Having lived in Arizona for many decades, I was used to partaking of urban exploration in ghost towns. It hadn't occurred to me that other parts of the country had their own dying industries, booms and busts. Now that I'm situated in Georgia, I am finding some amazing and beautiful ghost towns.
In the Watkinsville area of Georgia is an historic archaeological site called "Scull Shoals." It is east of Atlanta in the Oconee National Forest.
This area has a very long history from pre-Columbian, through the Spanish explorers, and into 1811 when Georgia's first paper mill was built there.
Remnants of the mill still stand.
This site is historic and also hauntingly beautiful. It feels like it should be the set of a spectacular ghost movie.
In a spectacular way, the forest has reclaimed these man-made structures, claiming its superiority over time. Brick chimneys with climbing vines, and a vague sense of what might have been there before nature's tsunami struck.
The Oconee River flows through this area and that alone shows that civilization found its way to the shores and made use of it with ancient mills.
LINK: Scull Shoals village began as a frontier settlement in 1782, and in 1793, after several Indian raids, residents erected Fort Clark. This was built by Michael Cupp, to the Governor’s specifications. It served to protect the settlers from raids across the river by the Creek Indians to the west. Fort Clark was manned by a local militia called “Phinizey’s Dragoons” until the Creeks were moved west towards the Ocmulgee River by the Treaties of 1802 and 1805. The settlers began to expand rapidly across the Oconee River after the treaty of 1802. White settlers and black slaves quickly opened up the land. Following Eli Whitney’s 1793 invention of the cotton gin, they began to raise cotton in huge quantities. The local villagers began with a gristmill and sawmill, and soon had a cotton gin.
The area was susceptible to flooding. Over time, the government took on the area and eventually by the 1960s set up picnic areas and landscaping for visitors.
LINK: Under the ownership of Dr. Thomas M. Poullain, Scull Shoals evolved into a bustling industrial village, home to gristmills, sawmills, a four-story brick textile mill, general stores, and residences. At its peak, the mill employed around 500 workers who operated 4,000 spindles. Dr. Lindsay Durham, a prominent local figure, cultivated an extensive herb garden and ran a sanatorium, developing and distributing medicinal remedies. However, repeated flooding in the 1880s led to the mills’ decline, and by the 1920s, the once-thriving town had been completely abandoned.
If you are intrigued by history, urban exploration, or simply amazing photo opportunities, this is a MUST SEE in Georgia!
I have photographed some interesting places overtaken by nature and they are the best to photograph. There's something about nature's reclaiming, it's tug-of-war on buildings, it's ability to harbor wildlife and bees, while warding off humans, that is poignant, at best.
Here's some I've come across on my treks -
Hinton,WV
Pipestem, WV
It's not cheating to enhance saturation to show high contrast of green plants against brick.