RECEIVED AUG 3.0 197
?#Mi
;

George Busbee
Governor
Joe D. Tanner
Commissioner
BOARD OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Donald J. Carter Chairman
Gainesville--9th District Lloyd L. Summer, Jr. Vice Chairman
Rome-- 7th District
Leo T. Barber, Jr. Secretary
Moultrie-- 2nd District Dolan E. Brown
-- Twin City 1 st District
Alton Draughon Pinehurst-- 3rd District
George P. Dillard Decatur--4th District
Mary Bailey Izard Atlanta-- 5th District
James A. Mankin Griffin-- 6th District J. Wimbric Walker McRae-- 8th District
Walter W. Eaves Elberton-- 10th District
Sam Cofer
St. Simons Island Coastal District Leonard E. Foote
Waleska-- State-at-Large James D. Cone
Decatur-- State-at-Large A. Leo Lanman, Jr.
-- Roswell State-at-Large
Wade H. Coleman
Valdosta-- State-at-Large
DIVISION DIRECTORS
Parks and Historic Sites Division Henry D. Struble, Director
Game and Fish Division
Jack Crockford, Director
Environmental Protection Division J. Leonard Ledbetter, Director
Geologic and Water Resources Division Sam M. Pickering, Jr., Director
Office of Information and Education David Cranshaw, Director
Office of Planning and Research J. Clayton Fisher, Jr., Director
Office of Administrative Services James H. Pittman, Director

OutdOOrS ii? Georgia

Volume 7

August 1977

Number 8

FEATURES

Jarrell Plantation

Susan K. Wood 3

.... New Attraction at Clark Hill

Aaron Pass 8

.... Special Olympics

Rebecca N. Marshall 1 1

Memories

Ed Brock 15

Remembrances of a
State Park

Liz Carmichael Jones 18

Georgia's Pine Barrens

Ann Barber 23

Coastal Fossils
DNR Welcomes Two

Jingle Davis 25 32

DEPARTMENTS

Outdoors in Touch
Letters

. edited by Susan K. Wood 30
33

FRONT COVER: A refreshing view of Toccoa Falls, complete with rainbow. Photo by Jimmy Valentine.
BACK COVER: Holcolm Creek Falls on Warwoman Wildlife Management Area. Photo
by Jimmy Valentine.

Susan K. Wood
Bill Morehead Rebecca N. Marshall
Dick Davis
Bill Hammock

Phone-656-5660

MAGAZINE STAFF

David Cranshaw Aaron Pass

Editor-in-Chief Editor

Managing Editor
Writer Writer Writer Writer Jim Couch

Liz Carmichael Jones
Michael Nunn Bob Busby Edward Brock
Bill Bryant Photographer

Art Director Illustrator
Photo Editor Photographer Photographer

Outdoors in Georgia is the official monthly magazine of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, published at the Department's offices, Room 714, 270 Washington Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30334. Publication Number 217140. No advertising accepted. Subscriptions are $5 for one year or $9 for three years. Printed by Williams Printing Company, Atlanta, Georgia. Articles and photographs may be reprinted when proper credit given. Contributions are welcome, but the editors assume no responsibility or liability for loss or damage of articles, photographs, or illustrations. Second-class postage paid at Atlanta, Georgia. 31,000 copies printed at an approximate cost of $16,500. The Department of Natural Resources is an Equal Opportunity employer, and employs without regard to race, color, sex, religion, or national
origin.
Change of address: Please allow 8 weeks for address changes to become effective. Send old address as well at new address (old mailing label is preferred).

Editorial
Plan Not To Drown
We were talking about the number of people
who have drowned and will, unfortunately, drown in Georgia waters before this summer is
over. . . .
My friend Steve Black, a corporal in the
Department's Law Enforcement Section who
spends a great deal of his time patrolling Lake Allatoona, made the point that people meticulously plan an on-the-water outing. They plan what to take to avoid sunburn, what to quench thirst, what to eat and how long to stay; but they don't plan not to drown.
He's right.
/j^Mia (a^uu^IuZ^j
August 1977

JARRELL
PLANTATION
By Susan K. Wood
Ed Brock
Outdoors \t) Georgia

I t was another time, another place. Summer, 1873.
Cotton was king; the South was rebuilding. And in the
red clay fields of Jones County, along the lazy brown Ocmulgee River, amid plots of cotton and corn and sugar cane, John Fitz Jarrell, sweat pouring from his weathered face, labored to build a farm he and his family could be proud of. Little did he know that over a century later, thousands of visitors would cross those same red acres, learning the ways of the rural South, the ways of their heritage, the ways of the southern farmer
struggling to survive.
For Jarrell Plantation today is little changed from the
farm John Fitz Jarrell and his family worked. He began quite a legacy, John Fitz did. He must have been some
hard-working man, ingenious, enterprising, the type who'd load up two 80-gallon kettles on his wagon, then horse-and-wagon it some 150 miles to Georgia's coast.
His mission, the story goes, was boiling sea water down to get salt, enough salt to bring back to middle Georgia to sell or trade. Salt, you see, was a scarce commodity in the months just after the Civil War. So was money.
One of those hard-working farming families, the
-- -- Jarrells three generations of them built an agricul-
tural shrine out of sweat and tears, calloused hands and
aching backs. Up customarily at 4 a.m., John Fitz Jar-
rell and later his sons and grandsons would sharpen their hand-made tools by the light of an oil lantern, then
-- trudge back to the house for eggs, ham, biscuits that -- big country breakfast before heading for the fields for
a long day of plowing.
Blake Fitz Jarrell had moved his family to middle Georgia, Jones County, about 1820 and before long was a prospering land- and slave-owning farmer. At one point, county tax records show that Blake Fitz Jarrell owned 1,290 acres and 25 slaves.
Like so many other southern families of the 1830s,
Blake and Zilpha Jarrell raised a large family, nine in
all. But it's one son, John Fitz who outlived all his brothers and sisters, that we remember today.
In the late 1840s, John and wife Elizabeth and seven young Jarrells moved a little north from "papa's" land to land they could call their own. They began a prospering little farm there that survived all the hardships through two succeeding generations.
But his Jarrell Plantation, as we know it now, was not the Tara or Twelve Oaks so immortalized by Southern
literature. In rural Georgia of the 1850s, a plantation was merely a farm with something over 500 acres. So while John Fitz Jarrell was of the planter aristocracy, his house was a modest five rooms, unpainted, with no curving staircase and not even one Doric or Corinthian column. His wife and daughters wore the drab blue
work dresses so scorned by Scarlett O'Hara. No hoop
skirts for them, and John Fitz rarely, if ever, donned a
ruffled shirt.
No, life was not easy on Georgia's farms of the 1 850s, but it was a good life for large, close-knit farm families like the Jarrells. Then came the war.

With determination and just plain hard work, John F. survived the rampant destruction of invading troops. Yankees marched through Jones County on their victorious march to the sea. They burned his gin house and took all his livestock except one nearly worthless old horse, but the Yanks did spare his house. Jarrell, along with thousands of others of the South, was a victim of war's ravages and was forced into a society where values
suddenly changed and their money was worthless. And
if that wasn't enough, typhoid swept through what was left of middle Georgia that fall, taking Jarrell's wife and one daughter. Another daughter died the very next March.
But John was a workhorse and rebuilt his warravaged homeplace. This was no time for Jarrell to give up the farm he loved. It was the one thing he had left. Without that red clay to sift between his fingers John Fitz Jarrell would surely have been a lost soul. So with the help of his boys, he planted crops again. Soon they were harvesting cotton and corn again and boiling down sugar cane to make syrup. Grandson Willie Lee Jarrell,
now 82 and still tending his own garden at Jarrell Plan-
tation, describes his grandfather as "an expert wheelwright, carpenter, a good farmer, blacksmith, mason,
weaver and tanner." That was the way it had to be to survive the ups and downs of farm life.
John Fitz Jarrell died in 1 884, leaving a thriving farm and an enterprising family to carry on the work of the farm he loved so dearly. (He had married again not
long after Elizabeth died. Nancy Ann and John Fitz raised six more little Jarrells.)
But the Jarrell clan, like all farmers, found they had to change with the times, had to diversify. Benjamin Richard Jarrell, John Fitz and Nancy Ann's eldest son, seems to have been the businessman of the family. Influenced by his father's firm belief in education, B. R. enrolled in Macon's Mercer University in 1887. For the next few summers, he taught school in Jones County and, after graduating in 1891, taught in Abbeville,
Social Circle and Plains before returning home to farm. Benjamin Richard knew what had to be done for the
family to survive. Jarrell Plantation today honors
B. R.'s enterprising labors as well as those of his father.
In 1895, B. R. bought a sawmill and set about building farm buildings and a house for his family, and sawing lumber for neighbors in addition to the routine farming chores, teaching at the local school and con-
struction work in the area. Among his many projects,
Benjamin Richard built a bridge and a schoolhouse nearby.
Though the early 1900s were generally prosperous years for farmers, the Jarrells weren't as happy and prosperous as in earlier times. B. R., his sons and nephews worked hard to keep the farm afloat, the family together. About the time B. R. bought the sawmill, he also started a steam-powered cotton gin on the plantation. B. R.'s son, Benjamin Richard Jr., remembers the
ginning days and describes the operation in detail.

August 1977

Photos by Ed Brock
Outdoors ip Georgia

Bob Busby
August 1977

Ed Brock

Jarrell Plantation offers a fascinating journey back in time. In the circa 1895 house, visitors see the loom, spinning wheel and weasel, a thread counter which inspired the "Pop Goes the Weasel" children's tune.
Labor Day weekend is the perfect time to visit this seven-acre working museum.
Mike Gillen (left) does some carpentering,
Jarrell Plantation style.
Willie Jarrell, 82, has lived and worked at
Jarrell Plantation all his life.

"Yes, this is the gin. I hardly know how to start about it. But my father built this gin house in about 1895, I think, as that's when he bought the sawmill and engine,

and he put in the gin that fall, I think. That was before I was big enough to run around much, and he proceeded

to gin for the public, and at that time there were a good many people living in this vicinity, and cotton was the biggest money crop, I suppose. Of course, they raised

corn, peas, cane, potatoes and all that kind of crops, but cotton was the chief money crop, and this was the
nearest place to get the cotton ginned, so my father ran

the gin for several years.

"After we boys got large enough to begin work here,

why, we had our own crew. Didn't have to hire anybody

We to work to help him carry on.

had to bring the cot-

ton from the wagons out and unload the cotton and go back to get another load, and maybe the day before we

were to gin and unload the wagon into the stalls here, as

we had six cotton stalls in the house, and by doing that

it would enable them to have the cotton here at the gin

the day we were ginning. We would just bring the cotton

We to the gin and pour it into the feeder by hand.

didn't

have modern machinery. So we operated that way on up

to 1918.

"That was when the boll weevil began to infest this

country. So the cotton industry began to fade away.

People moved out. Lot of elderly people passed away,

and of course, the ginning situation had to close also.

So, since 1918, the gin has been standing here idle. But the corn mill was operated a little in 1932 and 1933 and

maybe on up to 1935, and since then everything has
been standing still. No work to do. No cotton raised in

the country, no corn raised, no lumber to saw, no

shingles to saw, and no cane to grind."

The boll weevil. The end of the days of King Cotton. And the last straw for Southern farmers. The Jarrells, like so many others, began to leave the farm, to try to make it elsewhere. By 1930 only son Willie Jarrell was

left to help B. R. on the farm. He's still there.
A farmer's life meant no security, no monetary
wealth. It was a hard life for sure, but a good one. For too many of us today that agrarian lifestyle is just a
A chapter in a dusty, old history book. whole generation

has grown to adulthood with not the faintest idea of

Outdoors it? Georgia

what the farm life was like. We've lost touch with an
era, a culture, and an important one at that. And we're
the losers.
But John Fitz and Benjamin Richard Jarrell's legacy has made it possible to step back to that long-ago time and place and become a farmer of the 1800s. Jarrell
Plantation is far from the stuffy museum you might
A imagine. vital, working seven-acre Piedmont planta-
tion is what you'll find if you venture far enough down that bumpy, dirt road from Juliette.
Labor Day is the perfect time to visit Jarrell Plantation. The cotton's ready for picking. There's corn to grind and syrup to make and the steam engine will be
bellowing. But the mill complex is just one center of activity, and since this is a get-yourself-dirty place where visitors pitch in to help with the chores, don't wear your Sunday best.
Shuffle on down the path past the scup'non vine toward the garden. "Hi, Willie. How's your garden faring this dry spell? Rain? Yea, we sure do need it." Dig
a few potatoes while you're at it. Here comes Louise, the amiable goat, and Mike Gil-
len, curator at this fascinating place. He'll probably show you the hens, gather a few eggs, and show you where the roosters and hens stay at night. There are foxes and bobcat in the area, so the animals stick close
to safety.
OF Queen kicking up dust over in the barnyard is the
resident 15-year-old mule. Already you're thinking what
a "quaint" place this is, right? You could spend all day
in the barn gawking at the old buggy or the plows and
things up in the loft, but don't. There much more to see. The visitor center, the house Benjamin Richard built
in 1895, houses a variety of Jarrell treasures, some a century old. Family photos, crates of every description,

tools, dishes, books, that old pea sheller and even a shingle. Yes, one lone shingle on which some far-

sighted Jarrell described the building of a barn, includ-
ing the names of the oxen who pulled the wagon.

"The Jarrells," notes Mike Gillen, "had an unusual

sense of preservation. They saved all these things . . .

for us, I guess. They wanted future generations to benefit and learn from their experiences on the farm, and that's why they wanted the plantation preserved. It tells so much about Georgia and the people who made it."

From the visitor center, nose around the place all by

yourself, using the brochure as your guide, or if you're

lucky Mike Gillen, Alan Denley or Steve Jarrell will

show you around. They'll tell you about the terraces

you'll see just past the visitor center. "Each terrace has a drainage ditch on the lower end," notes Gillen. "We've

got cotton here on the top, corn in the middle, and this

year we've got crimson clover on the lower terrace. Last
year we had sugar cane there, but the soil needs some

help this year, and the clover adds nitrogen.

"Willie Jarrell says there used to be terraced fields

from here clear to the Ocmulgee River, a mile away,"
Gillen continues. "Now it's thick woods, and you can't

see the river like they once could. But our little garden
here keeps us busy all summer and has proven to be lots

of fun for everyone."

Pull a few ears of corn or some cotton before you
head on. And watch out for the bees buzzing near their

hives at the edge of the field.

There's so much to see at Jarrell Plantation, you're

liable to spend four hours ambling through the fasci-

nating original house, the mill houses, and the shop

half carpenter shop, half blacksmith shop, both with

original tools. If you're like most Georgians under 30
you've probably heard stories of the good ol' days down

on the farm. Chances are your mother or father or
grandfather was raised on their own version of Jarrell

Plantation that may be now just a memory. "God's country," my mother calls it.
-- -- John Jarrell's farm is a place an experience you'll

not soon forget. You'll be alternately amazed, inspired,

somewhat envious of the lifestyle and stunned by the

beauty and tranquility of the old homeplace.

But there's one thing above all you will come away

with: a feeling of respect. Respect for the land, the ele-

ments. Respect for the institution of family and the

closeness that held them all together. Respect for the
-- people our grandfathers and grandmothers and great-- grandparents who knew the hardest of lives but didn't

give up, no, didn't even complain much. They could do

anything, everything, from farming and canning to
'smithing and weaving and ginning. And they learned

the hard way. By today's artificial standards, they were
-- poor, destitute. But, no, they were wealthy in expe-

riences, in character, in love of family and of land and

of life. The important things. Their richness is something money won't buy, and we may never know.

Jarrell Plantation brings back that way of life, and

lets us share in some of the wealth.

s?

August 1977

New
Attraction
At Clark Hill
By Aaron Pass

Bob Busby
Managers of fish and wildlife are often harshly criticized by the public and the press for pursu-
ing seemingly pointless research rather than
practical management projects. This is an unjust
charge since research is the basis of all sound
management. However much of today's research
-- is complex and drawn out often taking years
to accrue benefits in actual management programs. There are also other projects which are almost entirely practical management, such as
the fish attractor project at Clark Hill Lake. This past year saw 1 1 artificial fish attractor
structures go into Clark Hill. Biologists and
technicians with the Game and Fish Division
working cooperatively with the Corps of Engineers followed the lead of South Carolina which has already installed several attractors on the eastern side of the reservoir. The project is fairly similar in concept and execution to the artificial
reef program now in progress off the Georgia coast. (See December '76 OIG.)

Outdoors it? Georgia

The theory behind artificial fish attractors is that small fish are attracted to cover and big fish are attracted to small fish. The attractor
structures also provide cover for the bigger fish
which attract fishermen. As for research, fisheries biologist Don Johnson says, "It doesn't
exactly take a genius to figure out that fish are
attracted and concentrated by cover. However, research and practical work in several other states has demonstrated the best and cheapest way to get the job done."
South Carolina placed 10 structures using
whole trees weighted to the bottom. The trees were cheaper and worked just as well; some say better. Georgia's project uses trees. The Corps
of Engineers put out six attractor structures fashioned from old tires, an idea borrowed from the sea-going reef programs.
Brush and trees 10 to 20 feet in length were cut and towed to the pre-selected sites. Weights attached to the bottom of the trunk and floats attached to the top will hold the trees in a moreor-less vertical position. The trees are placed in a circle about 30 feet in diameter and in line with the bank in 25-30 feet of water. The attractors are marked with buoys and will be identified on lake maps.

Photo by Bill Bryant

August 1977

The sites selected for the attractors are relatively close to popular boat launching ramps so that fishermen may get to the fishing spots easily. They are set in coves where they are protected from wind, wave and current action and are out of the way of other recreational users of Clark
Hill.
Fisheries biologist Royce Harrington, tech-
nician Zan Bunch and laborer Ed Bunch have
put out the structures and should have the marking buoys in place by the time this article appears in print. Buoys were furnished by the
Corps of Engineers, reconditioned by Game and
Fish and are being set out cooperatively. Biolo-
gist Tom Schulte of the Corps has had a major
hand in the project.
Maps of Clark Hill showing all 27 sites ( 10
South Carolina, 6 Corps, 11 Georgia) should soon be available. Crappie are the main targets
10

Bryant

around attractors, but sunfish, bass and catfish

are caught as well.

The life expectancy of attractor structures is

not definitely known. Estimates run from 10 to

15 years but the attractors will probably draw

fish much longer. "Until they've completely
A rotted or washed away," says Johnson. creel

survey being conducted by South Carolina and

funded by the Corps of Engineers will show how

much use and success the attractors provide. If

they are successful, the program might well be

expanded to other reservoirs in the future.

According to Don Johnson, "Our main aim

with this project is to put the fishermen in closer

contact with the resource--to help him catch a

few more fish. Clark Hill has about 70,000 acres

of surface area. That's a lot of water for the visi-

tor or the occasional angler to try to cover. The

attractors will give him a starting place."

)

Outdoors ip Georgia

New Challenges
for
Special
Olympics
By Rebecca N. Marshall
Susan Burdick

Something very special happened in Colorado last winter. Children from all over the country gathered in Steamboat Springs, and in just five days, most of them
learned how to ski.
This wasn't just any ordinary group of youngsters, though. All the kids were part of the Special Olympics program, and all were mentally retarded.
"They were incredibly good. It was surprising be-
cause we didn't think that they'd be that good. And they
-- -- were better far better than we expected," said Billy
Kidd, Olympic gold medal skier and one of the chief organizers of the winter Special Olympics.
"We had mainly skating, cross-country skiing, and
downhill skiing. Most of them hadn't skied before, so we taught them how, for about four days, and then we had
competitions. We had some competitions for making
snowballs or sliding along on inner tubes or whatever. It

August 1977

11

The Georgia
delegation to the Winter Special
Olympics joined hundreds of other participants from across the country
at Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

12

Outdoors ii? Georgia

Walt Chyzowych, Olympic soccer coach, has been involved with the new Special Olympics soccer program.
was just kind of a winter activities program. This was
the first time they'd done it. And I was kind of the head
coach for skiing."
Kidd devoted much of his time to planning the winter
games, and he had high hopes for success. But even he was surprised at some of the results. "Everybody thought that they wouldn't be able to do it because it
We was too difficult a sport, and too dangerous a sport.
taught them to ski on a hill that wasn't much steeper
than this floor right here, just at a very slight angle. It
was really easy to do, and they had about one instructor for a kid, so they learned incredibly quickly. They got so that they could turn, take the chair lift up, come down through the slalom gates just like you see on the Olym-
pics on television. . . . They learned how to ski so quickly and so well. They had a lot of enthusiasm and a
lot of energy."
Suzy Chaffee, captain of the 1968 Olympic ski team, was a Special Olympics instructor in Steamboat Springs. She talked about one of her most promising pupils. "I taught this little girl that could barely make it up the lift. ... I showed her a little freestyle skiing . . . where you raise your one leg up high and sort of arch it. It's
very pretty. I showed her how to do it, and she got off on it so much that she wouldn't even put her other
foot down. ... It was almost like she was needing a
challenge."
Kidd was amazed at how quickly many of the other participants picked up some new skills. "It seemed that
a good deal of them learned faster than the regular kids,
August 1977

Pat Summerall served as master of ceremonies for the sixth annual Special Olympics awards luncheon in
Atlanta.
because they weren't distracted by anything else that was happening. They seemed to try so hard. They seemed to try harder than ordinary kids. Their results seemed better. All the instructors out there felt that in general these Special Olympians learned faster than
ordinary people at learning how to ski. It was partly
because of their enthusiasm and their good attitude." Kidd and Chaffee joined a number of other well-
known athletes, sportswriters and sportscasters last May
in Atlanta. The occasion was the sixth annual Special Olympics awards luncheon. Pat Summerall, Anne Henning and Rafer Johnson joined the skiers, and they all were part of an outstanding group of celebrities and sports figures who gathered to demonstrate their support
for the program. After the presentations were completed, one end of
the ballroom of the Atlanta Hilton Hotel suddenly was
converted into a soccer field. An excited group of Geor-
gia Special Olympians poured onto the field, and they began a vigorous and enthusiastic soccer game. Before it was over, many of the visiting athletes were lured into the game to play along with the kids.
Soccer is the newest Special Olympics sport, and Walt Chyzowych, U.S. Olympic soccer team coach, has been involved in setting up this part of the program. "Soccer is probably the only sport that should be first introduced to anyone," he said. "I'm being a bit biased here, but for physical development, there's no other sport better than that, because it's fun, it's run, it's kick.
Although soccer is new to Special Olympics in this
13

At right. Special Olympians at Steamboat Springs were joined by
actor Dick Sargent.

Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee, one
of the ski instructors last winter, also attended the Atlanta
awards luncheon.
country, it's already well-established in other places.
Chyzowych explained, "The rest of the world has soccer in their Special Olympics. So when our kids go to Argentina or France or Germany and they see other kids playing soccer, I think they're questioning how come
they can't kick the ball, too."
The U.S. program recently has hired a full-time soc-
cer director, Stanley Startzell, a former professional 14

soccer player. So this sport is on its way to joining other Special Olympics activities like track and field, swim-
ming, basketball, diving, floor hockey, bowling, volleyball, gymnastics and ice skating.
The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation created Special Olympics in 1968. It is the world's first international program offering sports training and athletic competition for the mentally retarded. And all retarded
-- people eight years or older regardless of their dis-- ability can participate.
Here in Georgia, Special Olympics reaches about 23,000 retarded citizens every year. Athletes from around the state participate in local programs that sponsor athletic training in all of the approved Special
Olympics sports. Many of these local athletes move on
to state competitions held throughout the year. This year Georgia Special Olympians already have competed state-wide in volleyball, bowling, floor hockey, basketball, swimming, and track and field.
Competing and winning isn't the goal of Special Olympics, though. More important by far is participat-
-- ing just giving it a good try. The retarded always have
been told that they couldn't do the same things other people could. But through Special Olympics, they learn the same games in much the same way as everybody else.
The kids in Steamboat Springs last winter proved that they could learn a difficult and sometimes dangerous
sport. And day after day, in other, less dramatic ways,
Special Olympics gives the retarded the chance to prove that they can make it.
As Suzy Chaffee put it, "I think one of the main things it does is ... it gives them the confidence to be able to go out and do whatever they want to do." s?
Outdoors it) Georgia

'
Memories...

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pill'

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UH biBSr-SamUlm bV f' M

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Te joys I have possessed are ever mine; out of thy reach, behind eternity
hid in the sacred treasure of the past,
but blest remembrance brings them
hourly back.
Dryden

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Photography by Ed Brock (VfiEh:
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Outdoors ip Georgia

r-n
flw

August 1977

\
#.
K* c

Rememorances

State
P,ar
By Liz Carmichael Jones Photography by Bob Busby

Years ago, when long, hot, leisurely summers seemed

to last forever and were filled with childhood fantasies,

lightening bugs, watermelon patches and books from
the summer library list, I awaited my promised trips to

Indian Springs State Park with great expectations. Back

in those days of the 1940s young men willingly went to

war to save this country, and patriotism reigned

supreme. But even with gasoline and tires being
rationed, somehow we managed a weekly trip to Indian

Springs. This excursion usually happened on

Wednesday as all the businesses in Jackson, Georgia
-- closed at noon promptly when the town clock
sounded. While waiting for my father to close his feed
and seed store, I would play World War II. What great

battlefields and embattlements those stacks of feed

sacks would make, not to mention the quicksand of the

Pacific found in the pea bins!

The thirty-five mile per hour trip of six miles seemed

We so long then.

could coast a mile and a half by the

kudzu hills. And that wonderful grape drink smell of

kudzu vines whetted one's appetite for a snow cone

upon arrival at the park. There were always crowds of

people there. Across the road from the park, dance

halls and bowling alleys were filled with teenagers
some of whom were on their last furlough "whooping-it-up," my father called it. But being younger, my activities were confined to the park

proper.
A So much to do! canoe trip above the falls was

always a must. The coolness under the overhanging

trees which arched the little stream could suddenly
-- -- become even in a split second the Amazon, and I,

of course, was Nyoka the jungle girl racing against time to beat my downstream captors back to some

mysterious safe port. After the canoe trip, still being

pursued by the enemy, Nyoka and friends would

expertly cross the rocks below the falls to the other side
of the stream. How treacherous and swift the water was

then! Surely the years have slowed down the water to

its languid speed of today, and the stream bed has
shrunk in size considerably. Or have I lost my
-- childhood perspective and imagination? So much for
the perilous Amazon on to the land of the Creeks.

The woods alongside the picnic area, full of rambling

Indian trails, afforded some of the best adventure to be
had. My friends and I would wander for hours over the

Outdoors it? Georgia

August 1977

19

"

trails forever trying to blaze new ones. And maybe someday we could manage to really get lost! The
Creeks that lurked behind the pines in wait for us were surely more fearsome than the Iroquois that James
A Fenimore Cooper wrote about. large granite boulder
which blocked one of the trails had a dark stain on it which was (we knew) blood from some ancient Creek chief that had died a gallant and noble death right there on that rock.
We would practice for hours walking in the woods
barefooted, trying not to make a sound. The "Deerslayer" could not have been half as good as we were. Years later a road was cut through this part of the park, and those dark and mysterious woods could not have been more than a half mile deep. What
shattered childhood dreams!
One special event that happened each summer was 4-H Camp at the park. Miss Elizabeth Hood (now Mrs. Richard Watkins) was our counselor and must have
had all the patience in the world to put up with us. I was never too fond of the domestic-type activities of the 4-H program such as bread making, etc. But this could easily be tolerated for a chance to be in the park for a week to romp in the woods, visit the Indian
museum and swim. Catching green lizards and frogs to put between the sheets of our more timid bunk mates
was also great sport.
One year a sailor and his wife wandered into our 4-H Camp to visit with us. They were spending their
20

Outdoors it? Georgia

August 1977

honeymoon at the Elder Hotel adjacent to the park. We
invited them to come back the next day, but he was

leaving for the Pacific early the next morning. I

remember him saying that perhaps when the war was

over, maybe they could come back someday. Two years

We later they visited us again.

were so happy he

returned safely to his beautiful wife and to us.
We celebrated D-Day, the 6th of June, by having a

picnic at the park. Then a year later in August of 1945 we had another picnic to celebrate V-J Day. It wasn't
until then that I knew for sure my uncles would soon

be home.

After a marvelous picnic supper of fried chicken,

pimento cheese sandwiches, potato chips, watermelon

and, if we had enough coupons left from our

government sugar ration book, a cake and a freezer of

homemade ice cream, the last thing on the agenda was

one last run through the park. While the grown-ups talked, we would go to the spring house, daring one

another to drink at least one cup of mineral water.
We did this so often that we all acquired a liking for

the sulphur-tasting liquid.

I don't remember all of the trip home, for after
fighting World War II, a journey down the Amazon, outsmarting the Creek Indians, and a full tummy I

would always fall into a deep and blissful sleep. Those
-- were the good times of childhood those wonderful
carefree days. As I grew older my childhood fantasies began to dim and now only exist in remembrances of

things past.

But when I return to Indian Springs State Park to enjoy the beauty of nature found there, somehow the past is with me still, and once again I can feel the

presence of the Creek Indians somewhere not too far

off in the woods.

21

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Outdoors ii> Georgia

Georgia's
Pine Barrens

By Ann Barber

Pine barrens. What do the words
A suggest to you? dreary place per-
haps, a forest with a thick canopy of pine trees, its monotony unrelieved by the color of flowering plants and their attendant birds and butterflies? Most likely your mental picture is one of acres of pine trees, a ground cover of wire grass and an occasional scrub palmetto or gallberry bush struggling out of the pine
straw.
Granted, this is a fair description
of some south Georgia pine plantations. But they, as commercial crops, might be expected to have all the aesthetic qualities of a row of corn or soybeans. What is unfortunate and unfair is that "pine barrens" is
often used as a blanket term for all pinelands, and this is slander indeed.
It is hard to find out just how and when the term began to be applied
to Georgia's forests. Apparently it came into being as a description of the great primeval pine forest of the southern Coastal Plain which extended from eastern Virginia to the Mississippi River. The huge trees were widely spaced, and yet their size was so large, their canopies so wide that the forest floor received little sunlight and was quite lacking
in vegetation. The sight must have seemed strange indeed to Europeans when they first beheld it. DeSoto and his company were the first to traverse the area and in their writ-
ings, they refer to parts of the pinelands as a "desert;' William Bartram, the noted naturalist and writer
who traveled in the region shortly
before the Revolution, used the

strangely contradictory term "desert
forest."
However, at some time in the
state's early history "pine barren"
came to be the commonly used term. In 1741 when James Habersham (who was later to be President of
His Majesty's Council) wrote to General Oglethorpe about the need for slaves in the colony of Georgia, he eloquently described the plight of of the colonial farmer:
"... Alas, honoured sir, what
must a poor friendless man do,
with his wife and children settled upon fifty acres of land, perhaps pine barren ..."
-- Lilium pine lily

Undoubtedly, though, the most famous detractor of the Georgia pinelands was Fannie Kemble in her Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation in 1838-1839. She de-
scribes a visit she made to some of the resident gentry who lived near
Darien:
"The road was a deep, wearisome sandy track, stretching wearisomely into the wearisome pine
-- forest a species of wilderness
more oppressive a thousand times to the senses and imagination than any extent of monotonous prairie, barren steppe, or bound-
"
less desert can be ...
Leo T. Barber, Jr.

August 1977

23

The primeval pine forest which
gave rise to the expression "pine barrens" no longer exists; it has long since been lumbered away. Yet the term persists. Even Roland Harper
who published the classic botanical
study of what he called the "Alta-
maha Grit" region of Georgia, per-
petuated the expression. Then, ironically, he proceeded to list page after page of flowering plants which flourished in the so-called pine barrens.
In truth, there is no time of the year in which a dedicated woods walker cannot find color in the pinelands. During a mild January, for instance, the Carolina Jessamine can be found in profusion, its bright yellow blossoms climbing on shrubs,
Polygala
fences, and even to the top of the tall pine trees, sometimes entwining itself into the garlands of Spanish moss. Small white Sunbonnets will be clustered in the open meadows, and the pinkish blossoms of the blueberry give promise of the fruit which will be coming later.
April is the favorite month for many admirers of the pinelands. The Bird-foot Violet, which began blooming some weeks earlier, can
still be found, as can other species of violets both white and purple. Sharp-eyed observers will find sev-
eral different Milkworts. Some are
only a few inches tall, but their col-
ors are striking. They may be yel-
low, pink, purple or a high-visibility orange, which stands out especially in the clumps of lush green grass.
Blue-eyed Grass, a mis-named mem-
ber of the Iris family, is present and will continue blooming for several weeks.

Sisyrinchium, blue-eyed grass
Wild-indigo, with clusters of yellow, pea-like blossoms, grows in
abundance. The Sand-hill Milk-
weed, though lacking in bright colors, attracts large numbers of gailycolored insects and butterflies.
Summer is not the most comfort-
able time to visit these parts, but
those who venture forth may be re-
warded by finding one of the most striking wildflowers of any season, the Pine Lily. Difficult to transplant and never very plentiful, its future is uncertain as more of its wetland habitat is drained for agriculture, highways and subdivisions.
On the other end of the scale are
the Black-eyed Susans. Their tribe seems to increase, and their bounti-
ful supply makes them well known to many people who have only a
nodding acquaintance with wildflowers in general. In wetter spots.

Photos by Leo T. Berber

Asclepias, sand hill milkweed

Meadow-beauties can be found.

Their fragile beauty should be en-

joyed in the morning, for by after-
noon the petals may have fallen,

leaving only the distinctively shaped

seed pods which Thoreau aptly de-

scribed as looking like "perfect little

cream pitchers."

Late summer and early fall bring

a marvelous display of Yellow-

fringed Orchids, their spikes glowing

vividly in moist meadows and among

scattered pine trees. This is also the
season for Blazing-stars. Even mo-

torists who never venture out of

their cars can enjoy this one, for it

grows profusely on the back slopes

of many Georgia highways. Blazing-

star may be known to you by other

names; it has also been called Gay-

feather, Button-snakeroot and Rat-

tlesnake-master, the latter two re-

ferring presumably to some past

usage as a snake bite remedy.

Even in December the pinelands

are not entirely drab. If the season

has been moderate, an occasional

clump of Phlox can still be found

A blooming.

careful search may

turn up a Soapwort Gentian, beau-

tiful blue in color, and, appropriate-

ly for December, shaped rather like

a Christmas tree bulb.

In January the cycle begins again

with Jessamine, Sunbonnets and the
other early bloomers. How could

one honestly place the label "bar-

ren" on these botanically rich, color-

ful and interesting pinelands!

3f'

24

Outdoors ii> Georgia

Bob Busby

August 1977

Coastal
Fossils
By Jingle Davis

I didn't know what kind of shell I
found that day on the beach on St. Simons Island. Only that nothing like it appeared in our family's ran-
dom collection, accumulated through
years of beachcombing. I'd gone to the beach just to walk,
and I almost left the shell lying there in the tangle of dead marsh grass and dried foam marking the high
tide line.
But the shell looked unusual. Out
of habit I stooped, hardly breaking stride, picked it up and dropped it in
my jacket pocket. Several yards
down the beach, a scrabbling inside my pocket told me the shell was in-
habited, probably by a crusty, old hermit crab. I nearly tossed it away then, to avoid the guilt and the trouble of evicting a creature from its home.
I didn't throw it away, though.

25

and now I'm the smug owner of a

nice specimen of Ecphora quadrico-
-- stata a fossil from the Pliocene
Epoch. A friend happened to have a

specimen in her shell collection and

My she identified it for me.

E. quad-

ricostata is probably about three mil-

lion years old, and paleontologists
tell me it is quite uncommon to find

a specimen on a Georgia beach. I
think it's somehow charming that
my shell, after three million years,

was providing cozy accommodations

for a living animal. For me, that

ameloriates the notion of time's re-

lentless ravages.

Fossils do impart a sense of time,

of life cycles long ago begun and

ended. Perhaps a geologist gets the

same feeling when he examines a

slab of granite, but for me, holding

the bones or skeleton or imprint of a

now-extinct but once-living creature

makes the hair prickle on the back
of my neck. Finding the shell piqued my curi-

osity about fossils, and I've since

learned that Georgia's coastal coun-

ties are a fossil hunter's happy hunt-

ing ground. Though mere infants of

geologic time, coastal fossils do

paint fascinating portraits of life in

the distant past.

Invertebrates such as clams and
shells are by far the most common
-- coastal fossils understandably so,

since their numbers are so large. But

amateur fossil hunters also stand a

chance of finding such things as the

shiny black teeth of prehistoric

sharks or perhaps the bones or tusks

of the wooly mammoth, the sabre-

toothed tiger or the giant mastodon.

Paul Huddlestun, a paleontologist

with the Geologic and Water Re-

sources Division of the Georgia De-

partment of Natural Resources in
Atlanta, gave me a few helpful hints

on recognizing coastal fossils when I stumble across them. Some living

creatures have remained largely un-

changed over eons of time, and it's

sometimes difficult to distinguish be-

tween, for example, a modern-day

razor clam or ark shell and its an-

cient counterpart.
"A good rule of thumb with coast-

al fossil bones is color," Huddlestun
said. "A black tooth or bone frag-

The coral astrangia has been preserved in this pecten shell.

ment may be a fossil at least 10,000 years old. Nobody is absolutely sure why they turn black, but it may have
something to do with chemical changes."
Another indicator is shells out of place. "If you find a patch of dead, white or gray seashells in the marsh or on a creek bank miles from the ocean, then there's a good chance they're fossils," Huddlestun ex-
plained.
The Georgia coast has undergone many drastic changes in sea level
through the years. Huddlestun's de-
scription of the coast some 18,000 years ago is intriguing. There were no shelving beaches, for in those days, the ocean did not cover the continental shelf. Georgia had about 70 more miles of land area then; land covered with pine woods all the way out to the shelf.
The shelf, an exposed rocky cliff, dropped sharply to the ocean below. Waves flung themselves furiously
against the rocks, their force un-
abated by shallows or sandbars. The great coastal rivers wound through the pine woods to the shelf, probably cascading over the edge to meet
the sea.
Were there people around back

then to see Georgia's dramatic coastline? That's one of the questions
which may be answered by fossil
finds. Huddlestun said evidence of
human activity dating back 40,000
years have been found in California, but to date, nothing of the sort has turned up on the Georgia coast.
"A human skull or bones from
that period from the Georgia coast would be the find of the century," Huddlestun said. Again, a blackcolored skull or bones would be indicative of age, so fossil hunters would be wise to look carefully at any blackened specimens.
Marian Nielson of Jekyll Island is one of the best amateur fossil collectors on the coast, and her advice is "Pick up anything that catches your
eye, take it home and identify it, then throw it away if it isn't any
good. For every good fossil I have in
my collection, I've thrown away 200
more." She takes her collecting seriously
and at one time had the largest collection of identified prehistoric shark's teeth from the Georgia coast. Her collection, donated to the state
museum on Jekyll, was stolen sev-
eral years ago and has never been recovered. Fortunately, her collec-

26

Outdoors it) Georgia

tion is duplicated in the Smithsonian Institute, but Georgians can no long-
er view it in their home state.
Mrs. Nielson said she expects fossil hunting on the coast to be even
better as the area develops. As interstate highways are built and dredges
deepen harbor channels, a wealth of
new material is brought to the surface, and most of this material is
rich in fossils.
"They're dredging deep into the Brunswick river basin right now, and the material which comes up
should add much to the whole fos-
sil record. Already we're beginning
to recognize many more forms of
life," she said. She said she fully expects to find fossilized remains of three or four types of elephants,
mastodons and mammoths, some
types of the llama (a camel-like creature whose descendants still live in South America), giant sloths and beaver, zebra-type horses, dire

wolves and sabre-toothed tigers. "There were also huge black bears on the coast then, the size of grizzly bears or even larger," she said. "The dire wolf was a monster, too, fully as large as a modern-day lion."
She described the Georgia coast of that day as a "Serengeti Plain," with the various animals roaming in abundance. She, too, believes that
new fossil finds will confirm man's
presence in the area in the days of
the giant sloths and mammoths. "We've found arrowheads, Indian beads and fishing spears mixed in
with other fossil material," she said.
"We aren't sure how old these arti-
facts are, but the material they came up with was at least 5,000 years old."
She began her own fossil collec-
-- tion by picking up and identify-- ing fossilized shark's teeth on local
beaches. Her interest broadened, and soon she was working to fit the individual teeth into the jawbone for

Clockwise from bottom: astrangia/ pecten (see page 26), chama (jewel box), echinochama (jewel box), sinum (baby ear), pecten Jeffersonius (scallop), glycmeris (saint America bittersweet). At center is the Ecphora
quadricostata.

August 1977

27

that particular species. She sighs, remembering the painstaking work which went into the collection that was later stolen. "I had a seveninch shark's tooth positioned in one
-- jawbone the single tooth weighed
over two pounds. It was a monster,"
she said.
Complete fossil skeletons are a rarity, Mrs. Nielson said, adding that one can, with patience, skill and
luck, piece together a fair replica of the original animal.
"The reason we seldom find com-
plete skeletons here is that most of the good fossil material is brought up by dredges or pumps, so is all mixed together," she said, explaining that major fossil deposits often lie 40 feet or more below ground level. "In a way, this makes collecting easier, because you don't have to dig, but in another way, what you

find in the dredged materials are just jigsaw puzzle pieces, and you're fairly sure all the pieces aren't included."
Huddlestun said that whole skeletons would probably be a rarity in any case. "Unless a carcass was buried rapidly by silt or some other fine material, it's likely that its bones would have been scattered by scavengers or tumbled apart by moving water or storm winds. Fossils we find today represent only a tiny portion of earth's past life. Most remains were devoured, decayed or eroded."
-- One geologic epoch the Pleisto-- cene in coastal Georgia seems to
have been particularly conducive to the preservation of animal remains
which we find today as fossils. For one reason or another, the sea level
began a rapid rise, cresting the con-

tinental shelf and spreading into the pine woods of the coastal plain. As

the sea rose, its inward surge met the

outflow of the coastal rivers, caus-

ing their waters to slow or, at times,

to back up completely. Silt, carried

in suspension in rapidly moving

river water, settled to the bottom of

river valleys as the rivers' speed

slowed. This fine silt was an ideal medium for preserving bones and

shells which, centuries later, turn up

as coastal fossils.

Mrs. Nielson said one of the best

areas she's found for fossil hunting

is on spoil banks, where dredged or pumped material has been deposited.

She advises amateur fossil hunters to

carry along a pad and pencil to re-

cord such things as the locale of
-- the find and the date information
which may be valuable in identify-
ing specimens or which may prove

priceless if the find turns out to be a

rarity. She also carries a small speci-
men bottle and a large container to

keep specimens separated as to size.

Although fossils have survived for

eons of time, most have been pro-
tected by layers of mud and earth, and many are quite fragile.
I'm quite sure my E. quadricostata lay buried in the mud until a

relatively short time before I found

it. Possibly the hermit crab I so

rudely evicted was the shell's first

tenant in two or three million years.

If you do decide to take up fossil

hunting, I'd suggest you invest in a

good book on fossil identification.

Golden Books puts out an excellent

paperback handbook which features

colored pictures and names of many fossils common to the Georgia coast.

The book also has a geologic time

scale, so you'll probably be able to

determine the approximate age of

your particular find.

Marian Nielson's advice on what

to carry along on a fossil hunting

trip is probably best of all. "Take

more curiosity than anything else,"

she said. "And take along a great

deal of respect for all things, whether

they lived last month or ten million

years ago. That's one of the things I
always try to bring out in my
-- work respect for the world we live

in."

%

28

Outdoors ii) Georgia

Outdoors
Georgia
2nd Annual
Southeastern Wildlife Art Exhibit
October 21-23, 1977
Perimeter Mall Atlanta, Georgia
Original wildlife paintings, sketches, sculpture
and photography exhibited in the mall. For further information call 656-3530

Outdoors Toud> ii>

edited by Susan K. Wood

RABIES ON THE INCREASE
An increase in numbers of rabid raccoons and dogs
is reported from the middle Georgia area, according to Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and health
personnel of the Department of Human Resources
(DHR).
Dr. Keith Sikes, Veterinary Epidemiologist for DHR, reports that in a 14-county area, centered around Jones County, his staff has identified rabies in 24 raccoons and one dog so far this year. This compared with 18 raccoons, one fox and one dog reported as rabid from the same area in all of 1976.
What worries officials, according to DNR Major
Jack Benford of Macon, is the practice of coon hunters trapping live coons from the middle Georgia area and transporting them to northwest Georgia and east Tennessee. "They think this illegal practice will help
them stock their areas for coon hunting, but it may in
fact introduce rabies and other diseases to a comparatively sparse hut generally healthy wildlife population," Benford said. "If rabies is introduced up there by these practices, there is little to stop it from being introduced to domestic pets and, eventually to people."
Benford and Sikes both feel it is important for the
public to realize the incidence of rabies reported in middle Georgia so as to minimize the dangers of accidentally spreading the dread disease.
According to Dr. Sikes, rabies began a northward migration from the Florida border counties in 1962 covering 2-3 new counties per year. From Newton County southward, 70% of the counties in Georgia re-
port rabies in wildlife.
"Practices such as described by Major Benford," Sikes said "would certainly speed the spread of rabies to the more northern counties.
WILDLIFE ARE NOT GOOD PETS!
"We found a baby deer that had been abandoned by its mother, and we thought it would make a good pet. How do we care for it?"
This is a question asked almost daily of Game and
Fish biologists and conservation rangers according to
Terry Kile, chief of Game Management, Department of
Natural Resources.
"It's a very tough question," Kile said, "because it is almost impossible for the average person to
properly care for a wild animal. And it's illegal to hold any wildlife without a permit from my office, and permits are not being given."

Kile added people often regret the decision to give wildlife a home when the fawn or baby bobcat
grows to adult size. Each fall we read accounts of
pet deer turning on their captors, often with serious
results.
The real tragedy in picking up "abandoned" wildlife is that once taken from the mother, the youngster
may never be safely returned to the wild; it can't
survive. Captive wildlife that dies in captivity usually succumbs to malnutrition from inadequate food.
Kile advises, "Wildlife does not abandon its young except on rare instances. That fawn's mother is probably standing close by watching people steal her
baby."
If it is certain that any wildlife has been abandoned
contact any Game and Fish office for assistance. Touching, petting or disturbing the animal in any way
will lessen the animals' chances of survival.
NEW SUPERINTENDENT AT FORT YARGO
Siothia Longmire was recently named as the new superintendent of Fort Yargo State Park in Winder. She
served for six years as the Recreation Administrator at Will-A-Way Recreation Center for the Handicapped,
located at Fort Yargo. DNR Commissioner Joe Tanner stated that the new superintendent was probably the
first female state park superintendent in the Southeast. Noting her vast experience, Tanner further added that
Ms. Longmire was an outstanding recreation profes-
sional recognized throughout the nation for her effec-
tive management of recreation programs and services
to the handicapped.
FISH KILL AT LAKE GEORGE
Reports of a fish kill in Lake George on the Georgia-Alabama border have been confirmed by Russ Ober, Regional Fishery Supervisor, in Albany.
Ober said that biologists from the Game and Fish
Division of the Department of Natural Resources and from Auburn University and the Alabama Department of Conservation have been studying the problem for the past three weeks.
Test results show that the problem is a bacterial infection complicated by protozoan parasites. The
situation is a common one in Lake George. A similar
incident occurred in the spring of 1976. Ober con-
tinued, "There is little we can do about it, but we are
continuing to monitor the progress of the kill. It seems to be more severe this year possibly because of the low water levels and extremely hot weather."

30

Outdoors it? Georgia

Fish species involved are primarily shad (80%)
with 10% each of channel catfish and other game
fish.
"Although the kill is extensive, it should have little effect on sport fishing," Ober said, "and the edibility of fish taken from the lake will not be effected as long as the fish are properly cooked."
FREE CAMPING WEEKEND
The Department of Natural Resources, in cooperation with the Agricultural Extension Service, is sponsoring a Family Outdoor Exposition at the Blackburn Outdoor Education Center near Dahlonega.
The free camping weekend will be held September 3, 4 and 5, Labor Day weekend. Campsites with water, electricity and showers are available, but reservations
are required. A variety of educational activities are
planned to interest the entire family.
On Saturday the Outdoor Education staff will con-
duct a hunter safety clinic for campers over 16 years of age, and a firearms safety clinic for ages 10 through 15. For campers age 5 to 10, staff members plan environmental awareness games. In addition,
Mrs. Elizabeth Cornelius of the Extension Service will
be giving a demonstration on how to cook wild
game.
On Monday, September 5, more activities are planned: a session entitled "How to Hunt Whitetail Deer in Georgia," to be presented by a DNR game biologist, and a "Camp Cooking Made Easy" clinic.
Call (404) 656-3534 for more information or for
reservations.
BASS TAGGING ON WEST POINT LAKE
As a part of a long-term study of the West Point Reservoir, the Fisheries Department at Auburn University has started the 1977 largemouth bass tagging program. This effort is designed to determine the annual
harvest of bass from the reservoir. A large number of
bass will have a vinyl tag in one of three colors attached to the upper back. These fish should be considered as any other bass caught, either to be kept or returned to the reservoir depending on the fisherman's
preference.
A reward is offered for certain tags based on the
color and its number (red-- $0-500, blue-- $5 each, white-- no reward). The tag must be sent to the Auburn University Fisheries Department for examination.
Fishermen catching tagged bass should send name, address, location and date of fish catch, and the tag to: Fisheries Dept., Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36830.
WASTE EXCHANGE PROGRAM
Last summer, the Environmental Protection Division
of DNR instituted a Waste Exchange Program, a free

information service through which interested parties
may offer to buy or sell waste materials, energy sources
and used stationary waste processing equipment. Listings of items available and items wanted are
published in EPD's quarterly newsletter, "Reclaimer." Examples of items recently listed as available include
"cellulose acetate fiber, 5 t/day, Middle Georgia," and "wood pallets, 40 in. x 42 in., new condition, 50-100 week, South Georgia."
For further information, contact the Georgia Waste Exchange, Room 804, 270 Washington Street, S.W., Atlanta 30334.
FREE BASIC BOATING COURSE For those of you who missed DNR's safe boating
clinics earlier this year, Tybee Power Squadron in Savannah is offering a free basic boating course. The first meeting will be Monday night, September 26, from 7:30 to 9:30 in Room 202, Solms Building, Armstrong State College. The course will run for approximately ten weeks. Subjects taught will include boating safety, charts and compass, aids to navigation, rules of the road, seamanship and boat handling. For further information, contact W. O. Hawley at (912) 355-7837 or Boysie Fedderwitz, (912) 897-1782.

August 1977

31

DNR Welcomes
Two New Board Members

Two new members were recently appointed to
the Board of Natural Resources by Governor George Busbee.
Dolan E. Brown, Jr. of Twin City replaced James F. Darby, Jr. as the representative from
Georgia's First Congressional District. Alton P.
Draughon of Dooly County succeeded Dr.
Robert A. Collins in the Third District seat. Both will serve until January 1, 1984.
A graduate of the University of Georgia,
Dolan Brown, 47, operates an 8,000 acre farm outside Twin City. In 1965, he was named by the Georgia Jaycees as Georgia's Outstanding
Young Farmer and was subsequently named one of the nation's four outstanding young farmers
by the national Jaycee organization.
He has served for 12 years as president and director of the Emanuel County Farm Bureau
and presently serves on the executive committee
of the Georgia Farm Bureau. Brown assisted in the organization of the four-county Farm Bu-
reau Marketing Association, of which he is president, the Georgia Cotton Commission Board and the Swainsboro Farmers Mutual Exchange, currently serving as chairman of the
board.
Mr. Brown also serves as member of the
executive committee of the National Cotton Board, president of the Southern Cotton Growers Association and producer-delegate to the National Cotton Council.
32

A former mayor of Twin City, the new board
member is now serving on Emanuel County's Board of Education. He is married, with three
sons.
A banker, farmer and businessman, Alton
Draughon is president and a director of the Bank of Dooly in Vienna and farms more than
1,100 acres. Draughon, 47, is past chairman of the Third
District Bankers Association. In addition, he
has served three terms as a member of the
Pinehurst City Council and has been a director of the West Central Georgia Development Au-
thority, now known as the Middle Flint Development Authority.
Mr. Draughon is married to the former Barbara Yancey of Americus; they have one son.
Upon announcing the new appointments,
Governor Busbee noted, "Agriculture and agribusiness continue to be major components of
Georgia's economy, and I am delighted that two men of the caliber and experience of Dolan
Brown and Alton Draughon have consented to make time in their busy schedules to lend knowl-
edge of soil stewardship and conservation to our Board of Natural Resources."
Outdoors ir? Georgia

Letters to tl>e Editor

Recently after a float trip down
the Flint River in Upson County, my
friend and 1 found ourselves along with quite a number of other individuals faced with an irritating surprise courtesy of our Highway Department. Auto access to the river bank via the right of way was blocked by metal posts set in cement. Fisher-
men and canoeists were forced to
haul their craft and equipment 60 yards up a steep bank and then load them on the narrow shoulder of a busy highway. Considering the fatigued state of any person after a day of physical exertion I do not believe that this danger point can be over emphasized.

This take-out point, the Highway 36 bridge, will be heavily used in the months ahead and it could and should be improved as a facility for
the citizens of this state. This could be effected with a little grading and
gravel.

If we are to be denied easy access we should, at the very least, have an explanation as to why the action was taken and some assurance that all
factors were taken into considera-
tion.
Robert W. Ponder
Thomaston, Georgia

EDITORS NOTE: We forwarded

DOT the above letter to

and re-

ceived the following reply.

Dear Mr. Pass:
Following our conversation last week in regard to the placement of metal posts alongside the approaches to the Flint River Bridge on State
Route 36 in Upson County, I telephoned our Third District Office in Thomaston.
As I had thought, the path being used to reach the river was along the
fill slope for the bridge approach.
The vehicular traffic had already caused damage to the fill slope and

erosion had begun. In addition, easy access to the area had encouraged littering and vandalism underneath
the bridge.
Since we have the responsibility
of protecting the Georgia taxpayers'
investment in roads, we had no recourse but to block this damaging
traffic as a preventive maintenance task, and to enhance the safety of the area. I would agree that loading and unloading of boats alongside this highway is dangerous, and would suggest that boaters find a safer location to enter and leave the river.
I am sure that Mr. Ponder, the au-
thor of the letter you received, would not like to encourage further siltation of the Flint River by erosion, since
he is an outdoorsman. I am also sure
that he would not approve of the vandalism and littering that has occurred underneath the bridge.
The Department of Transportation regrets any inconvenience this
might cause fishermen or boaters,
but we believe it is in the best interest
of both motorists and users of the
Flint.
Jerry M. Stargel Department of Transportation Information and Public Relations

The April issue has a letter from David Malcolm of Fitzgerald, Georgia requesting information on the
wildlife art exhibit held last October.
He inquired about names of artists who specialize in bird dogs and quail.
Richard A. Parks is now working
on a quail which might be of interest
to Mr. Malcolm. You might like to refer Mr. Malcolm to Mr. Richard Parks. The address is 253 14th
Street, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30309.
Sybil Arbery Management Assistant
Security Benefit Associates, Inc.

s|G

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$

As a teacher of a 7th grade life science course, I have found your
magazine to be an asset to my classes. Many of the articles go along
with the class lesson (such as the September, 1976 issue on endangered species) and the colored pictures are fantastic for bulletin boards,

posters and booklets. 1 look forward each month to receiving the magazine because, since it is about Georgia, there is always something appli-
cable to my classes on plants and
animals found here. Keep us teachers in mind and keep sending the great
articles.
Ruth Browning Science Department Chairman Cook Junior High Adel, Georgia
Having acquired, of necessity, "fishing and hunting fever" thirteen
years ago when I married my hunter-
fisherman, I have become an avid reader of Outdoors in Georgia. Bill Morehead's article this month on George Perry's world record largemouth bass was outstanding. In ad-
dition to writing a fine account of a
memorable event, Mr. Morehead de-
picted, with understanding, the beauty of rural Georgia.
I also enjoy the lovely wildlife art which appears from time to time.
Keep up the good work.
Lynn McCoy
Albany, Georgia
SPECIAL HUNTING EDITION
The September and October issues of Outdoors in Georgia will be combined into a special expanded
hunting edition.
Since hunting is a very popular activity in Georgia and since most
hunting seasons open in the autumn months, we feel a hunting edition will be a service to readers.
This special issue will contain information on hunting areas, OIG's annual deer forecast, information
on new hunting regulations, hunter
safety tips and much more. We will
also be including excerpts from
Charlie Elliott's Prince of Game
Birds: the hobwhite quail, published
by DNR.
This combined September-October edition will be in the mail in early October. The next issue will be published in November.

August 1977

33

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