2016 Saturday, June 25, Helen Keller Festival Actives

The Helen Keller Festival is to honor a woman, Helen Keller,  who not only overcame being blind and deaf but went on to be a great ambassador for America. 

Helen Keller was born to Arthur Keller and Catherine Adams Keller on June 27,1880 and died on June 1, 1968.

Helen learned to read and write with the help of Anne Sullivan and she graduated from Radcliffe College with honors in 1904. Helen also wrote several books and was an advocate for several causes. Helen Adams Keller is buried in the Washington National Cathedral in Washington DC. 

My first stop was the Car and Truck Show located on Main Street Tuscumbia /Sponsored by the Shoals Car and Truck Club.

The streets were crowded with people walking around looking at all the vehicles displayed. There were vehicles like the Scoobie Doo Volkswagen, to the newest Corvette.

I tried to find a shade in which to park my van which would be about midway through everything, that I wanted to do.

I walked down the street to Cold Water Book Store where the Tuscumbia Walking Tour people were to meet.

I was a little early so I walked inside to cool off and inside were several more people. There were several vendors set up inside so, I went by each one and stopped to talk.

I talked to a man selling books on how to start a business. I said that I was retired and had no interest in starting a business and that I liked history. He said that maybe some of my family would like to start a business. I said I have family that owned business already. He laughed and said I guess you are not going to buy a book from me and I said not unless it is about history. We both laughed. 

Next, I meet a woman selling jewelry she said that she lived in Atlanta but was originally from Tuscumbia and she came every year for the Helen Keller Festival. 

I stopped at the next table where a man, his wife, and his son were setting. He was selling a series of books about UFOs. He told me that he made the bust statue of Warner Von Braun at NASA and that he had done work for Disney.

There was a display of beautiful pictures depicting the early 50s & 60’s and I said whoever painted these pictures sure did a great job. The woman standing next to me said they were hers. 

She said growing up in the 50s was just like the Happy Days show.

It was getting close to the time for the walking tour so I walked outside to wait for the tour to begin.

We had three people that shared information about how Tuscumbia got started and how it got to be called Tuscumbia. The Old Stage Coach Building was pointed out to us and we were told that we could tour it on our own later. We walked up Main Street stopping to listen to the women talk about the train depot where Anne Sullivan was picked up by one of the Keller's carriages and taken to Ivy Green. There is a carriage on display that was owned by the Kellers in the Tuscumbia Depot. 

We also listened to the women talk about the newspaper building where Mr. Keller worked. 

The streets were still very crowded with people as we made our way up the street. 

We stopped just outside the Abernathy House and one of the women ask if the group could tour the house. 

We were invited inside and some of the group walked upstairs while others toured the tunnel underneath the house. The tunnel was once used to bring food inside to the dining room, which was once located downstairs.

Everyone walked outside and across the parking lot. Our next stop was in the blazing sun so, I looked for a shady spot, while the women talked about the two churches that were nearby.

Finally, we arrived at the First Presbyterian Church where we were invited to the Helen Keller Mini Concert. 

Dinie Stone played one song, Jesus Loves Me on the harpsichord.

Brian Beck played a couple songs on the Organ.

Dinie Stone played a selection of  hymns and classics on the piano 

Dinie played songs about water, about communion and when Dinie began to play America everyone stood and joined in the singing. 

In the end, everyone was invited to stay for light refreshments. 

Once I knew only darkness and stillness...
my life was without past or future but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living. 

Helen Keller Mini-Concert

The letter was written by Helen Keller

Everyone was given a reproduced copy of the original letter written by Helen Keller to Reverend WF Trump 

I enjoyed two glasses of fresh lemonade, & two cookies while I sat and talked with several women. 

It was around 12:30PM by this time, and I still had to walk back to my car. 

I was going to the Keller Library to listen to Keller Thompson talk about the life of her great, great aunt Helen Keller.

I arrived at the Keller Library but the door was still locked, it was bout fifteen until one. Many other people were waiting. I walked back to my van and cranked it because it was too hot to stand outside. Right after I cranked the van the door opened. So I got out of my van and walked inside.

I enjoyed listening to Mrs. Thompson's talk and slide show about Helen Keller. 

There were also light refreshments after the talk. I got a bottle of water and a cookie.

It had been a great morning even though the heat index was over 100 degrees.

🚂🚂🚂Tuscumbia Train Depot Museum Built 1888

Tuscumbia was the first railroad in Alabama and the fourth in the USA.
Located 204 West Fifth Street Tuscumbia.
Constructed in 1888 by Memphis and Charleston Railroads

Tuscumbia Train Depot  back view

Tuscumbia Railroad First Railroad west of the Alleghenies

Tuscumbia Rail Depot front view 

In 1948, a new depot was built along Shop Pike in Sheffield and the 5th Street Depot was
donated to the City of Tuscumbia for a Community Center.
My grandparents celebrated their 50th Anniversary at the 5th Street Street Depot, in 1976.

Golden Anniversary Celebrations 1976
5th Street Community Center (Old Tuscumbia Depot

The bell came from a real Tuscumbia steam engine and school children love to ring it. 

JW Kiser who had worked for the railroad convinced Southern Railroad to donate the bell to Woodward Avenue Baptist Church. It was used to signal children that it was time for Sunday School.

The church no longer used the bell so the church donated the bell to the Tuscumbia Train Depot on October 21, 2007.

Waiting for train & Long stick used for sending messages

Railroads use lights and hand signs so that train men and workers can "talk."  The signs were first used over 130 years ago before people had radios.  Railroads needed men to be able to send signals from far or near.  Many times, the signalman would be too far away to use a whistle or horn.  Colors, lights, and hand signals were all used.

Color Signals

On the railroad, different colors have to mean.  Flags are colored to send a message.  Flag color signals are:

Red - Stop

White - Go

Green - Go slowly  - caution!

Blue-blue flags are placed on a car or other object on which men are working.

STOP!  Swing lantern across tracks.

SLOW DOWN!  Hold at arm's length when the train is moving.

GO!  Raise straight up and down.

GO BACK! Swing up and down in a circle at half an arm's length across the track, when the train is moving.

TRAIN HAS PARTED! This tells the trainmen that cars have come loose.  Swing up and down in a circle at full arm's length when the train is running.

DO NOT GO!  APPLY BRAKES! Swing straight above your head when the train is standing.

GO! RELEASE BRAKES!  Hold at arm's length above your head when the train is standing.

Ticket Counter
When the ticket window opened it averaged about 30,000 tickets a year. 

WWII of the 718 R.O.B. UNIT -CIT F.T.O.

The fighting 718th Railroad Operating Battalion brought home a souvenir from Germany when they captured a railway station in Germany.

https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfThe718thRailrayOperatingBattalion

The 718th was given the territory from Folligny to Mayenne and to Rennes, a substantial section of the French railroad, to operate. Along with this came the responsibility of maintaining a single track from Pontabault to Cayenne and from Ponterson to Fougeres, and a double track from Folligny to Dol, with the supervision of French maintenance of a double track from Dol to Rennes. 

Operation of the railroad was by permissive block under blackout conditions. 

Flagging with fusee and lantern was permitted only in case of emergency during the blackout. Crews going out on a run never knew when they might get back. 

The carriage owned by Keller Family used to pick up teacher Anne Sullivan. 

This carriage owned by the Keller Family was thought to be used by Captian Arthur Keller to pick up Anne Sullivan at the Tuscumbia Train Station. 

Anne rode in the buggy with Captain Keller down the long drive that was lined with magnolias to Ivy Green. Anne spotted Helen waiting for her on the front porch, this would change the lives of both Helen and Anne forever. 

King Biscuit Time Helena, Arkansas

The Sound of Soil and Soul

The music of the Arkansas Delta is the music of America. With roots in the gospel or "church music," the blues, jazz, country, and rock n'roll flowed from the rich, fertile landscape bordering the lower Mississippi River and spread out across the country and the world. Follow the Arkansas Delta Music Trail to experience the sounds that shaped the land, its people, and the nation.

KFFA 1630 HELENA 

King Biscuit Time

"King Biscuit Time" first aired live on November 21, 1941, on Helena, Arkansas's KFFA 1360 AM radio. Since that time, the program has become the longest-running daily blues radio show in the United States, as well as an influential platform for up-and-coming blues performers. The award-winning program has aired more times than the "Grand Ole Opry" and has outlasted "American Bandstand" by at least a generation. Legendary bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson was the original host of King Biscuit Time, playing live with Robert Perkins and James Peck Curtis in the KFFA studio. The show was named after King Biscuit Flour, distributed throughout the Arkansas Delta by Interstate Grocer Company. The company agreed to sponsor a radio production for Sonny Boy and his band in exchange for live commercials for King Biscuit Flour.

King Biscuit Time was the first regular radio show to feature blues and has influenced generations of delta blues and

rock n' roll artists whose sounds are based on the raw energy of Sonny Boy Williamson's music. The daily programming of Sonny boy Williamson, Pinetop Perkins, Robert Jr, Lockwood, and other Delta blues legends laid the foundation for the blues, rock, pop, and hip-hop music of today.

Award-winning "Sunshine" Sonny Payne has hosted the show since 1951 and has been a presence on King Biscuit Time since its inception in 1941. A recognized blues musician in his own right Payne welcomes visitors to the live broadcast each week at noon. In keeping with tis tradition of broadcasting live music from the studio, King Biscuit Time still welcomes artists in the studio almost weekly, and the show's record-setting 15,000-plus broadcasts document the formation of a truly American form. Under Sunshine Sonny's direction, King Biscuit Time was awarded the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 1992, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of radio and broadcast journalism.

The Delta Cultural Center became "home" to King Biscuit Time in the early 1990s, and the show is broadcast live daily from a special studio in downtown Helena and streamed around the world via KFFA's website,www.kffa.com 

King Biscuit Time with Sonny Sunshine Payne

Listening to Biscuit time with Sonny Sunshine Payne at KFFA 1360 AM

King Biscuit Time Sonny Payne St
Longest Running Blues Show

The music of the Arkansas Delta is the music of America. With roots in the gospel or "church music,"
the blues, jazz, country, and rock n'roll flowed from the rich, fertile landscape bordering the lower Mississippi River and spread out across the country and the world. Follow the Arkansas Delta Music Trail to experience the sounds that shaped the land, its people, and the nation.
KFFA 1360 Helena

King Biscuit Time
"King Biscuit Time" first aired live on November 21, 1941, on Helena, Arkansas's KFFA 1360 AM radio. Since that time, the program has become the longest-running daily blues radio show in the United States, as well as an influential platform for up-and-coming blues performers. The award-winning program has aired more times than the "Grand Ole Opry" and has outlasted "American Bandstand" by at least a generation.
Legendary bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson was the original host of King Biscuit Time, playing live with Robert Perkins and James Peck Curtis in the KFFA studio. The show was named after King Biscuit Flour, distributed throughout the Arkansas Delta by Interstate Grocer Company. The company agreed to sponsor a radio production for Sonny Boy and his band in exchange for live commercials for King Biscuit Flour.

Pass the biscuits! It's King Biscuit Time!

King Biscuit Time was the first regular radio show to feature blues and has influenced generations of delta blues and rock n' roll artists whose sounds are based on the raw energy of Sonny Boy Williamson's music. The daily programming of Sonny Boy Williamson, Pinetop Perkins, Robert Jr. Lockwood, and other Delta blues legends laid the foundation for the blues, rock, pop, and hip-hop music of today.

Tell it! Sing It! Shout it!
The King Biscuit Blues Festival

Award-winning "Sunshine" Sonny Payne has hosted the show since 1951 and has been a presence on King Biscuit Time since its inception in 1941. A recognized blues musician in his own right, Payne welcomes visitors to the live broadcast each week at noon. In keeping with its tradition of broadcasting live music from the studio, King Biscuit Time still welcomes artists in the studio almost weekly, and the show's record-setting 15,000-plus broadcasts document the formation of a true American art form. Under Sunshine Sonny's direction, King Biscuit Time was awarded the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 1992, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of radio and broadcast journalism.

King Biscuit Time
Radio Station
K.F.F.A. & W.R.O.X
KING Biscuit Flour
Sonny Boy
Meal

The Delta Cultural Center became "home" to King Biscuit Time in the early 1990s, and the show is broadcast live daily from a special studio in downtown Helena and streamed around the world via KFFA's website, www.kffa.com 

Listen
King Biscuit Time
over
K.F.F.A HelenaW.R.O.X. Clarksdale Miss
12:15 Monday thru Friday
King Biscuit Flour Sonny Boy Meal

Arkansas Delta Music Trail
Paid for with a combination of state funds and regional tourism promotion association funds
www.deltabyways.com

The Biscuit

The King Biscuit Blues Festival is the largest free blues festival in the south and one of the best-loved blues festivals in the world, attracting tens of thousands of fans to historic Helena in the heart of the Delta each October for three days and bights music multiple stages.
From its outset in 1986, the Festival has been a collaborative effort between Main Street Helena, a non-profit group dedicated to the revitalization of downtown Helena, and the Sonny Boy Blues Society, a volunteer-based group dedicated to the preservation of Delta Blues.

"Da Biscuit," as it's affectionately known, is not devoted exclusively to blues from the Delta. Rather, in celebration of the Delta as a birthplace of the blues, the Festival showcases blues of all styles and from all regions of the country. 

The Blues Trail Mississippi to Helena, Arkansas

Blues Brothers

"Pass the Biscuits "" ITS KING BISCUIT TIME"

Main Street Blues 

Helena has played a vital role in blues history for artists from both sides of the Mississippi River. Once known as a “wide open” hot spot for music, gambling, and nightlife, Helena was also the birthplace of “King Biscuit Time,” the groundbreaking KFFA radio show that began broadcasting blues to the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta in 1941. The program had logged over 15,000 broadcasts by 2009 and inspired Helena to launch its renowned King Biscuit Blues Festival in 1986.

The Blues Trail Mississippi to Helena

The Blues Trail Mississippi to Helena

The town emerged as a major center of culture and commerce in the Delta during the steamboat era and maintained its freewheeling river port atmosphere well into the mid-20th century. Cafes, night spots, and good-time houses flourished, and musicians flocked here to entertain local field hands, sawmill workers, and roustabouts who came off the boats ready for action. Many bluesmen ferried across the river from Mississippi or later motored across the Helena Bridge. Others came from elsewhere in Arkansas, up from Louisiana, or down from Memphis.

Helena was at one time home to Mississippi-born blues legends Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2 (Rice Miller), James Cotton, Honeyboy Edwards, and Pinetop Perkins, as well as to Arkansas natives Roosevelt Sykes, Robert Nighthawk, Robert Lockwood Jr., Frank Frost, Jimmy McCracklin, and George “Harmonica” Smith, all of whom became influential figures in the blues. Williamson, Nighthawk, and Lockwood were among the first bluesmen to play their instruments through amplifiers, paving the transitional path of blues from acoustic to electric music–a development often attributed to Muddy Waters in Chicago in the late 1940s.

Soon after KFFA went on the air on November 19, 1941, Williamson’s broadcasts on “King Biscuit Time” brought blues to an audience that had seldom if ever heard such music on the radio. Up-and-coming bluesmen B.B. King, Albert King, Jimmy Reed, and Muddy Waters all tuned in to the lunchtime broadcasts from the KFFA studios, or on occasion from WROX in Clarksdale, advertising King Biscuit Flour and promoted their upcoming shows at local juke joints and house parties. The sponsor, Interstate Grocer Company, even introduced a Sonny Boy brand of cornmeal. During Williamson’s extended stays away from Helena, drummer James “Peck” Curtis kept the program going with an assortment of band members. The show eventually switched to records instead of living music and continued with deejay Sonny Payne at the helm. Off the air only from 1980 until 1986, it still ranks as one of the longest-running programs in radio history. The Delta Cultural Center began hosting the broadcast in the 1990s.

The Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival, a favorite event among blues enthusiasts around the country, began as the King Biscuit Blues Festival in 1986, welcoming back former King Biscuit Entertainers Robert Lockwood and Pinetop Perkins for the first of many annual appearances, along with a variety of other acts including perennial local favorites Frank Frost, Lonnie Shields, Sam Carr, and CeDell Davis.

Blues Artist

The Singing River Sculpture, In Sheffield, Alabama

The Singing River Sculpture

The Singing River Sculpture

This sculpture is dedicated to the many individuals whose efforts made Sheffield and the Muscle Shoals area the “Hit Recording Capitol of the World,” and to those who continue that legacy in 2012

Legend of the Singing River 

The Yuchi and other early inhabitants who lived along the banks of the mighty Tennessee River held the legend of the Spirit Woman who lived in the river, protected them, and sang to them. If the river was angry, She sang to them loudly; if the river was peaceful, She sang softly and sweetly, sometimes humming a comforting lullaby. 

Some say that all they heard was the high waters' mighty rush and roar over the mussel shoals, or at other times, the calm low waters babbling through the river rocks. Others say She is real and can still be seen in the early morning mist, hovering over the waters, just as She did many years ago. In her honor, they called it the Singing River, and in her honor, we named these sculptures the Singing River Sculptures. 

The World-changing Muscle Shoals Music

From throughout the 20th Century to the present, Muscle Shoals area artists, musicians, songwriters, and music industry professionals have helped shape the world’s expansive music heritage. Few styles of music were untouched by Muscle Shoals, and local contributions have been made in all other areas of the complex industry: producers, recording engineers, songwriters, music publishers, and other positions in the music business.

Picture of 

Broadway Sound Studios with owner and producer David Johnson second from right

Picture of 

Legendary producer Jerry Waxler at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios’riverfront location

Many of the world’s greatest performers began their ascent to stardom in Muscle Shoals. Artists, such as Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, the Staples Singers, and Bob Seger, along with many others, quickly created a legacy that earned the area the title, “Hit Recording Capitol of the World.”

The area grew as a music center by drawing together people of all races and religions. In the 1960s, despite the segregation of race enforced outside the studios, a great soul classic was being created in the studios with each musician's contributions to his innate musical talent. The collaborations created some of the most widely loved music of the 20th century, including Steal Away, Mustang Sally, Tell Mama, Patches, Respect Yourself, and many others. 

The warning issued in Arthur Alexander’s You Better Move On got the attention of the Rolling Stones. The Beatles heard Alexander’s song, Anna and each band acknowledged their respect for Alexander and his writing by recording their version of his songs on their first albums.

NorAla Studio where Quin Ivy and Marlin Greene recorded Percy Sledge's When a Man Loves a Woman.

The songwriting tradition continues as one of the strongest facets of Muscle Shoals music, with area songwriters penning songs such as I Loved Her First, I Swear, Blown Away, Before He Cheats, and hundreds of other hits over the decades.

Picture of the original Swampers, Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, David Hood, and Jimmy Johnson at their 3614 Jackson Highway studio.

The heart and soul of Muscle Shoals' music have always been the players and singers. Four members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section were immortalized in the Lynyrd Skynyrd songs Sweet Home Alabama. The lyric, “Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers” and “they’ve been known to pick a song or two,” honors Jimmy Johnson, Barry Beckett, David Hood, and Roger Hawkins, studio musicians who produced and played on hundreds of hits recorded at area studios from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s.

Dexter Johnson at his garage studio, the first in the Muscle Shoals area

Sheffield and Its Contributions to this Golden Era

Sheffield made major contributions to the area’s music heritage and to the creation of the Muscle Shoals sound. The first audio recording studio in the Muscle Shoals area was constructed in a Sheffield garage in 1950 by Dexter Johnson. His nephew, Jimmy Johnson, would go on to become one of the Swampers, immortalized in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, Sweet Home Alabama, Johnson, along with Swampers, David Hood, Roger Hawkins, and Barry Beckett, established Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Sheffield in 1969 and operated until 1985, recording hundreds of songs on hitmakers of that ear. 

The area’s first Number One record and first Gold Record, Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman, was recorded by Quin Ivy and Marlin Greene at NorAla studio on 2nd Street. Proceeds from that hit allowed Ivy to construct Quincy and South Camp labels. In 1973 Ivy sold the facility to his studio manager and recording engineer David Johnson, who renamed it Broadway Sound Studios and recorded artists into the 1980s. 

Recording has continued to be a prolific industry in Sheffield over the last six decades. 

The City of Sheffield, Alabama

Ian Sanford, Mayor

Audwin Pierre McGee Sculptor

Historical commentary by Dick Cooper, David Anderson, and Bill Matthews

Fiscal Agent: Tennessee Valley Art Association 

WISE

Wise Alloys, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wise Metals Group, began operations in April 1999 when the parent company purchased the local assets and facilities of Reynolds Alloys Company, a subsidiary of Reynolds Metal Company. Today, Wise Alloys is a worldwide leading supplier of aluminum can sheets and processors of recycled aluminum. The company continues to expand its operations and maintains its presence as one of the leading employers in the Shoals. Wise is extremely proud to be a part of the Shoals community and pleased to have contributed all the recycled aluminum as the artistic medium for the Singing River Sculpture and the Singing River Sculpture Garden. 

The Shoals began its long heritage as an aluminum manufacturing community with the construction of the Reynolds facility in April 1941. It was proposed for the Defense Plant Corporation, a federal agency. Incredibly, just three months later, the first ingot was rolled on the Hotline. At that time, our country was just beginning to recover from the Great Depression. The construction and opening of the plant created much-needed jobs in our community. The selection of the site in the Shoals area was primarily due to the abundant electrical power created by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the dam system along the Tennessee River. 

Initially, the facility produced aluminum to support the World War II effort. 

March 4, 2013

The people of Sheffield and the Shoals express their heartfelt gratitude to those generous individuals, families, businesses, and organizations whose love for our legendary Muscle Shoals music has made this Singing River Sculpture possible.

Hardeeville Jasper County South Carolina Savannah National Wildlife Refuge

What it takes to sustain the Wildlife Refuge

These  markers are along the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive

Prescribed Burning for Public Health and Safety

The industries in Savannah and Port Wentworth, Georgia stand above the horizon, less than three miles away from this overlook. A wildfire in Savannah National Wildlife Refuge could threaten these communities. Wildfire produces tons of smoke and ash, which spread for great distances. Airborne particles of organic matter and carbon in smoke are pollutants. They threaten persons with asthma and other respiratory ailments. Smoke pollution also impacts transportation. At night, smoke settles near the ground, lowering visibility on highways and at airports. 

The Fish and Wildlife Service uses prescribed burning to help prevent wildfire and air pollution in nearby communities. When necessary, trained crews burn this marsh and adjacent lands to reduce the accumulation of “fuels” (dry grass and wood). This process significantly reduces the chances of wildfire and widespread smoke. Prescribed burns are short-lasting and are scheduled so that smoke disperses away from populated areas.

Plantation Cistern

Plantation Cistern

2. Plantation Cistern

This small island of trees was a slave community on Recess Plantation, which bordered Laurel Hill Plantation. Called a hammock, it was a small area of high ground in a sea of wetland rice fields. The round brick structure, just ahead in the woods, was a cistern that stored drinking water and perishable foods. The cistern was needed because well water in the area often was unfit to drink. Rainwater probably was collected from the roofs of six slave’s quarters and funneled into the brick-lined reservoir. The cistern was about seven feet deep. A wooden lid kept out animals and debris. 

 Explore Recess Hammock 

Look for Chinese parasol trees with pale green trunks and 5-lobed leaves. The Asian trees were planted for shade on Low Country plantations. Notice periwinkle, a purple-flowered vine once cultivated as ground cover. Watch and listen for birds — warblers, thrushes, wrens, and sparrows — that nest and feed in the hammock’s mature hardwoods. 

Rainwater was collected at slave quarters and funneled to the cistern.

Rice Field Trunk

3. Rice Field Trunk 

This water control structure is called a trunk.  It is similar to trunks used to manage water flow to and from plantation rice fields. At Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, trunks are operated to set water levels in impoundments (reservoirs). 

 A trunk is a long wooden box with a heavy “flap gate” at either end. This dike crosses over the trunk. Only the gates and their support structures are visible. The gates facing the canal and the field are often kept closed. 

 To flood the nearby impounding: The trunk’s tide creek/canal side gate is raised. Raising tidewater flows through the trunk and forces open the opposite field-side gate, letting water into the impoundment. When the water reaches the preferred depth in the impoundment, the water pressure pushes the field-side door shut. Both gates are kept closed to hold water in the fields.  

 To drain the fields: The field-side gate is raised allowing water to drain out to the tidal creek/canal during low tide.

Managing Water for Wildlife Moist Soil Management

Canal

4. Managing Water for Wildlife Moist Soil Management

 Nearly three thousand acres of former rice fields are managed to benefit wildlife at Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge provides 18 impoundments (reservoirs) with nearly 50 miles of earthen dikes and a variety of trunks (floodgates). Similar to the way water was controlled in plantation fields, freshwater from the Little Black River is raised and lowered in these impoundments to produce diverse habitats. The managed wetlands benefit fish, shorebirds, wading birds, and waterfowl–including nearly 25,000 ducks annually. 

 Aquatic management keeps wetlands flooded for several years to encourage plants with high food value and cover for wildlife. Aquatic impoundments also provide breeding habitats for birds, amphibians, and fish. These animals, in turn, are prey for alligators, river otters, ospreys, and bald eagles. 

Alligator

 Moist soil management produces shallow water and mudflat habitats. Water is drained during the growing season to promote plants preferred by wintering waterfowl, breeding birds, and other wildlife. Countless invertebrates that thrive within decaying plant litter provide valuable sources of protein for migrating shorebirds and ducks.

Using Fire to Benefit Wildlife

5. Using Fire to Benefit Wildlife

This freshwater wetland is a productive wildlife habitat. The scattered pond's diverse vegetation offers water, food, and shelter for countless birds and other wildlife. If left untended, however, the marsh will become clogged with a few species of invasive perennial plants. To preserve this ecosystem, the Fish and Wildlife Service uses a variety of management tools. 

One of the most effective tools is prescribed burning–the planned application of controlled fire, under an appropriate condition, for specific purposes. Here, burning is used to eliminate invasive and exotic perennials such as cattails, cut-grass species, and rattle-bush. Annual plants soon colonize the bare soil and yield seeds of higher value to wildlife. Burning also removes tons of dry, dead vegetation that could fuel a destructive wildfire.

Laurel Hill Plantation

6. Laurel Hill Plantation

Framed by three massive live oak trees, this grassy knoll was a home site on Laurel Hill Plantation before the Civil War. Savannah National Wildlife Refuge includes portions of 13 former rice plantations. Ten including Laurel Hill were located in South Carolina. Laurel Hill was nearly 400 acres in size and belonged to several owners during the years of rice cultivation in the Savannah area (1750-1860). The most prominent owner was Daniel Heyward (1810-1888). He was a nephew of Thomas Heyward Jr, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of Nathaniel Heyward, the greatest rice planter of his day, who once owned 10 South Carolina plantations and 2,000 slaves.

Motorists are welcome on the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive, off of S.C. 170, which meanders along four miles of earthen dikes through managed freshwater pools and hardwood hammocks. Many hiking and biking trails are also available to the visiting public. 

Some of the critters we saw 

Birds

Orange Snake 

trees along the trail 

alligator 

The Savannah NWR Visitor Center is located on U.S. 17, seven miles north of downtown Savannah, Georgia, or seven miles south of I-95 at Hardeeville, South Carolina.

We stopped at the Visitor Center watched a ten-minute video, walked through the museum and gift shop, then rode through the Wild Life Refuge. 

 Visitor Center