Georgia Natural Wonder #114 - Moody Swamp/Forest - Appling County. 1,727

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Georgia Natural Wonder #114 - Moody Swamp/Forest - Appling County

I am having a hard time finding a swamp with significant Cyber information or personal involvement. So far we have found swamps in Augusta, Albany, Savannah, Moultrie/Adel, Valdosta, and Lakeland. It should not be so hard considering we are #4 nationwide in Wetland acreage.



I referred back to earlier post on the Lewis Island Tract GNW #53  and found mention of Moody Swamp on the Altamaha River upstream. Therefore we found a very worthy spot for South Georgia Swamp #7 in this swamp to waterfall run in the second Georgia Natural Wonder 100.



In 2001, the Nature Conservancy and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources purchased 3,500 acres from the Moody family, which had owned and managed the land for generation. Subsequent purchases by the state added another 1,000 acres and today the entire property is operated under a cooperative agreement between the two partners…The arrangement–the first public-private conservation partnership in the state–has proven to be more effective than either group could have hoped for…



Cypress and tupelo are the dominant trees of the bottomlands at Moody Forest. Many of the trees are so old that they’re a wonder in themselves, a living monument to a wild Georgia that is all but gone.



Numerous natural ponds and wetlands can be found here throughout most of the year.



The forest borders the mighty Altamaha River, which is particularly beautiful here.



I’ve consistently found some of the largest sandbars on the river near Moody Forest.



Enjoy your time here and take the time to really look at the forest on your way out. Wildlife reigns supreme and you never know what you might see.



Another site recounts .....On my way back from the Okefenokee Swamp and Cumberland Island, I decided to visit the Moody Forest near Baxley, Georgia.  I was so ecstatic that I did.  I only saw one person the whole time I was in the forest. Being there was like being in some primeval paradise.  When I got into this one section with these towering virgin longleaf pines estimated to be 200-300 years old or more, I had to lie down on my back and look up in awe. While I was photographing the pines,  I was captivated by their tall trunks and sinuous branches and visualized them monochromatically.  Their elegance was magnificent.



This is one of the last old growth virgin forests in the country.  Many forests in the south were comprised of these trees, but most have been logged.  In 2002, the Nature Conservancy of Georgia, the state Department of Natural Resources and others donors purchased the 4,500-acres that constitute this forest for $8.25 million, making it one of Georgia's most valued conservation feats. I still can't believe that I was able to spend four hours walking around there taking this all in. 



Sadly, today many of our National Parks, forests, and other natural sanctuaries are viewed as resources to mine, log, and otherwise make money from.  The problem is that a forest like this took hundreds of years to grow, and once destroyed the ecosystem will never be like this again.  It does something to a person to be alone in a pristine place like this too. It makes you realize your place as a mere point in Indra's net but also as a sentient being capable of appreciating such grandeur and cognizant of  the richness of life it provides habitat for.  Dare I say I see God in trees like this.



The trees in the Tupelo and Cypress slough in the Moody Forest are estimated to be approximately 600 years old.  To me, these trees are the eastern version of the redwoods and giant sequoias.  They were here before the Pilgrims landed and white men began despoiling America's wilderness.  Standing among these trees,  I felt the longevity of natural cycles and a sense of permanence that is ever more elusive in modern times.



Often this area is dry enough to walk around the hiker told me, but there had been some heavy rains the preceding week and a lot of water was still present to reflect the tree trunks and the shadows they cast.  It was like peering into a maze.



The state of Georgia has been able to preserve this gem because three siblings inherited what locals referred to as the Moody Swamp from their uncle Jake Moody.  He left them this land with the stipulation that it not be logged or developed.  While the siblings were alive, they protected the land.  Two years after the last one died in 1999, the heirs sold 3,500 acres to the Nature Conservancy.  An additional 1,000 were later protected as well. This is what I call a great legacy.



Visit the preserve to hike its trails, though, and its name takes on a whole different meaning, one that perfectly encapsulates the ethereal beauty of the 4,426-acre wilderness. Old-growth longleaf and slash pines rise to guard the misty waters of the Altamaha River as it carves through cypress and tupelo swamps. Sunshine filters through dogwoods and basket oaks, tossing light and shadows onto fallen leaves. The sounds of nature are constant: the low call of wild turkeys, the echo of red-cockaded woodpeckers at work and the wind in the high canopy of longleaf pines.

A Legacy of Protection

The Moody family knew that the land they owned was special, and through the generations, they made the best choices they could to retain the natural beauty of the forest. In 2000, the property passed to 32 descendants of the original Moody settlers, and they decided to auction the land. The Nature Conservancy outbid a number of timber industry representatives and entered into a groundbreaking public/private land-management partnership with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to create and manage the preserve.



While the Conservancy plans and implements conservation strategies, DNR rangers patrol the site and volunteers help with trail creation, facility construction and tree planting. The Conservancy and the DNR also cooperate to maintain a regular regimen of prescribed fire on the property. In just a decade, those efforts have greatly improved the quality of forest habitat, restored native plant and animal communities and increased the overall diversity of life found on the preserve.

Animals At Risk

• Red-cockaded woodpecker
• Gopher tortoise
• Eastern indigo snake
• Swainson's warbler

Plants at Risk

• Pitcher plants

Ecosystems at Risk

• Longleaf pine-blackjack oak woodland
• Cypress-tupelo sloughs
• Bottomland hardwood forests
• Hardwood bluff forest

Visit Moody Forest Natural Area is located 8 miles from Baxley, the seat of Appling County, and is open year-round to the public during daylight hours.



Tavia’s Trail is a 3-mile loop that takes hikers through an array of different landscapes and elevations and is accessible from the parking lot and main trailhead located at the intersection of Jake Moody and East River roads.The three-mile loop begins in a cheery upland forest and rises and falls through sun- dappled flatwoods and towering stands of ancient longleaf pine that give way to the banks of the mighty Altamaha, where the lush canopy formed by centuries-old cypress trees keeps the waters of a sphagnum moss-covered slough in eternal shade. It’s a dizzying spectrum of light and landscapes.



The Altamaha River Trail is a two-mile (total) there-and-back hike that hugs the relatively flat banks of the Altamaha River and that can be accessed from Morris Landing Road.



Since Moody Forest Natural Area is a wilderness property, safety and caution are encouraged. The hiking terrain ranges from level and easy to moderately difficult, and the trails are self-guided. Please wear sturdy footwear and carry plenty of water. Sunscreen and insect repellant are recommended. In addition, visitors should remain on the trails at all times and refrain from disturbing plants or wildlife.

A Special Forest, A Conservation Priority

On any given day, sharp-eyed visitors to Moody Forest can spot rare gopher tortoises, indigo snakes, red-cockaded woodpeckers or even fledgling bald eagles. The property also offers a window into the past, when turpentine was a critical part of the local economy and the pine trees of the South were the backbone of America’s naval stores. Several of Moody Forest’s longleaf and shash pine trees bear distinctive “cat faces,” the v-shaped scars where pine sap was “dipped” and processed into turpentine.



We have room on this post for a history tangent

Appling County, located south of the Altamaha River in southeast Georgia, was created by an act of the state legislature in December 1818.
The original boundary extended from the Altamaha River to the St. Marys River. Land for the county came from territory ceded by the Creek Indians to Georgia in the 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson and the 1818 Treaty of the Creek Agency.



Appling County is named for Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Appling, a soldier in the War of 1812. We talked about him in GNW #52 Heggies Rock and Columbia County.  In 1816, Columbia Courthouse was charted as the Town of Appling, named for the Appling family that had donated the land to the county and for Col. John Appling, a local resident that had died in a campaign against the Seminoles.John's son, Daniel Appling had a distinguished military career. Daniel Appling is known as Georgia's most prominent soldier in the War of 1812.



His reputation stemmed from an action at the Battle of Sandy Creek on Lake Ontario in upstate New York in 1814. There, Appling's command of around 130 riflemen and a similar number of Oneida Indians effectively ambushed and prevented a force of approximately 200 British marines from seizing naval stores and guns that the American navy was moving by boat to the Sackets Harbor shipyard. The clash lasted approximately ten minutes. Ultimately, Appling is said to have killed 14 sailors and marines, wounded 30, and taken 143 prisoners. One American was killed. The naval guns and stores reached Sackets Harbor without further incident, and the British blockade was withdrawn. In September, Appling and 110 riflemen, along with the New York cavalry, successfully fought delaying actions against a British force of more than 8,000 men advancing toward Plattsburgh. Appling County (Baxley) is named after him.



They lost the Appling Sword the State of Georgia awarded to him, but they found it.



Appling was the parent county of all or part of Atkinson, Bacon, Brantley, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Echols, Jeff Davis, Pierce, Telfair, Ware, and Wayne counties.In spite of Appling County's isolation from more populated sections of eastern Georgia and its location in the pine barrens region of the state, the 1820 census listed 1,264 residents. The population of Appling increased when the General Assembly included the county in the state land lottery drawings for 1820, 1821, 1827, and 1832. Two dominant seed areas of migration into Appling were South Carolina and Tattnall County, Georgia. In 1819 the General Assembly gave permission to Appling's inferior court justices to select a site for a county seat. The task rotated to five county commissioners and back to the justices between 1819 and 1828. Disagreements over the location prohibited a final selection until 1828, when the legislature designated Holmesville as the official site. Previously, court was held at residence of William Carter Jr. In 1836, the General Assembly appointed a seven-member commission to find a location for a more centrally located county seat than Holmesville, but were not able to come to a conclusion. The need for a more central county seat would remain a point of contention in county politics for several decades.



A post office called Holmesville was established in 1831, and remained in operation until 1889. Appling County's county seat was located at Holmesville from 1828 until 1874, when it was transferred to Baxley. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated the place as the Town of Holmesville in 1854. The town's municipal charter was repealed in 1995.



At the time of the 1850 United States Census, Appling County had a white population of 2,520, a slave population of 404, and 25 free people of color. By the 1860 United States Census, the county had a white population of 3,442, a slave population of 740, and 3 free people of color. Appling's early economic activity consisted primarily of small-scale subsistence farming. Sales of livestock, timber, and naval stores to Darien and Savannah supplemented incomes. Cotton production gained importance during the 1860s and lasted until a lull in production between 1972 and the mid-1980s. Current agricultural enterprises include cotton, tobacco, dairy products, and blueberries, as well as slash and loblolly pine.


Appling Hotel, located on West Park Avenue, was torn down in 2002 to build a drugstore. The three-story building was converted to two stories after being damaged by fire around 1940.

The Altamaha River provided a popular avenue for early residents to ship products to coastal towns. During the nineteenth century steamboats and pole boats transported cotton, fertilizer, lumber, turpentine, and local produce. For a time Appling County was known as the turpentine capital of the world.



Residents also constructed timber rafts from cut trees destined for the Darien sawmills. These rafts reached proportions of 25 feet wide by 175 feet in length. A unique rafting and turpentine culture grew out of Appling County. In 1982 raft enthusiasts and historians developed Project Raft to remember the culture and skills of that former era.


Baxley First Methodist Church, located on U. S. Highway 1, was built in 1929 and is still in use.

The completion of the Macon and Brunswick Railroad in 1870 linked Appling to populated regions of the state and prompted the creation of three new towns. Stations 6 and 8 on the railroad became known as Surrency and Graham, respectively.

Graham

Graham was named for landowner and state representative Middleton Graham.Middleton was an Attorney and a large land owner. Middleton was a prominent citizen in Appling County during his short life. He lived all his life in the county of his birth. Middleton Graham, was said to have acquired considerable real estate in northern Appling County. Graham served as representative from his county for four years from 1856-to 1860. He volunteered for service in the Confederate Army, in a newly organized cavalry regiment, Company " K ", 4th Georgia Calvary Regiment in 1862, and was elected 1st Lieutenant. He resigned his commission in September of 1864, and returned home to continue serving the Confederacy as captain of the river steamer "Governor-Troup", which the Confederate Government was operating.The city of Graham was incorporated locally in 1897. Graham was officially granted a charter by the state legislature in 1991.



Surrency

Surrency, named for an 1850s immigrant from Tattnall County, Allen Powell Surrency, gained notice during the early 1900s for its extensive production of railroad crossties. Now I could not find much on this town but there was a lengthy ghost story tangent.



"That place was possessed by something evil." That was the opinion of Herschel Tillman when he recalled his many visits to the home of Allen Powel Surrency when he was a boy in the early 1870s. He was just one of the thousands of witnesses to the strange and sometimes violent paranormal activity that plagued the Surrency home, making it one of the most well-known and witnessed cases of this kind in American history. Allen Powel Surrency, a sawmill operator, was the founder of the small town of Surrency in southeastern Georgia. When returning home from a trip to Hazelhurst in October 1872, he found his house beset with the haunting. In a letter he wrote to the Savannah Morning News he said:

A few minutes after my arrival I saw the glass tumblers begin to slide off the slab and the crockery to fall upon the floor and break. The books began to tumble from their shelves to the floor, while brickbats, billets of wood, smoothing irons, biscuits, potatoes, tin pans, water buckets, pitchers, etc., began to fall in different parts of my house. There have been many other strange occurrences about my house. These facts can be established by 75 or 100 witnesses.

On the face of it, it sounds as if Surrency's house might have suffered an earthquake. In fact, that theory has been offered to explain the phenomena at the house. But that explanation does not hold up to scrutiny: the strange activity lasted weeks, even years off and on; the Surrency house was the only one affected, and an earthquake could not explain all of the bizarre phenomena. And although the Surrency phenomena are usually referred to as a haunting and were attributed by witnesses to ghosts, the case actually has the earmarks of poltergeist activity, which is a psychic phenomenon rather than one that is caused by a residual or intelligent haunting. In fact, there seem to have been no reports of an apparition at Surrency.



Most poltergeist cases center around an "agent," usually a female of the age of puberty. At the time, the Surrency family had eight children ranging in age from 3 to 21. News of this "haunting" spread like wildfire, and soon Surrency was the center of a media frenzy. Reporters and curiosity seekers from all over the country (and even England and Canada) descended on the little town in hopes of seeing the activity first-hand. Few were disappointed.

Paranormal Activity

Like the famous Bell Witch case, the poltergeist activity at the Surrency house was extreme and diverse. Here are just some of the reported phenomena:

• Unexplained screams were heard
• Voices came from an empty bedroom
• Plates, platters, and books flew from their shelves
• Ink bottles leap off a table
• Doors opened and closed by unseen hands
• The hands of clocks spun fast and even moved backward; a chime clock struck 13
• Hot bricks fell from nowhere and landed on the roof and in the yard
• A pair of boots trod across the floor on their own
• At mealtimes, objects on the dinner table would "dance" around
• Logs rolled out of the fireplace
• Several hogs and chickens appeared in the living room, seemingly from nowhere, frightening one reporter out of his wits
• Bedcovers rolled up and down at night

In an effort to rid his house and family of the terrifying activity, Surrency sought the help of the clergy, scientists as well as spirit mediums and psychics, all to no avail. Even after the house burned down in 1925, the action followed the family to their new home on the other side of the county.



It wasn't until Allen Surrency's death in 1877, it is said, that the haunting finally stopped. Some, however, say it continues to this day around the town of Surrency. In fact, there is a famous ghost light there: a bright yellow ball of light that appears along the railroad tracks.

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Ongoing complaints that Holmesville lay too far from the center of the county prompted residents in 1874 to move the county seat to the site of a popular store operated by Wilson Baxley near station 7. The new town, named Baxley in honor of the storekeeper, was incorporated by the state legislature in 1875. Mr. Baxley served from 1833-1845 as a Justice of the Appling Inferior Court. He also served as Justice of Peace, in the 456th district from 1845-1851, and held the same office in the 457th district from 1853-1857.


Wilson Baxley.

The cemetery in front of the Friendship Congregational Church, Baxley Graveyard, had its beginning as a family burying-ground when Mr. Baxley's daughter, Elizabeth died at the age of 12


Baxley High School, built in the late 1800s, was demolished in the 1950s.

A pretty good accounting of the history of Appling County can ba found at the Appling County Heritage Center


Baxley Tree Fest is an annual festival held in April that helps us celebrate the forestry industry and outdoor recreation in Appling County. One of the highlights of the festival is the popular street dance, held on Friday night.

The Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Power Plant is located north of the city along U.S. Route 1, on the banks of the Altamaha River. It is the area's largest employer. International Forest Products Limited operates a sawmill employing over 50 people.



Influential citizens of Appling County have included storeowner John Comas, a native of Barcelona, Spain. His grandson Philip H. Comas and H. Clifton McCrackin were influential physicians and political leaders in the county during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Comas also served in the Georgia senate from 1902 to 1903. Seaborn Hall served in the General Assembly during the 1830s and 1840s, as a delegate to the Georgia Secession Convention of 1861, and as an 1877 delegate to the state constitutional convention. Alfred le Sesne Jenkins worked in Chinese and Asian affairs for the U.S. State Department after World War II (1941-45). He accompanied U.S. president Richard Nixon on his historic visit to China in 1972.



Literary fame came to the county with the 1934 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Caroline Miller, Lamb in His Bosom. Miller briefly lived in Baxley while she wrote the novel, and she sought to incorporate the unique cultural activities and language patterns of wiregrass farmers in her work. More recently, Janisse Ray published Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (1999), an account of coming of age in Appling County and a call to preserve the rapidly disappearing ecological environment of the county. In 2003 Ray published a second book, Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home, dealing with her decision to return to live in her family's homeplace in Appling County.



According to the 2010 U.S. census, the population of Appling County is 18,236, an increase from the 2000 population of 17,419. Appling offers a variety of natural recreation sites, including Lake Mayer, the A. Randall Tuten Environmental Park, and Moody Swamp. Altamaha Technical College operates a satellite campus in Baxley.

Designated Historic Sites Appling County.

The Appling County Courthouse, located in Baxley, Georgia, USA, was built in 1907–1908 at a cost of $50,000. It is in the Neoclassical style and is constructed of limestone and concrete. The interior is a cross pattern with four entrances. The first floor has wainscoting 56 inches high, made of Georgia marble.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.



The Bank of Surrency, at 80 Hart St. in Surrency, Georgia, was built in 1911. It is a small Early Commercial-style building and has also been known as Surrency Post Office. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.It served as Surrency's post office from 1926 to 1960.It was later used for sweet potato storage. It was bought in 1999 by the City of Surrency with plans to develop it as a local museum and visitor's welcome center.Vacant in 2000, it was in use as city hall in 2007.



The Citizens Banking Company, at 112-116 N. Main St. in Baxley in Appling County, Georgia, was built in 1911. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Its first floor includes a section which was originally a bank, with an oblique corner entrance, and also separate commercial space. The original bank was closed and sold at auction in 1917; two other banks subsequently used the bank space. It was deemed "significant in architecture as a fine example of a building built to be a bank and commercial structure during the early 20th-century Neoclassical era" including that it "exemplifies the strong, secured look that bankers sought in their turn-of-the-century buildings, obviously to stress the strength of their institution" and that it "is also a good and relatively early use of poured reinforced concrete construction in a small Georgia town." It was deemed "significant in commerce as a good example of the development of a small-town pre-Depression banking and commercial institution in the early 20th century.



The C. W. Deen House, at 413 N. Main St. in Baxley in Appling County, Georgia, was built during 1894–1897. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.It is a two-and-a-half-story Queen Anne-style house. It has a "four-over-four room with central stairhall plan" plus a one-story ell at the back for a kitchen. It has a wraparound one-story porch on its front, one side, and rear, and a second-story balcony on the front.Part of its significance is for its association with C.W. Deen, "the leading landowner and businessman in Appling County in the early years of the twentieth century" and "a major naval stores operator at a time when south Georgia led the world as a producer of naval stores". It is also significant as a center of social life in Baxley when W. Hughes Rogers and his wife Carrie Rogers, co-founder of the Baxley Women's Club, lived there.



The United States Post Office-Baxley, Georgia on Tippins Street in Baxley in Appling County, Georgia is a Colonial Revival-style post office built in 1935-1936. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. It is a small one-story post office which is "similar in size, scale, materials, and architectural style to many of the other approximately sixty-five post offices built in Georgia" during the 1930s. It is one of the "vast majority of post offices built in Georgia during this period [which] were designed in the Colonial Revival style." It is now used for the magistrate court.



Notable people

Before we leave today's post, I found an additional list of people from Baxley.

• Byron Buxton, Major League Baseball player; second overall pick (drafted by the Minnesota Twins) in the 2012 MLB draft; winner of Baseball America's Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2013



• Dexter Carter, running back for San Francisco 49ers and New York Jets from 1990 to 1996; born in Baxley and graduated from Appling County High School.



• Devonta Freeman, running back for Atlanta Falcons (2014-present); born in Baxley.



• Frankie King, NBA guard for Los Angeles Lakers (1995); born in Baxley.



• The Lacs, country/rap music group; from Baxley.


Country Rap?

• Jamie Nails, NFL guard for Buffalo Bills (1997-2000) and Miami Dolphins (2002-2003); born in Baxley.



• Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (1999), a memoir about growing up in Baxley which includes description of the ecosystem of the vanishing longleaf pine that once covered the area.



• Michael Timpson, Wide Receiver for New England Patriots (1989-1994), Chicago Bears (1995-1996), and Philadelphia Eagles (1997); born in Baxley.



• Carl Simpson, Defensive Tackle for Chicago Bears (1993-1997), Arizona Cardinals (1998-1999), and Las Vegas Outlaws (2001).


Another Seminole!

• Harry Skipper, Defensive Back in the CFL for seven years. Skipper played defensive back for the Montreal Concordes and Saskatchewan Roughriders from 1983-1989.



• Robert Butler, an American painter best known for his portrayals of the woods and backwaters around Florida's Everglades. He was a member of the well-known African-American artists' group, The Highwaymen.



• Vonzell Solomon, nicknamed Baby V, singer and actress.



Wow, that went from a little section of Swamp to a big ole tangent History post in a hurry. I think we found our GNW Gals though as I retweak this post. They are what else but Moody, like today's Natural Swamp Wonder of South Georgia.