will be a covered dish picnic lunch on the grounds, so
bring your favorite dish. We'll provide lots of iced tea and desserts! In the wake of a very
successful media campaign prior to the March 24 tours, we hope to repeat
the large, happy numbers of visitors for the Friends tours on Saturdays,
April 28 and May 12. If you have friends who have not been to Scull Shoals
lately, then this is the time to bring them out to see the site, take
the tour, and watch the archaeologists at work. The Passport In Time archaeology
volunteers will be working in the downtown area again those weekends,
too. We hope to have announcements for the tours in the local papers again,
but probably not the blitz we experienced in March, with articles in local
papers, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Toccoa-Athens TV
Channel 32. Tours begin at 10 am and 1:30 pm each of those Saturdays,
and tickets are only $8.00 per person, including parking. Children 10
and under are admitted free . Put it on your calendar, and tell your friends
about the tours just the same, won't you? Our first new historic
interpretive trail is laid out, and another is in the works. Nathan Melear
and Jack Wynn will lead this effort. We will continue working through
the spring and summer on a series of trails which will connect points
of interest in the old mill village and in the surrounding area, to the
beaver pond, and elsewhere. As each one gets Forest Service approval,
it will be constructed by the Friends volunteers, signed, and opened for
public use. When open, they will have interpretive signs along their routes.
Do we have volunteers for construction, or to make maps for the visitors?
If so, contact Jack at mfjtwynn@bellsouth.net, or 770-536-2564. Our winter quarterly meeting was held at Redlands WMA Check Station on February 15, 2001, with fifteen people attending. Mrs. Cassandra Flowers of Carrollton was elected as a new Board member, and plans were made for a Strategic Planning Retreat for Friday, March 9th, also at the Redlands WMA Check Station. Passport In Time (PIT) excavation dates were announced, set to coincide with spring Friends tours on March 24-25, April 28-29, and May 12-13. Friends of Scull Shoals have been invited once again to have a booth at the Southland Jubilee in Greensboro, April 21. We will need to set up in early morning, staff it all day, and take it down in the evening. Jack Wynn and Judson Kratzer will present a paper on Scull Shoals at a conference of historians in Ottawa, Ontario that same weekend. Local and area publicity will support the upcoming tours, to be guided by our crack tour guide team. Next meeting will be May 12, at Scull Shoals, between the two scheduled tours, so members can see the turnout and the excavations. This newsletter is a publication of the non-profit Friends of Scull Shoals, Inc. Jack T. Wynn, Editor For information on the
Friends, this Newsletter or planned activities, please contact me by phone
at 770-536-2564, or by e-mail at mfjtwynn@bellsouth.net. If you have internet
access, please send me your e-mail address. We can save lots of money
by sending the newsletters by e-mail! Tour Guides Needed Before long, we will need a strong cadre of prepared, energetic, enthusiastic tour guides for Scull Shoals. We are also discussing the possibility of offering tours of Scull Shoals for the new Ritz-Carlton Resort. The more interest we generate in the place, the more tours we can offer, but we need good local folks to guide the visitors around the site. All of these will require tour guides, so we don't want to over-extend the few we have. Soon we will set up training
classes for new tour guides. So, if you would like the fun of introducing
new people to the history and the mysteries of Scull Shoals, or you know
someone who does, please contact Ellen Whitaker (ellen@terry.uga.edu),
or Alice Curtis (bear1lake@aol.com). The Friends are making
great plans for activities at the old mill village, and they all take
people and money. We are developing trails and interpretive signs as a
first step, and plans are in the works for (yes!) bathroom facilities!
If you have not yet joined our non-profit organization, or if you have
a buddy you think would enjoy learning and working with us, we hope you
will bring them into the Friends of Scull Shoals. Any and all donations
are cheerfully accepted! New and old members, please fill in the form,
and send it in with your generous check. Thanks! |
