Georgia Natural Wonder #110 - Grand Bay - Lowndes County. 981

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Georgia Natural Wonder #110 - Grand Bay - Lowndes County

OK - The great thing about posting on here is the feedback from some of you HOTD members. Put out the call looking for South Georgia Swamp parks and Dawgalways suggested the following spot in Valdosta. So off we go with a tangent on Lowndes County too......

Grand Bay is a 13,000-acre swamp located in Lanier County and Lowndes County, Georgia. It consists of Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area, an educational wildlife area, and Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge, a recreational and educational lake. Now we will do the Banks Lake more on a separate GNW with a tangent on Lanier County, but for today let's focus on Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area is a 1.1 mile moderately trafficked out and back trail located near Moody AFB, Georgia that features beautiful wild flowers and is good for all skill levels. The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, and bird watching and is accessible year-round.



Grand Bay totals 1,350 acres and is part of a 18,000-acre wetlands complex of Carolina bays and forested swamp second in size only to Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. Open from daylight Saturday until sundown Sunday, year-round, for outdoor sports including fishing, canoeing, hiking, camping, and deer and small game hunting. Boaters and canoeists enjoy this area. From a launch site on Knights Academy Road, 6 miles north of Valdosta off Highway 221, they can run a loop through a fascinating array of habitats in the area. Boat motors are limited to 10 hp.



Hikers can follow a 2,600-foot wooden walkway to a rebuilt fire tower. Here, hundreds of wood ducks nest in man-made boxes. There is also a 3-mile hiking trail through pine flatwoods and a camping area used on weekends, when planes from Moody Air Force Base are not using the adjacent bombing range.



There is no entry fee charged. For additional information please call 229-333-0052.



Grand Bay Wetland Education Center



Grand Bay Wetlands Management Area Robert Patten Wetland Education Center

The Grand Bay Wetland Education Center is operated as a partnership by the Coastal Plains Regional Educational Service Agency and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The Center features a boardwalk, education rooms and observation tower, and offers environmental education programs about the wetlands, field trips and accredited teacher training. The center teaches students about the relationship of plants and animals, with a focus on wetland ecology, wildlife and plant identification, air quality, and plant adaptations.



The Robert Patten Grand Bay Wetland Education Center, located ten miles north of Valdosta in Lowndes County, teaches and demonstrates the complex ecological relationships between plants and animals.



A partnership between the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Coastal Plains Regional Educational Service Agency, the center concentrates on the contributions of a functioning wetlands ecosystem to a healthy natural environment.


Gators wanting to bite your ass.


Pitcher plants grow in the savannah plant community at Grand Bay Wetland Education Center in Lowndes County. The wetland is home to a variety of plant communities, including longleaf and slash pine flatwoods, cypress and gum swamps, and shrub bogs.



Its educational activities, including guided trips into the Grand Bay Wetland; working with live mammals and amphibians and reptiles; and interactive ecological experiments, correlate with the state of Georgia's curriculum standards. Approximately 6,500 schoolchildren visit the center annually.


The Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area is Georgia's second-largest ecosystem, covering 18,000 acres in Lowndes County.

The center also offers to the public an interpretative experience of the Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area, which includes the 18,000-acre Grand Bay/Banks Lake ecosystem. The size of the Grand Bay ecosystem is second in Georgia only to the Okefenokee Swamp, the largest wetland in the state and one of the largest in the Southeast. Like the Okefenokee, Grand Bay offers many plant communities, including upland longleaf and slash pine flatwoods, cypress and gum swamps, savannahs, and various shrub bogs.



Interpretive experiences include access to the wetland along a half-mile boardwalk, which ends at the Kinderlou Tower, a gift of local businessman Harley Langdale Jr. This structure, once a fire tower that overlooked Langdale Forest Products' timberland, has been modified to allow observation of Grand Bay's plant and animal life. The boardwalk takes the visitor through many features of the wetland, beginning with a wet savannah and coursing through shrub bogs, a black gum/cypress pond, and a prairie with various herbaceous plant communities.


Kinderlou Tower stands at the end of a half-mile boardwalk at the Grand Bay Wetland Education Center near Valdosta. Originally a fire tower, the structure now allows visitors a view of the wetland's diverse plant and animal communities.



In a separate area, visitors may fish, launch canoes along a maintained canoe trail (which also ends at the tower), and hike or bicycle along the Longleaf Pine Flatwoods Trail. Seasonal hunting is allowed in designated areas.



Grand Bay is a designated site on the Southern Rivers Birding Trail, which spans the Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions of Georgia and terminates in the state's wetlands. There are thirty sites for observing birds along the entire birding trail.



Within Grand Bay, visitors may observe egrets, hawks, herons, owls, song birds, white ibis, woodpeckers, and wood storks. Alligators, deer, otters, and various species of frogs, turtles, and snakes are also common to the wetland.


The white ibis is one of many bird species inhabiting the Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area in Lowndes County. The Grand Bay wetland is a designated bird-watching site along the Southern Rivers Birding Trail and offers glimpses of a variety of birds, including egrets, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers.



The larger Grand Bay ecosystem contains four so-called Carolina Bays, an unusual feature of the Coastal Plain of Georgia. Oval in shape, these peat-tilled, relatively shallow depressions always lie in a northeast to southeast direction. Their origins are unknown. Native plants common to Carolina Bays—such as fetterbush and pitcher plants—are well adapted to acidic conditions.



The ecological and recreational features of Grand Bay were not always so appreciated. Around 1900, a steam-powered sawmill began operations on the east side of Banks Lake, located just outside of the town now known as Lakeland. In 1901 the sawmill owner constructed a rail line into the swamp and began extensive logging of cypress trees. From 1908 until 1918 the Barney Smith Car Company operated this mill and used the cypress to build railroad cars. (A remnant of the logging era—a 607-year-old cypress log—is on view at Grand Bay's nature center.) Also, as late as the 1930s, local farmers grazed cattle in parts of Grand Bay during dry seasons.



Since 1988, the M.A.R.S.H. Project, a partnership between the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Ducks Unlimited, Moody Air Force Base, and local landowners, has allowed for the ongoing restoration and maintenance of this wetland. As a result, Grand Bay has become a regional nesting site for wood ducks, with more than 850 wood-duck boxes in annual use. Grand Bay also serves as the winter home of migratory sandhill cranes, as well as the year-round home to some crane populations.


Wood ducks fly over the Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area in Lowndes County, which includes the 18,000-acre Grand Bay/Banks Lake ecosystem.

OK this was pretty cool, will have to scoot by for a look see. While we are down here, let's take advantage and tangent on the best High School Football County in Georgia......

Tangent Lowndes County

Lowndes County in southwest Georgia was created in 1825 by an act of the state legislature. The county was named for William Jones Lowndes, whose father, Rawlins Lowndes, had been a Revolutionary War (1775-83) leader from South Carolina. Lowndes County was originally bordered by Irwin County to the north, Ware County to the east, Florida to the south, and Thomas County to the west.


William and Rawlins. They look the same to me.


Grave of William.

In 1827 settlers established the first town, Franklinville, and designated it the county seat. In 1833 a courthouse was built at Lowndesville (located at the junction of the Little and Withlacoochee rivers), which then became the new county seat. Four years later Lowndesville was renamed Troupville, in honor of Georgia governor George Troup.


George Troup - Site marker today.


Town map

According to the 1840 census, there were 4,394 whites and 1,180 blacks in the county at that time. On December 12, 1859, Lowndes County commissioners purchased 140 acres for $1,250 to establish a new county seat, which they named Valdosta after Val d'Aosta, Troup's plantation home. Can't find any images of this home but I did find this about the name of Valdosta means “Vale of Beauty.” While no one can deny the fact that this city is indeed beautiful and a wonderful spot to live and work, I am afraid that the entomology of the name of Valdosta does not support this long-popular local translation. We  all  know  that  Valdosta  was  named  for  Governor  Troup’s  estate, Val d’Aosta, which, in turn, took its name from a valley and town in the Italian Piedmont, Aosta.



Now the problem lies in knowing the meaning of the Italian name for  the  town,  Augusta  Praetoria  Salisorum.  This  town  was,  as  the  name  implies,  established  by  Augustus  Caesar  for  the  veterans  of  his  Praetorian  Guard  as  a  reward  for  their  victory  over  the  native  tribe  the  Salassi.  The  word  Aosta,  then,  simply  refers  to  the  emperor Augustus. In  light  on  these  facts,  the  name  Valdosta  loses  its  romanticized  translation  but  gains  through  its  contacts  with  Roman  history,  and  the  city  can  claim  to  share  the  beauty  of  the  Italian  region  from  which  we  take  the  very  unusual  and  perhaps  unique  name  of  Valdosta.



The reason for the move from Troupville to Valdosta was to connect with a railroad line from Savannah. The first train passed through Valdosta on July 4, 1860. Between 1890 and 1916, Valdosta became the largest inland market for Sea Island cotton in the world.


Valdosta Depot.



One of the largest employers in early Lowndes County was the Strickland Cotton Mills, put into operation in 1900 by B. F. Strickland, the company's president. Employees of the mill lived in a company town named Remerton, which still exists today, although the mill has been torn down.


Then.


Today?

In addition to textiles, timber and turpentine were major industries in Lowndes County in the early 1900s. The American Turpentine Farmers Association was founded in 1936, with its headquarters in Valdosta. Judge Harley Langdale began buying timberland and formed the Langdale Forest Products Company, one of the largest companies in Lowndes County.


Judge Harley Langdale, ATFA founder, speaking to a crowd of ATFA members at an ATFA annual meeting, circa 1940s.


First, second, and third place winners for the Miss Gum Spirits of Turpentine beauty pageant at one of ATFA's annual meetings.

The second plant to bottle Coca-Cola in the world was located in Lowndes County. By 1936 the plant was one of the first modern plants in south Georgia and served a seven-county area.


Dublin Plant.

In 1906 South Georgia State Normal College was founded in Valdosta to provide higher education opportunities for women in the area. The school was renamed Georgia State Women's College in 1922.



After World War II (1941-45) many men wanted to attend college. The school became coeducational in 1950 and was renamed Valdosta State College. The college became Valdosta State University in 1993. The administrative campus of Wiregrass Georgia Technical College, which serves an eleven-county area, is also located in Valdosta.



Besides Valdosta and Remerton, Lowndes County also is home to the city of Hahira (incorporated in October 1891), famous for its Honey Bee Festival;





Lake Park, a city surrounded by lakes that is home to several outlet malls;



and Dasher.



Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta is home to the 23d Wing.



According to the 2000 U.S. census, the population of Lowndes County was 92,115, a 21 percent increase since 1990. By 2010 the population had increased again to 109,233.

New Georgia Encyclopedia takes us on a deeper dive on Lowndes County and Valdosta.

History

Native Americans and the Spanish

The land that became Lowndes County had historically been inhabited by the Timucua. During most the age of European colonization, the area of modern Lowndes County was part of the colony of Spanish Florida. From approximately 1625 to 1657, the Spanish Empire maintained a Catholic mission to the Timucua, dubbed Mission Santa Cruz de Cachipile, in the southern portion of Lowndes County near present-day Lake Park. In the centuries that followed, Timucua civilization collapsed due to slave raiding and disease.


Timucua's hunting gators.

The Creek Nation peoples moved into the area and, by the early 19th century, they were well established here. On December 15, 1818, European Americans organized what they called Irwin County, which had been settled by pushing out the Creek people. In the 1830s Georgia and the federal government completed Indian Removal of most of the Native Americans from what became the state.

Early county history

Lowndes County was established by an act passed by the Georgia legislature on December 23, 1825. It was formed out of the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 15th, and 16th land districts of Irwin County, Georgia.The county was named for William Jones Lowndes (1782–1822), a prominent South Carolina lawyer and Congressman. His father Rawlins Lowndes had been a Revolutionary War leader and was elected as South Carolina Governor. The Coffee Road was an improved trail first cut by Georgia militia to supply federal troops in Florida during the Creek Wars. It was the first route through the area of Lowndes County and opened up the area to white settlers.



During the first few years after Lowndes County was organized, its courts met at the tavern owned by Sion Hall on the Coffee Road, near what is now Morven, Georgia in Brooks County, on the west side of the Little River. The first county seat was established at Franklinville (sometimes spelled Franklynville) by the Georgia General Assembly on December 16, 1828. Franklinville was located about 5.6 miles to the east of Hahira in the eastern half of land lot 50 in the 11th land district; it was named after statesman and Founding Father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin.



At the time of the 1830 federal census, Lowndes County had 1,072 white males, 1,044 white females, 156 male slaves, 179 female slaves, and 4 free people of color, for a total population of 2,455. The introduction of steam-powered ships on the Withlacoochee and Little rivers led to a shift in the population toward the rivers. In December 1833 the state legislature passed a law establishing a new county seat at a place to be called Lowndesville. The law called for a courthouse, a jail, and a town to be laid out within land lot 109 in the 12th land district. This land lot is near the present Timber Ridge Road in Lowndes County.



It is uncertain why the plans for Lowndesville were abandoned, but in December 1834, the state legislature authorized commissioners to select a suitable site for a courthouse so that the county seat could be moved away from Franklinville. In October 1836, another group of commissioners was advertising for contracting proposals for the construction of a brick courthouse at Troupville. By Summer 1837, Troupville and Franklinville were both serving as courthouse sites. This continued until at least 1838. In December 1837 Troupville was incorporated. Rumors of the coming of the Brunswick and Chattahoochee Railroad, the opening up of Florida, and the prosperity of the surrounding farmland led to the growth of Troupville and Lowndes County in general. In 1845, the remaining county-owned land at Franklinville was sold at the courthouse in Troupville.



The closest battle to Troupville between Native Americans and whites was at Brushy Creek on November 10, 1836 in modern Berrien County. Creek Nation people were passing through Lowndes County to join the Seminole in Florida. General Winfield Scott, commander of United States field forces in the area, intended to stop the Creek movement and did. Virtually no Native Americans were left in South Georgia.



In February 1850 Lowndes County lost land to the formation of Clinch County. At that time the eastern border of Lowndes County was defined as the Alapaha River.By the time of the 1850 census, Lowndes County had a free white population of 5,339, a free colored population of 20, and a slave population of 2,355. Lowndes County lost additional territory with the establishment of Berrien and Colquitt counties on February 25, 1856.

Establishment of Valdosta

Many residents of Lowndes County were unhappy when the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad announced June 17, 1858 that they had selected a planned route that would bypass Troupville. On June 22 at 3:00 AM, the Lowndes County courthouse at Troupville was set aflame by William B. Crawford, who fled to South Carolina after being released on bond.



Still in 1858, on August 9, a meeting convened in the academy building in Troupville at which it was decided to create from the area of Lowndes County to the west of the Withlacoochee River a new county to be called Brooks County. Brooks was established on December 11. On December 13, 1858 the Georgia General Assembly passed a bill establishing Echols County, Georgia.


Valdosta today.

In December 1859, the Lowndes County board of commissioners were instructed by an act of the Georgia legislature to purchase land for a new county seat; it was to be along the line of the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad and as close to the center of the county as possible. As part of the same act the Brooks-Lowndes County border was adjusted so that the east bank of the Little River formed the border.



Land belonging to William Wisenbaker was chosen as the site of the new county seat of Valdosta. The arrival of the railroad led to the downfall of Troupville and the rise of Valdosta as a center for the economy of south Georgia. The shifting county boundary lines led to population loss for Lowndes County. The 1860 census showed the county having 2,850 free whites, no free persons of color, and 2,399 slaves.

Civil War

No battles during the American Civil War were fought in Lowndes County. Several regular Confederate Army companies were raised from the population. Those included:

• Company I "Lowndes Volunteers", 12th Regiment Georgia Infantry.
• Company G, 26th Regiment Georgia Infantry. Also known as New Company G, 13th Regiment Infantry.
• Company D, "Berrien Minutemen", 29th Regiment Georgia Infantry.
• Company D, "Valdosta Guards", 50th Regiment Georgia Infantry.



State Guard units included:

• Company B, "Lowndes Mounted Infantry" 11th Regiment Cavalry, Georgia State Guards.
In addition, two Georgia Militia companies were partially raised from the population in early 1864 following the reorganization of the militia.[9] Those included:
• Company I, 11th Regiment Georgia Militia (which was also partially raised from the population of Ware County, Georgia)
• Company I, 12th Regiment Georgia Militia (which was also partially raised from the populations of Mitchell County, Georgia and Talbot County, Georgia)



Lowndes County also had a home guard unit, but it was only called into action once in the fall of 1863. In that instant some soldiers' wives in Thomasville, Georgia were threatening to break into a Confederate Government Commissary to feed their starving children. In April 1864 a group of women rioted at Stockton, Georgia after a local store owner refused to take Confederate money in exchange for yarn. They took all the yarn in his store. At the same time, armed women stole a wagon load of bacon from a government warehouse. A mob of women also went on a rampage for similar reasons in Naylor, Georgia at about the same time.


Southern gals still get antsy.

In February 1864 members of Company I "Woodson Guards", 32nd Regiment Georgia Infantry camped overnight in Valdosta at an area south of the railroad while on their way to Battle of Olustee in northern Florida. It was to be the closest fighting came to Valdosta during the Civil War. Valdosta became a home for many refugees fleeing into south Georgia due to Sherman's March to the Sea. Among those refugees was the family of Doc Holliday. Other refugees came by the railroad from Savannah and the Sea Islands.


Battle of Olustee

Reconstruction

In the years right after the Civil War, members of Company "G", 103rd United States Colored Troops were stationed at Valdosta as part of the military occupation of the South during the Reconstruction era.



Several years after the Civil War, 112 African American men, women, and children moved from Lowndes County to Arthington, Liberia in 1871 and 1872. Some settled there permanently to make their home in a colony established for free American blacks; a small number returned to the United States. Their emigration was supported by the American Colonization Society, which had been working since the antebellum years to relocate free blacks to this new colony in West Africa. African Americans dominated the new colony (and future country) both socially and politically well into the 20th century before indigenous peoples, the majority within the borders of the country, came to power.



Prior to 1872, the southern border of Lowndes County and of Georgia was slightly farther south. The border when Lowndes County was created was along what was called McNeil's Line. A dispute over the border between the states of Florida and Georgia later developed (see Florida v. Georgia). In 1857, the governors of the two states appointed surveyors for a joint survey of the border. This led to the creation of the Orr and Whitner Line, which was agreed to by the United States Congress on April 9, 1872.



20th century to present

In 1899 the cotton mill town of Remerton was established.



In 1918, a white planter, Hampton Smith, was murdered in Brooks County. He was known to have mistreated his black workers. Sidney Johnson, one of his workers, was suspected in Smith's death. Mobs of whites hunted in Brooks and Lowndes counties for Johnson, rounding up and killing at least 11 other black men and one black woman and her unborn baby in what historian Meyers called "a lynching rampage."





One man was killed in Lowndes County and the others in Brooks. Mary Turner, the married mother of two young children and eight months pregnant, was brutally murdered in Lowndes County, near Folsom Bridge on the Little River. The unborn child was then cut from her womb and its head crushed by a booted foot of one of the participants in the lynching. Her husband had been lynched the day before although neither had anything to do with the white planter's death. None of the lynching participants were prosecuted.



In 1920, Lowndes County lost some territory when Lanier County was established. The composer of "Jingle Bells," James Lord Pierpont, lived in Valdosta for a time.



Famous gunfighter and gambler, Doc Holliday, spent part of his childhood in Valdosta and his father served as the city's third mayor.



Courthouses


The Old Lowndes County Courthouse as it appeared around the early 1900s.

The county's former courthouse was built circa 1905 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it was the county's seventh courthouse. The first courthouse was built in 1828 at Franklinville, the original county seat. In 1834 another courthouse was built at the new county seat of Troupville. It was replaced by a new courthouse in 1842. The 1842 structure was destroyed by a fire set by William B. Crawford in June 1858.


Wooden Courthouse Valdosta.

The first courthouse at Valdosta was built in 1860 and was a wooden structure that was sold for the funding of a new courthouse by 1869. The wooden building used for the courts of ordinary burned down in 1869. Lowndes County was without an official courthouse for a number of years. A two-story brick building was completed in 1874. In 1900, county commissioners decided that a larger structure was needed. In March 1904 the old courthouse was demolished and in 1905, the seventh courthouse was completed. This is the structure that is locally referred to in the 21st century as 'the old courthouse.' In August and September 2010, the county government moved to a new judicial complex.



The 1905 Lowndes County Courthouse is widely acknowledged as one of the most beautiful county courthouses in Georgia. It is used for meetings, public display, and other community attractions. Today it is used for many events, meetings, and political purposes.



A Top Row Dawg addendum on Valdosta.

1925
• The Daniel Ashley Hotel, the social center of Valdosta for many years, was constructed.



1926
•The Ritz, Valdosta’s grand theater, (not to be confused with the Dosta Theatre) opened downtown.



1941
• Eleanor Roosevelt dedicated the new library at The Georgia State Woman’s College.



1955
• Pineview General Hospital, now South Georgia Medical, opened.



1964
• Seven thousand citizens turned out to greet the wife of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson when the “Lady Bird Special” railroad tour stopped in the area.



1971
• Coach Wright Bazemore retired after leading the Valdosta Wildcats to nearly 300 victories and 14 state championships.



1982
• The James M. Beck overpass opened downtown.



1983
• The Valdosta Mall opened
• The Converse-Dalton-Ferrell home was added to the national register of historic places.



The Valdosta High School Wildcat football team, which has won more games than any other high school in the nation, has given rise to the city's nickname—“Winnersville." Bazemore–Hyder Stadium at Cleveland Field is a stadium in Valdosta, Georgia. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of Valdosta High School. Valdosta State University, winner of the NCAA Division II National Football Championship in 2004, 2007, and 2012, also uses Bazemore–Hyder Stadium as a home field. The stadium holds 11,249 people and was opened in 1922. The original name of the stadium was Cleveland Field. In a resolution presented by the Valdosta Touchdown Club, the Board of Education officially named the stadium at Cleveland Field, Bazemore–Hyder Stadium on September 9, 1996. Coaches Wright Bazemore (1941–1942,1946–1971) and Nick Hyder (1974–1995) combined for fifty years of service to our youth and community. Under their leadership, the Wildcats won six national titles, 21 of their 23 state titles and 282 Cleveland Field victories. The stadium's nickname is "Death Valley."


Hyder and Stadium.

We can't forget about 5 time State Champion in football Lowndes County High School. Jesus 28 State Championships for the two schools in Lowndes County.



That was fun, and we should all thank Dawgalways! Any more suggestions on South Georgia Swamps and parks are welcomed and needed. Today's GNW gals are Red Hot Blazers.



Woo, I found some more Red Hots on Spring Break.