On the road to Atlanta

Heading north out of Florida through rural Georgia

We stopped first for 4 nights in Americus, Georgia and then continued north for 2 nights in Forsyth, Georgia. Mark got to catch up with another old high school friend, Jim-B, and we spent 3 days…

Visiting 2 new National Park Sites and revisiting 1:

Jimmy Carter National Historical Park (#312), in Plains, Georgia, where the rural southern culture, revolving around farming, church, and school, had a large influence in molding the character and shaping the political policies of the 39th President of the United States. Here Jimmy and Rosalynn grew up, graduated High School, and returned after Jimmy’s father died, after 6 years in the navy, post Annapolis. They lived much of their lives, always returning here and are buried on the grounds of the only home they ever owned. We visited the Plains High School (and park visitor center), walked around town, visited the Plains Depot where he ran his presidential campaign, and visited his Boyhood Farm.

Plains High School, from which both Jimmy & Rosalyn Carter graduated
Plains Depot, AKA Jimmy Carter for President Headquarters (now museum)
Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farmhouse
Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farmhouse-his bedroom, with some of the many books he read as a boy
Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farmhouse-Livingroom, with more books and a radio powered by a car battery
Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm-view of some of the farm buildings and where the hogs were slaughtered

Andersonville National Historic Site (#107-Revisit), the infamous Civil War POW Camp, where nearly 13,000 (of 45,000) men died in 14 months. Their burial grounds became Andersonville National Cemetery, where veterans continue to be buried today. It is also home to the National Prisoner of War Museum, which serves as a memorial to all American prisoners of war. We spent a few hours revisiting the Museum, walking the site of the camp, and visiting the cemetery.

Monument to Andersonville POWs
Stockage Branch today, the only planned water source in the camp…and used for sewage (wells were dug with metal cups)
North Gate, through which prisoners arrived, many to never leave alive
Andersonville National Cemetery, one of the areas of Union Trench graves from the camp. The numbers were replaced with names, thanks to Clara Barton keeping meticulous records

Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park (#313), a prehistoric American Indian site, in Macon, Georgia, where many different American Indian cultures occupied the land for thousands of years. American Indians first came here during the Paleo-Indian Period hunting Ice Age mammals. Around 900 CE, the Mississippian Period began, and people constructed mounds for their elite, which remain here today. In the last couple of centuries, it was also the site of a couple of cotton plantations, railroad tracks being built (destroying some of the mounds), and 1864 Civil War Battle sites (Battle of Dunlap Hill and the Battle of Walnut Creek). There was a good museum in the Visitor Center. We drove and/or walked to see all the mounds, the Earth Lodge, the site of a British Trading Post, the 2 Civil War battle sites and a railroad bridge on the National Historic Register.

Ocmulgee Mounds NHP Visitor Center, built by the WPA/CCC, a notable example of Art Moderne architecture
Ocmulgee Greater & Lesser Temple Mounds, as seen from the Funeral Mound
Ocmulgee Funeral Mound, as seen from Greater Temple Mound
Outline of old Trading Post at Ocmulgee, as seen from Greater Temple Mound
Entering the Omulgee Earth Lodge, a reconstructed council chamber of the Mississippian culture, whose walls & ceiling were reconstructed in the late 1930’s by CCC & WPA crews
The reconstruction protects the original clay floor built by native people, dated at the year 1015.
Historic 1874 brick overpass, spanning the Bertram Trail, notable for its unique brick construction, as most bridges of that era were made of stone. The railway initially cut through the mounds in 1843.

And one “just for fun” stop

Yesterday, before leaving Macon, we stopped at the Big House, the place where members of The Allman Brothers Band, their roadies, friends and families lived from 1970 until 1973. It is now an Allman Brothers Band Museum, jam-packed with memorabilia. On the 2nd floor, some rooms are set up to represent them as they were “back in the day”…also with memorabilia.

The Big House in Macon, Georgia
Welcome to the Big House
Gregg & Cher’s Pool Table…filled with memorabilia in one of the many rooms filled with memorabilia cases all around the walls
The “Cabash” Lounge, effectively the “music-listening” room (see the turntable?) or “relaxation” room
Georgia Connection…we learned that The Allman Brothers Band raised $1M for Jimmy Carter in 1976!