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  Volunteers Bridge Scull Shoals Creek
On December 8, twenty people came to work! The Beckhams: Bates, Gina, and Bates Jr., with Bill Dailey, brought a generator and power tools, Ronnie Rogers, Don Lilley, and Jack Wynn and others brought tools. William and Maxine Singleton brought in heavy timbers and lumber. One team set and notched the sills and stringers together. Another team measured and cut decking to fit. Stringers set, the decking team nailed them down. Hand-rails were cut and bolted on. Concrete anchors were set to make sure the bridge stays in place during floods, and William Singleton later cabled the bridge to them. Athens Boy Scouts were the first visitors to cross the bridge. District Ranger Barnie Gyant cut decking and set stingers, having great fun. Reporter Wayne Ford of the Athens Banner-Herald also worked with us: lifting, sawing, hammering, and taking photos (see above). Participating were: Bates Beckham, Sr and Jr. and Gina Beckham, Rick Bridges, Bill Dailey, Wayne Ford, Barnie Gyant, Cheryl Keene, Don Lilley, Jerry Peterson, John and Simon Reiter, Ronnie Rogers, David Sauerteig, Maxine and William Singleton, Nick and Bob Skarda, and Shaun Willoughby.
Jim Hunt and Dan
McKenzie located and delivered the donated materials. We have a bridge
we can be proud of for a long time! Thanks to everyone who worked! Our next quarterly meeting will be on Friday, February 8, at 2:00 pm, at the Redlands Check Station, off GA 15 north of Greensboro. That location worked very well for us last year, and should be great for us again. The isolation allows us to concentrate without interruptions (except for coffee, soft drinks, and munchies!). On the agenda will be committee progress reports and strategic planning. All committee heads please be ready to report on your group's efforts since our last meeting! We can do some preliminary planning that Friday afternoon, then continue on a later date. We hope to have a half-day Strategic Planning Retreat in March to follow up our February meeting. Those who attend can set up the schedule at the meeting. Please contact one of the officers to let us know if you can come to the February 8th meeting, so we'll be sure to have enough chairs and goodies on hand for everyone. We need full participation
to make decisions to guide future Friends activities! Don't miss this
opportunity to have your say! Dues are Due - Again! It's that time again, folks! Membership dues are due. That's what we use to pay for the newsletter, mailings and events at the site. Our tours do not cover our expenses, though they do help us rent the porta-johns. Our Treasurer Gale Farlow says that we have lots of folks on our mailing lists who are not current with dues, so the Board decided at the November meeting to remove names of those who are no longer supporting the educational efforts of the Friends. If you wish to continue
to support our programs, please do submit your dues before the
end of March! We hope you will re-join us. We need all the Friends we
can get! --And please give us your e-mail address! Land Surveyor Jimmy
Alexander and his crew are making a new topographic map of Scull Shoals.
A simplified version of this map will be the centerpiece of the new kiosk
exhibit designed by the Exhibit Committee. The November Friends meeting was at Greensboro Episcopal Church, with the annual elections. The new slate is: President: Jack Wynn; Vice-President: Maxine Singleton; Secretary: Ellen Whitaker; Treasurer: Gale Farlow. The former officers are retained on the Board of Directors. We don't want to lose a one of them, for their knowledge and enthu-siasm! The other Board members were Carolyn Reynolds Parker, Jim Hunt, and Martha Jones. Debbie Cosgrove, Dr. Lee Parker, and Ray and Phyllis Durham were also present. Jim Hunt reported that land acquisition was still waiting on the transition from the Georgia Pacific to the Plum Creek companies, and we will hear more on that later. Eight Friends took the Tour Guide Training class September 15th, so we have enthusiastic new tour guides! Deb Skarda and John Reiter served ably in October. John and Bob Skarda also guided a Sierra Club group. The Exhibit Committee will meet to work on the kiosk exhibits. Jill Harrell started environmental assessment for the trails and toilet facilities. Plans were made to build a permanent trail bridge over Scull Shoals Creek. We had special tours for
the Athens Chapter of the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, and Peggy
Sommers guided some Greensboro Brownie Scouts. Cassandra Flowers
brought her students from Americus to work with us in October. We now have a new slide talk
for presentation to civic, school, and church groups about the history
and archaeology at Scull Shoals. If your group wants to hear about and
support Friends of Scull Shoals, please contact Jack Wynn at 770-536-2564,
or e-mail notes to mfjtwynn@bellsouth.net. Dr. Mark Reinberger brought 35 of his UGA Historic Preservation students to Scull Shoals to work November 3. They attacked the imported Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) along the river. They did a great job; now you can see the river from the village. As they cut, Forestry Technician Kevin Jackson painted a mild herbicide on the privet stumps to deter their rapid re-growth. About two years ago, those students cut back privet there. However, the Forest Service was unable then to use herbicide on the stumps, so it grew back thicker than before. We hope to keep it back this time, by regular trimming. Thanks, Dr. Reinberger,
and your students, for a terrific job! In their senior thesis, UGA Wildlife Biology students Tommy Moorman and Leigh Youngner studied Scull Shoals and offered suggestions on eradicating privet, encouraging wildlife, and expanding interpretation, as suggested by Forester Ron Stephens. Their suggestions on historic interpretation paralleled the Friends' ideas fairly well. They also sug-gested interpretation of the plants and wildlife, adding bird boxes, and erecting highway signs to bring more visitors to the site. Both the Forest Service
managers and the Friends Board will examine the students' recommendations
carefully. They will want to see how their ideas might be applied here. Our first activity is an archaeological survey of the new trails by the PIT volunteers on January 12 and February 9th. There may be lab sessions this winter too, but they remain to be set. Quarterly meeting: February 8th. The first tours with PIT excavations will be March 9th. The Board decided not to host tours in cold weather. PIT volunteers like working then and can work in the woods while visitors are not there. We plan a winter workday to help the Older Americans and the Forest Service fire crews. Together we will clear and burn dried privet cut down by UGA students this fall to beautify the village. and view of the river. Strategic Planning
sessions will continue the good work we did last winter. If you have
preferred days or times, or things that need attention, please contact
a Board member or officer right away! (From the Herald-Journal, March 1, 1889)
Last Wednesday afternoon at half past four o'clock, Dr. Thomas N. Poullain peacefully passed away at his home in this city…. Dr. Poullain was born in Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia on the 6th day of September 1792, and at the time of his death was in his 97th year. After receiving a collegiate education he went to Philadelphia, studying medicine and was there given his diploma. He [re]turned as a young man to Georgia, and established himself at Lexington, in Oglethorpe County, began the practice of his profession. He rapidly established a successful practice, and while living in Lexington won and wed Miss Wray, a wealthy young lady of Oglethorpe County. In 1824 he removed to
Greene County, purchasing the Scull shoals cotton factory on the Oconee
River, and managing a large plantation and
conducting both successfully. This factory and these plantations he owned
and managed for more than thirty [40] years. In 1838 he removed to Greensboro,
his home at Scull Shoals having been destroyed by fire. Oconee High School Sophomore Beca Tucker of Watkinsville was featured in a recent issue of the Athens Banner-Herald, Oconee Section, in an article by Wayne Ford. Beginning with a tour
of the site last spring, Beca returned several times as a PIT volunteer,
doing nearly everything from digging and screening to lab work and mapping.
She is eager to learn all aspects of the business. Beca says she
thought she wanted to be a veterinarian until she discovered archaeology.
Now she's really interested in studying archaeology. We are happy to have
Beca Tucker on our project, and wish her well in her career. 2002 is the 200th Anniversary of the treaty that moved Native Americans from the Oconee River 40 miles west to the Ocmulgee River. While not one of our nation's best reaties, it did open huge areas to clearing and intensive cotton agriculture. The massive cotton plantations drove the southern economic system for over a hundred years, made dramatic changes in social systems, and caused drastic erosion problems across the south. All of these changes can be a seen and studied in microcosm here at Scull Shoals, where the remaining ecology provides details that the historic records fail to mention. This abundance of data
is what gives Scull Shoals the opportunities for environmental and istorical
education for the public and for the schools that surround us. (from Athens Banner-Herald, Jan, 3, 2002) Edgar Harvey "H" Armour, Jr., 84, died Monday, December 31, 2001. A native and lifelong resident of Greene County, Mr. Armour was a son of the lat Edgar Harvey Armour, Sr. and Frances Alberta Hall Armour. He graduated from Greensboro High School and the University of Georgia. He served as director on the Farm Bureau Board and as a Wildlife Ranger for the State of Georgia where he was instrumental in the beginning of the Aquaculture Commodities Program. He was an author, genealogist, geologist, anthropologist, ichthyologist, three farmer, and Greene County historian. He wrote "The Cemeteries of Greene County, Georgia." He worked for McCommon's Funeral Home for over 20 years and was a lifelong member of the First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro where he served as deacon, chief usher and Sunday School superintendent. The funeral was January
3, 2002. |
We
asked for 8-10 people to come build a trail bridge behind the warehouse,
and we got fantastic results! Jim Hunt found materials: Georgia
Power Company, Choo Choo Supply Company, and the Singletons
provided the heavy timbers, lumber, hardware and decking --all we needed
for the bridge. 