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  Annual Community Reunion Oct 11 Friends of Scull Shoals invite everyone to the First Annual Scull Shoals Community Reunion on Saturday, October 11, 2003! Especially welcome will be Passport In time Volunteers, Mill Village Descendants, Relatives, and Friends of Scull Shoals villagers, Forest Service Employees, and Colonial Dames of the XVII Century, officials of the Plum Creek Timber Co., Greene County Chamber of Commerce staff, and others interested in the history of the old mill village and its people. That's YOU! The agenda for the big celebrations is on page 2 of this Newsletter, but look forward to lots of fun and activities throughout the day. We'll have Walks through History, Historic Trail Hikes, wandering minstrels, craftspeople and exhibitors doing their things, fun, food and a good time for all! At lunchtime we will hand out certificates and thanks to all the people who have supported and encouraged us though the years. Please put SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11th on your calendar NOW! Plan to bring your family and join us and all the Friends, both old and new, of Scull Shoals for a fun day at the site. This will be a great time for you to join the Friends of Scull Shoals non-profit educational organization, or re-new your membership to help keep the dreams alive! Friends Are Landowners Now! On May 21, 2003, Friends President Jack Wynn signed the documents with the Citizens Union Bank and the Plum Creek Timber Company to purchase 14.2 acres of land. The land, located at the intersection of Macedonia Road and Forest Road 1234 near Scull Shoals, will allow the Friends group to establish an Educational Center with a 19th century focus, to teach the public about life in that time at this important industrial site. Smith Academy Donated Smith Academy, a one-room schoolhouse in southern Oglethorpe County helped to educated many people from the Scull Shoals area during the early and middle 1900's. The schoolhouse was built about 1810, and served the students of the area for most of the century, before becoming a private residence. It has stood empty for many years. Mr. Vincent Smith, a relative of the owners, advocated requesting that he building be donated to Friends of Scull Shoals for several years before his unfortunate death in 2002. Recently the present owner, Mrs. Martha Johns, has agreed to donate the building to the Friends, so we can move it to the Educational Center land, and restore it for use as a visitor center, office and exhibit area. It will contain exhibits and be an exhibit itself, once it has been restored and made useable by the public. Currently Friends members are arranging for the formal donation and making plans for moving the building to its new location. A timber frame building, it is in relatively good condition, considering it age and years of abandonment. Friends' adaptive re-use of this historic structure will assure it of another two hundred years of useful service. Indoor Archaeology Volunteers During the fall of 2003 and winter 2004, volunteer laboratory analysts are needed to help prepare a final report on recent excavations. We have done initial cleaning and sorting in weekend lab sessions. Now detailed analysis of data from of each test pit will determine the results of our archaeological investigations. We have data from the 1796 Fort, the two overlapping houses, Beca's House, and Ellen's Barn to analyze, and the report to write up. If you can help, let Jack know when you can! Scull Shoals Community Reunion This is a time to invite anyone you know who has an interest in Scull Shoals! We are particularly looking for folks who family connections, through genealogy, or otherwise, in the old mill town! We want to get them involve, teach us what they can and share with them what we have learned so far! This is also the time to say a huge THANK YOU! to all the folks who have assisted us in the past, so if you know of someone who should be thanked publicly, then remind us, so we won't leave anyone out! Community Reunion Agenda 9:00 begin setup for visitors, signs, tables, tarps, and exhibits; Membership table opens 9:30 Sales tables open: T-shirts, pins, turnings; Music begins, going through the day; Crafts people begin demonstrations 10:00 "Walk Through History" with Deb and Bob Skarda; "Historic Hike" with Ed Goff 11:00 Short Visit to new Ed Center land; Exhibit plans for land use 11:00 begin Lunch set-up: tables, chairs, foods 12:00 Covered dish lunch, with hams, drinks 12:30 Welcomes, Special Guests, Awards 1:00 Annual Meeting of Friends: Election of Officers, Reports on Accomplishments 1:30 "Walk Through History" with Skardas; "Historic Hike" with Ed Goff 3:30 Begin shut-down of exhibits, sales and membership tables, backfilling excavations. 4:00 Reunion Festival closeout and cleanup NOTICE: If YOU see a spot on this agenda where you can help, then let one of the Friends officers know ASAP. We will need lots of hands to do the set-up, taking care of the food and drinks, and of course the take-down and cleanup after the party's over. Please lend a hand in getting this all done, so everyone will have a great time! Crafters Needed for Reunion If you know of folks who make crafts appropriate to the 19th century: spinners, weavers, papermakers, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, shingle makers or cabinetmakers, basket weavers, furniture makers, etc, please notify the Friend officers right away so we can invite them to participate in our Community Reunion. We are particularly interested in crafts of that century. The Oconee County Fair is going on in Watkinsville that same weekend, so our craft demonstrations may of necessity be small, but this is the First Annual Scull Shoals Community Reunion: we can build from there! Chairs and Goodies for the Reunion! Thanks to the generosity of William and Maxine Singleton, we will have a new picnic table with bench seats, a couple of sliced honey hams, table cloths and flatware. The Forest Service folks will provide additional tables, but we may not have enough chairs. If you have some folding chairs you can bring, put your name on them, and bring them along to the Big Community Reunion! October 11th is the day when you do up your favorite dish: casserole, veggie, or desert, and bring it to share with the Friends and families of Scull Shoals! Please notify Gale Farlow (706-467-3352) of what you are bringing, so we can be sure we don’t end up with all deserts! Work Day, October 4th In order to get ready for all the visitors at the big Community Reunion, we will need to have a work day, Saturday, Oct 4th. The wonderful Forest Service Older Americans crew will do the mowing and weed whacking around the site, and the Forest Service Fire teams will attempt to get the privet pile burned before the event. Their timing depends on the weather! Plan to be ready to work on October 4th! New Sign for New Land As you approach Scull Shoals on Oct. 11, keep an eye peeled along Macedonia Road for the new sign above! Thanks to generous donations from new Board member Jimmy Alexander, cement, timber and labor from Sammie Stooksbury and Jack Wynn (post hole diggers!), we'll have the sign in place for all the world to see. The sign will stand for our determination to build an important educational center for northern Greene County. The new Historic Scull Shoals Educational Center will focus on the 19th century mill village that dominated this area for nearly a century. Passport In Time Report "No job is complete until the paperwork is done!" Judson Kratzer prepared reports on the first three summer digs at Scull Shoals, in the first 10-12 months after each season. The occasional weekend projects since Nov. 1999 have added data, notes and artifacts to be analyzed. Lab analysis days cleaned most artifacts and began the analysis. According to Forest Archaeologist John Mayer, that analysis must be completed and a report written before planned excavations can continue. For the next few months, we will hold PIT lab sessions, either at the Redlands Check Station or the FS office in Gainesville, to prepare for the final report on the 1999-2003 seasons. Dates and places will be announced. Downtown Cleanup Continues Frequent rains through fall, winter, and spring have delayed cleanup activities in downtown Scull Shoals. Weeds grow with astonishing speed when they get lots of rain! Forest Service Fire Crews have tried several times to burn the dried piles of privet cut down last November by the University of Georgia Historic Preservation Students. Most of that privet is gone now, but some remains to be burned when it finally dries out. The old tree that stood for years beside the Warehouse corner was blown down in May, falling on the brick walls. Wet ground delayed removal of the big tree, but William Singleton and his crews brought in a boom truck and took the tree off the walls. The Forest Service crews removed the trunks and burned the remains, so only the stump remains. Oconee District Older American crews have kept the ground looking good whenever the weather permitted them in to mow and whack weeds, so the downtown continues to look appealing for visitors. On October 4, Friends crews will clear the new South Loop Trail and other places needing attention, so the overall appearance of the village will be clean and neat for the Reunion. Old Oconee Artwork at Reunion Once again, Robert Skarda's wonderful Old Oconee jewelry will be on sale at the Oct 11th Community Reunion. These imaginative pins were designed after prehistoric Native American images found by archaeologists working in the Oconee Valley before the flooding of Lake Oconee. Bob donates the proceeds from his pins to Friends of Scull Shoals for their educational efforts. They come in three colors and three images: Owls, Eagles, and Hawks, all raptors who lived in the valley. Get yours now! This
newsletter is published by and for the non-profit Friends of Scull
Shoals, Inc., P.O. Box 295, Greensboro, GA 30642.
Questions? mfjtwynn@bellsouth.net |
