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Published: January 12th 2012
Island Filled with Cranes at Harris Neck
Island in Robbins Pond filled with cranes, at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in GeorgiaThe Georgia coast is composed of a series of low-lying, swampy islands, called the
Golden Isles.
Most of them were plantations before the Civil War.
Afterwards, they were taken over by black families.
These days, most of them have been developed into
beach resorts.
The remainder are now wildlife refuges that are extremely important to local birds.
These refuges are the only places where the coast can be seen as it was before English settlement.
Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge
My first stop is one of only two refuges that are easily accessible from a road,
Harris Neck.
While it looks like primeval forest, it’s really only been here since the 1950s.
The area was originally a plantation, and then taken over by small African American farmers.
In the early years of World War II, the US government took the land by eminent domain to build a
training base for the Army Air Force.
The move is still
controversial over a half century later.
The remains of the airstrips and other structures appear in the refuge.
After the war was over, the Army no longer needed the field, so the wildlife
Alligator in Robins Pond
Alligator Floating in Robbins Pond, Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge. The Alligator is the black bump in the middle of the photo. took over.
Access to the refuge is provided by a winding four mile road.
The road is one where a convertible is a godsend.
Oak trees with hanging Spanish moss, palmettos, and pine trees all appear close at hand.
Several of the older trees have damage from fires, which this
ecosystem depends on to keep marshes from turning into forests.
These days they are set deliberately.
One pine tree was half burned from top to bottom and it was still alive.
Stopping periodically to take photographs is irresistible, which I could do directly from the car.
Taking Pictures from a Road
At this point, I need to discuss a topic that every wilderness visitor needs to deal with eventually, shooting photos from the road.
Wilderness roads, especially those in parks, are view fests, and the urge to memorialize several of them with photos are irresistible.
Wildlife, in particular, attracts photographers like mosquitoes to a bug light.
Shooting from a car is tolerated as long as the road keeps moving.
It’s utterly amazing how many people forget the second half of that statement,
Former Airstrip at Harris Neck
Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge was an air training base during World War II. This is one of the former runways leading to the infamous wildlife jams.
The process is pretty simple:
1. If there is a pullout or parking area, use it.
2. If possible, pull completely off the road before shooting.
3. Only if there is no space to pull over AND there is nobody behind, set up the camera beforehand, stop for the five seconds it takes to get the shot, and then move on.
The final result is that people get their pictures and the people behind them stay sane.
Periodically, the road passed hiking trails to various ponds.
The ponds held the most wildlife.
The most accessible is Robinson Pond, which is a huge nesting site for white cranes.
Trees on islands within the pond were covered with them.
I also saw my first alligators on this trip, floating in the water.
Smallest Church
Next to the road to the refuge is one of Georgia’s quirkier sites, the “
Smallest Church in America".
I use the quotes because a few others also claim this title.
This church was the size of a small woodshed, and it contained six chairs and an
The Smallest Church In America
Geoorgia's "Smallest Church in America". Several others claim the title altar.
The setting is superb, under a canopy of oak trees.
According to the guest book, a number of weddings get performed here each year.
When I stopped for gas, I encountered another classic Southern experience.
Next to the gas station was a small, beat up, white wooden shack with a rather large parking lot.
There were cars in the lot.
For the Southern road food connoisseur, this can mean only one thing.
Sure enough, written over the door in magic marker were the letters ‘B B Q’.
The joint was run by an older African American couple, and the variety was
Georgian, meaning lots of tomato sauce.
I’ve had better, but not for prices as low as this place.
Good stuff.
After lunch I drove into Florida.
Crossing the state border is unmistakable.
First is the
agricultural inspection station.
Florida makes a lot of money growing things, and wants to keep it that way.
Accordingly, all food products brought into the state get the equivalent of a strip search for pests.
Next up was the
tourist information center.
Florida is
English Garden at the Cummer Museum and Gardens
The famous mosaic fountain is in the center of the garden. a big vacation destination, so this booth had enough brochures to start a large bonfire.
They also served free orange juice (which I am allergic to).
The
hotel discount
booklets were the size of a small phone book.
Finally, there was the obligatory billboard advertising cheap tickets to Walt Disney World (all it costs is a
high pressure time-share condo pitch, which may cost one their sanity).
Once in the state I headed for Jacksonville.
It may be the most northern city in the state, but culturally it is the most Southern.
People here take their religion very seriously, as a church sign near the highway made quite clear: “Read your bible joyously, and obey it gladly”.
One side effect of this is that establishments have very limited hours on Sunday, if they open at all.
If I wanted to see everything I wanted, I had to see some of it today.
Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens
The main goal today was the
Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens.
This art museum was established in 1960 from a bequest by the Cummer family.
The museum is a modern building located
Italian Garden at Cummer Museum and Gardens
A portion of the Italian Garden at the Cummer Museum and Gardens, designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman. Note the blazing azaleas around the pool, and the huge oak tree in the background. on what was once their estate.
The architecture gives the place the unfortunate feel of a mid-century office building.
The museum has three main strengths.
The first is Old Master and Dutch Art.
I’m not a fan of this type of artwork, so I breezed through pretty quickly.
The second is
American Art.
This collection is pretty extensive for a mid-sized museum.
The most impressive room for me was the period between 1920 and 1950.
There were a large number of modernist canvases here by artists I have never heard of.
Most of them were clearly grappling with European art trends of the time.
All of the artwork pales compared with the third strength, the
gardens.
There is a reason that it’s the “Museum and Gardens” and not just “Museum”.
Starting in the 1910s, the Cummers built a series of formal gardens on their land along the shore of the St. John River.
One of them was the first garden to feature
azaleas, a non-native flower now found all over the state.
These gardens are now behind the museum.
Plants grow very well
in Florida, so the gardens were stunning.
There were blooming flowers everywhere.
There was an arbor along the actual river front.
There were statues placed at strategic points.
There was a replica of a Roman pool with mosaics at the bottom depicting Florida animals, the centerpiece of the English style garden.
On the other side is a stunning Italian garden designed by noted garden architect
Ellen Biddle Shipman.
This garden leads into a 300 year old oak tree that far predates the rest of the gardens.
The gardens outshine the artwork, and are the primary reason to visit.
Okefenokee Swamp
My final site for the day was the
Okefenokee Swamp.
This is the southernmost of a chain of swamps on the coastal plain, starting in Virginia.
Early settlers saw the swamp as a hindrance, and tried to drain it.
They failed.
Latter settlers logged it.
Eventually, the federal government took it over and the
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a legendary New Deal program (which will appear repeatedly in this blog), turned it into the current wildlife refuge.
The swamp has two main parts, the
Suwanee Canal
The canal leads into the Okefenokee Swamp upland and downland.
The main visitors center for the
Suwannee Canal Recreation Area sits at the transition point, and there are walking trails though each.
The upland part is a pine forest.
This forest burns regularly, so the trees are small and there is lots of underbrush between them.
Part of the trail runs along the canal that early settlers built as part of their drainage effort.
The downland is the classic image of a swamp.
It contains lots of mud, peat, hanging moss, and trees with roots directly in the water.
The trail ends at a swamp meadow.
This area is dry soil during the summer but becomes a muddy lake in the winter.
The vegetation is a mixture of water plants like lily pads and grass.
I saw a white-tail deer along this trail, but no alligators.
I also saw lots of something that is all too familiar in wet areas: mosquitoes.
Dinner was at another southern highway restaurant.
Tonight I had
sweet iced tea for the first time.
Southerners consume this beverage by the gallon.
I now understand why.
It tastes perfect after sweating all day in
Swamp Prarie, Okefenokee Swamp
A rare ecosystem at the heart of Okefenokee Swamp, the prarie is a swamp during the winter and a prarie during the summer. muggy heat.
It is an acquired taste, but one I handled pretty quickly.
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