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  2002
Friends' Accomplishments 1. Trail
bridge built with donated materials, by 20 volunteers in December. Land Negotiations Continue We are still
working with Plum Creek Timber Company to acquire land for our Educational Center, with a
museum-visitor center and teaching facilities on Macedonia Road. We
have pledges for part of the purchase price, and now need to raise the
rest, to buy the land when it becomes available. Have you made your
donation for this yet? November Planning Retreat The Friends' Strategic Planning Retreat on November 24 in Greensboro was hosted by Carolyn Reynolds Parker, at the Greensboro Episcopal Church. The planners laid out three main goals: membership increases, public education, and fundraising, and ways of accomplishing them. We now have plans to approach foundations for grants to do interpretive education programs at the site and in local schools. Land acquisition
was the first priority, and fund-raising through grant applications
should help provide interpretive signs on the site. A membership drive,
with each member bringing in one or more new members this year should
more than double support for Friends. Increased public awareness will
come from regular articles in local and area news-papers and magazines
and teacher workshops. School programs are also in the works. Board Meeting November 24 The Friends
Board met following the Planning Session and re-elected the current
officers for another year. They also voted to continue negotiations
for the land, and to have the Scull Shoals Brochure professionally printed.
This will be a much better product! New
Oconee District Ranger The new Oconee District Ranger is Bill Nightingale, a Kansas native who comes to us from Superior National Forest in Minnesota. He also worked also on the Tongas National Forest in Alaska, both lots of cold country! Bill
and his wife Lee live in Conyers, so she can to commute into Atlanta
to the F. S. Regional Office, while he drives to his office near Rock
Eagle. Unofficial word is that he is being coached on speaking Southern,
so we'll give him a little time to get adjusted. Welcome South, Brother
Bill! Cub
Scouts Tour Chilly Site Nine Tiger
Scouts and their parents from Oconee County toured Scull Shoals December
14 in a cold wind. Deb and Bob Skarda guided their tour, and Jill Harrell, Ellen Whitaker, and Charlene Stooksbury showed them artifacts from shovel tests as they worked
on the wheelchair trail downtown. South
Loop Trail Begun The long-awaited
South Loop Trail construction began December 14-15. Sam Stooksbury,
Louie Campbell, Carol Reed, Peggy Sommer, Ed Goff, Dick Brunelle and
Jack Wynn worked on it, clearing
the trail of brush and doing most of the tread construction. It should
be possible to complete it during the January 11-12 weekend. Colonial Dames Raffle Quilt The Athens Chapter of the Colonial Dames of the XVII Century plan to donate a picnic table for Scull Shoals. To raise funds for it, President Helen von Richthofen created a large quilt with native plants in panels to be raffled off in March. She and Elaine Neal brought the quilt to the Planning Session, and Carol Rice came to the December Tour Day, to sell "Voices" for the quilt. Special
thanks to the Colonial Dames and especially to Helen for her hand work on the huge quilt. To get your voices
heard, call Helen at 706-453-9143, or send your check to her at 5451
Copelan Rd, Watkinsville, GA 30677. Voices are $1 each, and the goal
is $1,000! Handicap Access Trail PIT volunteers
are testing the new handicap access trail location to make sure there
are no building foundations, wells, or other features in the alignment.
If features are found, we can move the trail slightly, and perhaps have
another open exhibit for the visitors to see as they tour the site.
Dick Brunelle tested the route
with a metal detector in October, and marked likely shovel test locations. UGA Students Cut Privet, Open Downtown Forty students from Dr. Mark Reinberger's Historic Preservation and Environmental Design classes at UGA came to Scull Shoals on Saturday, Nov. 24 and cut huge piles of privet from the north side of the village, expanding the central opening dramatically. The new
openings allow visibility to parts of the town that have not been seen
clearly in years. At least one new structure has been cleared, and others
may lie beneath the cut privet piles. Fs crews will burn them later.
Archaeologists Hear about Scull Shoals Archaeologists from around the state heard from Scull Shoals volunteers in their Augusta meeting Oct. 12. Donna Mercado Shaw and Sam Stooksbury gave a slide show about the activities here. This Society for Georgia Archaeology (SGA) meeting featured papers about volunteers. Allen Vegotsky organized this session and gave a paper on Lydia Pinkham, and Pat LoRusso gave one on the Thompson Site. This
newsletter is published by and for the non-profit Friends of Scull Shoals,
Inc., P.O. Box 295, Greensboro, GA 30642. |
