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  Heritage Festival Huge Success Despite overcast skies, the April 29 Scull Shoals Heritage Festival was the largest and most successful ever! Thanks to the very diligent organization and hard work of Joyce and Charlie Baugh, Jack Wynn, Ed Goff, Bob Skarda, Maxine and William Singleton, the Festival brought record numbers of people and dollars. There were 12 demonstrators or exhibitors present. Choices of lunches were prepared and served by Maxine Singleton and Millie Arnold with the local UDC chapter. Ann Goff sold a record 112 car entry tickets, suggesting more than 300 people came, including demonstrators and volunteers. Dr. Ben Wynne, of Gainesville State College, Oconee Campus, brought 32 of his History students for extra credit. Charlie, Peggy Sommer and others at the sales tent sold record numbers of note cards, T-shirts, wooden bowls, Old Oconee pins, cookies, Moon Pies, drinks, and raffle tickets. They also recorded 10 new members of Friends of Scull Shoals. The five (!) walking tours had 25-40 fascinated people in each one, following Bob Skarda and Ed Goff around the village. A highlight of the tour was the archaeology exhibit at “Beca’s House” site, where Ellen Whitaker and Donna Shaw explained what they had done as Passport In Time volunteers digging there, what they had found, and what they learned from the test digs. The days-end raffle distributed note cards, a wood bowl, the duck decoy, a T-shirt, a Friends membership, and other items to the winners. Special thanks go to Peggy for helping us borrow tables and chairs from the Watkinsville First United Methodist Church. F.o.S.S. Memberships Have you renewed your membership? If not, you can go on-line, print off the form, and send it in with your generous check. Do it today! Welcome Ten New Members During the Heritage Festival on April 29, ten new members joined and Louis Salmon renewed his membership in the non-profit Friends of Scull Shoals, Inc. They are from six different towns, all in the general area, and all very welcome! Daniele Moseley is from Eatonton, Judith Russell is from Bogart, Lee Becker is from the Oconee County part of Athens, and Thomas Strickland is from Watkinsville. Wanda Hosmer is from Greensboro, and wants to help with future festivals. Tina Patterson and Jen Cole are 4th Grade teachers in Athens, who want to work up teaching units on Scull Shoals for their classes. Carol Ann Giles lives on nearby Rose Creek in Oconee County, and Mary Alice Pound comes from Milledgeville. We welcome each and every one of these enthusiastic new members! We hope they will both gain from and contribute to our educational and preservation efforts for Scull Shoals.  Perrin Aycock and mother Jen Cole watch Nancy Coltrin spin Demonstrators and Exhibits We had several old friends return for demon-strations this time: Louis Salmon is our blacksmith from Eatonton. Lois Foerster and Nancy Coltrin from Athens and the Peachtree Handspinners’ Guild, spun fibers by hand and with treadle wheels. Samira Hazen was a hit with the youth: she let them try their hands and feet at her loom. John Mayer worked on carving a duck decoy’s head, while Allen Vegotsky talked about the patent medicines and containers on exhibit. Joyce Baugh got every passing child to take a turn at churning milk into butter. The results were fun—and delicious! New Exhibits at Heritage Festival New exhibits included Ellen Whitaker and Donna Shaw who operated the archaeology exhibit, and Jack Wynn with the artifact ID table. Eve and Rick Mayes brought their Heritage Papers publishing company to the attention of visitors. Two old-time musicians, Tom Sparks with his banjo, and Joe Reynolds with his dulcimer, kept everyone entertained under the trees.  PIT volunteer Donna Shaw (pointing) talks to overflow tour group at “Beca’s House” site. Site Preparation On Saturday, April 22, Friends gathered at Scull Shoals to prepare the village for the Heritage Festival. They followed the Forest Service’s Older American crews who mowed the lawns and removed a fallen tree from the picnic area. Ed Goff, Don Lilley, Charlie and Joyce Baugh, Jack Wynn, Maxine and William Single-ton moved loose dried privet piles from the entry to the village, ran weed eaters around the black-smith shop and other structures, trimmed privet stumps left by UGA students who cut the privet in November, and cleaned up the village. Most of one big pile was removed and re-stacked by hand before William brought in his tractor. He moved the rest in minutes! Everyone left damp and covered with soot from the partially-burned brush piles that day, but the place was ready for visitors. The team cleared a trail around Beca’s House site for the archaeology exhibit, and trails to the blacksmith shop and river access. Scull Shoals Mayor Don Lilley also spent several hours Friday clearing trails to the Manager’s (Two-Chimney) House, and on beyond it on the South Loop Trail, and stayed overnight. Fall Friends Picnic During the last Friends Board planning session, we decided to hold a “Friends and Family Funfest” this Fall for Friends and their families. This will be a fun time, with covered dish lunches, to enjoy the village surroundings, report on research and other discoveries during the year, and decide where to go from there. The festivals are great fun, and do a fine job of our main mission of public education about Scull Shoals, with the demonstrations and the tours. However, they are a great deal of work to plan, organize, present, and clean up after, so Funfest would be just for the fun of it. The Executive Board will meet shortly to pick a date. It will be announced in the next issue of the Scull Shoals Newsletter. Watch this space! Oconee County Festival Booth The Baughs have offered to lead in setting up a Scull Shoals booth at the Oconee County Fall Festival on October 21. They will be seeking volunteers to setup and staff the booth. Education Center Plans Five members of the Board met with Professor Alfred Vick at UGA in late March to discuss land use plans for the Historic Scull Shoals Educational Center. Peggy Sommer, Ellen Whitaker, Charlie and Joyce Baugh and Jack Wynn met with Prof. Vick in his classroom in the University’s School of Environmental Design in Athens. Vick’s graduate students each designed plans for this land in their Fall class, and this meeting was to pick the best features to incorporate into a general plan we could use to solicit support and funding for an educational center. Plans were made for Prof. Vick and perhaps one of his students to combine the features the team selected to begin with development plans. The group decided to begin with a minimum of development, and build gradually towards a final plan, possibly years in the future. This quarterly Newsletter is published by the Friends of Scull Shoals, Inc. P.O. Box 295 Greensboro, GA 30642. Friends of Scull Shoals, Inc. is a non-profit educational organization. The Scull Shoals Newsletter is edited by Jack T. Wynn, 3052 St. Charles Avenue, Gainesville, GA 30504. Please e-mail comments to: mfjtwynn@bellsouth.net  |
