Exploring 2008

Ninety Six National Historic Site, Ninety Six, South Carolina
	This is the location of the first major battle south of New England in the American Revolution. Ninety Six was a major British Outpost to protect the colonist from the Cherokee Indians. Circa 1750		We hiked the Walking Tour which included the Island Ford Road, Siege Trenches, Star Fort, Town of Ninety Six Site and the Stockade Fort. We also hiked the historic Charleston Road, Goudy Trail and Cherokee Path. There was a tiny lizard poking his head out of this cannon!
Musgrove Mill State Historic Site , Clinton, South Carolina
The "Battle of Musgrove Mill" occured on April 19, 1780 between Patriot's and Loyalist on this site. The Interpretive Trail starts at these remains of the Musgrove's home and meanders by the Mary Musgrove 's monument, the Enoree River Ford and the site of Musgrove's Mill.	South Carolina is rich in history from the American Revolution and the Civil War. View along the Enoree River. Imagine the quietness of the river before the battle. We hiked the site of the Battle of Blackstock located near Musgrove Mill and Rose Hill.
Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site, Union, South Carolina
This was a cotton and indigo (used as a dye) plantation.	This is the plantation home of Gist known as Rose Hill. We took the interior home tour and walked the grounds and short trail through the woods. Inside the home they have the actual document where South Carolina seceded from the Union.		The Gists Family Cemetery is located about one mile east of the plantation. During a controlled burn, the foresters discovered an essentially unmarked slave cemetery with approximately 50 graves near this site.
Congaree Swamp National Park, Hopkins, South Carolina
We picked a great rainy day to visit the Congaree Swamp National Park southeast of Columbia, SC. Actually, it was perfect for the setting. We read the trail guide as we walked the 2.4 miles of Upper and Lower Boardwalk.	The park consists of 22,000 acres along the Congaree River. It is full of cypress, tupelo and loblolly pines. The knees of the cypress trees are quite impressive. The knees can stand seven feet tall, but are usually just a foot or two above the surface of the water and is actually part of the cypress root system.		Paul explored the interior of a tree inside of the visitor center-notice the "knees". The park preserves the largest remnant of old-growth bottomland forests, which includes 90 different types of trees.
The Great Swamp Sanctuary, Walterboro, South Carolina
			While in Walterboro, SC we found The Great Swamp Sanctuary, which is a local park. They had two wonderful trails. One was a boardwalk through miles of dense swamp. The other one was more open and sunny. The swamp on this trail was such a magnificent green. It looked like a plush carpet that you could just walk across.
Fort Pulaski National Monument, Cockspur Island, Georgia
Ft. Pulaski National Monument is located on Cockspur Island, just east of Savannah, Georgia on the Atlantic Ocean. On February 6, 1763 John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, landed on Cockspur Island. It was near here they he preached his first sermon on American soil. The monument above is in his honor.	View of damage from Union troops. Some cannon balls are still present in the walls. The fort was built to guard the river approaches to Savannah. The 10 "rifled" cannons used by the Union troops over on Tybee Island (in background of photo to right) shot cannon balls over the Cockspur Lighthouse (on right) to bombard the once believed to be impenetrable fort occupied by Confederate soldiers. We climbed all through the fort and walked the 0.65 mile trail to the lighthouse.		Cockspur Lighthouse with Tybee Island in background.
Drawbridge to Fort.	First Drawbridge.		Tunnels to magazines.
Wormsloe State Historic Site, Savannah, Georgia
This is the beautiful entrance to the estate is inscribed 1733 for the year Jones arrived in Savannah. The driveway is lined with 400 live oaks which were planted in the 1890s along the 1 1/2 mile driveway. Jones came to Georgia with Oglethorpe and settled on the Isle of Hope outside of Savannah, Georgia.			The tabby ruins of Noble Jones' home. An interpretive trail leads visitors to the ruins of the home, gravesite, narrows, and an area with a colonial life reconstruction. Jones cultivated for indigo, rice, mulberry trees and cotton around the house. Wormsloe Historic Site
Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site, Dorchester, South Carolina
	Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site northwest of Charleston, South Carolina contains a fort, town remains and cemetery from this revolutionary time period town. The Bell Tower (to left) was built in 1751. The graves are some of the oldest we have found in the US with many of the death dates being in the 1700s.		The remains of the tabby (oyster shell concrete) fort are at this site. The fort is in remarkably good shape because it was never involved in battle.
Charleston Tea Plantation, Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina
	The Charleston Tea Plantation is America's only Tea Garden and is located in Wadmalaw Island. We toured the tea factory (above) and the grounds of the only tea plantation in North America. As you can see by the sign to the left the other tea plantations are thousands of miles away.		The evergreen tea tree bushes are dormant in the winter and have their first flush in May. The tour included a glass of the best sweet tea! Below is Paul standing by some of the 100,000s of tea bushes there.
George Pinckney National Historic Site, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
	Rice trunk used on this rice plantation to control the water levels in the fields.		Far left we are walking on a road traveled by George Washington when he came to eat at Governor George Pinckney's Snee Farm east of Charleston. Below are a few of the remaining books owned by Governor Pinckney. He owned over 20,000 books, which sadly most of them were burned. Pinckney was one of the framers of the Unites States Constitution.
Ft. Sumter and Ft Moultrie National Monument, Sullivan's Island, South Carolina
This is a view of Ft. Sumter from Sullivan's Island. In the early morning of April 12, 1861 the Confederates fired from Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor on the Federals at Ft. Sumter. This is the shot that began the American Civil War.	Paul is standing in front of a solid brick wall protecting the fort's main battery. To the right is the radio room used in WWII and a also a room full of gunpowder barrels in one of the batteries.
The display shows the different canyons and mine that were used during Ft. Moultrie's century and one/half long history. The original Palmetto Fort was built in 1776 to prevent British naval incursions into Charleston Harbor. The second fort was built in 1798. The third and present fort was constructed in 1809. When the Federals left Ft. Moultrie abandoned to go to Ft. Sumter and the Confederates controlled the fort until February 1865. Fort Moultrie was even used during World War I and II.			View from the north of the fort with outside view of the magazines. Due to changing military needs along the coastline, the army lowered the flag for the last time at Fort Moultrie on August 15, 1947. Click the photo to go into a magazine.
Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina
This is the largest Confederate Burial Ground in the South. Some of the soldiers buried here fought in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.			Center photo are graves of unknown soldiers.
Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site, Charleston, South Carolina
	Charles Towne Landing is a state park which preserves the very spot where English Colonist in 1670 established the first permanent European settlement in the Carolinas. The zoo contains animals that the settlers would have encountered. Above is a replica of a 17th century trading vessel with a sample list of items from Barbados including 7 slaves. To the left is the garden the British colony investors instructed the settlers to investigate, which includes indigo, rice, sugar cane and cotton. The camellias were in bloom and although it was winter the grounds were pretty.
Fort Matanzas National Monument, Anastasia and Rattlesnake Island, Florida
	Ft. Matanzas National Monument is located across the Matanzas River from the Visitor Center located on Anastasia Island. The park service provides a free ferry boat ride to the little quaint fort. The fort was constructed of coquina in 1740-42 as Spain's last effort to ward off British encroachments on St. Augustine. Typical seven men manned the fort. To left you see fort in background across the river and then us on the ferry boat. Steve and Paul exploring the fort. Steve went through the roof at this place! Literally!
	The park includes the fort located on Rattlesnake Island and the tip of Anastasia Island. There are three boardwalk trails. One leads to the Atlantic - see right, and one leads to the Matanzas Inlet. The fort was built here to protect the City of St. Augustine's southern approach and was built with slaves, troops from Cuba and convicts. The United States took control of the fort in 1821, but never used it.
Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, St. Augustine, Florida

The Castillo (Castle) de San Marcos National Monument is jammed in the middle of St. Augustine, Florida. St. Augustine is the oldest permanent European settlement in the continental United States It was established in 1565 by Don Pedro Menendez. Photo above is of the side and front of the fort. The center photo is the central Plaza de Armas. The far right photo shows the moat which was usually kept dry for the domesticated animals. It was flooded when the fort was under attack.	The fort itself built in 1672 is the oldest masonry fortification in the United States and is a symbol of Spain's early colonization of the New World. The fort is constructed of sedimentary rock called Coquina.
Fort Caroline National Memorial and Theodore Roosevelt Area, Jacksonville, Florida
To the right are the remains of Ft. Caroline which was a part of France's attempt to set up a colony at the mouth of the St. John's River in 1564. But due to conflicts with their Spanish neighbors and other hardships the area was abandoned. The fort includes a small moat, small cannons (see below center photo) and a quaint archway. There was a wonderful mile long nature trail with trees adorned in beautiful Spanish Moss which is neither moss nor Spanish, but a plant indigenous to the southeastern part of the United States. Paul is shown making a broom out of a palm branch like the colonists did. Also notice the nuclear power plant in the background of the center photo!

Kingsley Plantation Timucuan Preserve, Jacksonville, Florida

The Zephaniah Kingsley Plantation is the oldest remaining plantation house in Florida. The 18th and 19th century structures include the planter's home (center), kitchen house, barn and carriage house, and 25 of the 32 tabby slave cabins (left and right). Kingsley married a slave named Anna whom he purchased in Havana, Cuba in 1806. The plantation was strategically located on the Fort George River on Fort George Island. Sea Island cotton, which can grow to seven feet high, was the main cash crop.
Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida

Cowpens National Battlefield, Chesnee, South Carolina
The Battle of Cowpens was fought on the morning of January 17, 1781. In less than one hour the Americans had won a decisive battle in the War for American Independence at this site. Paul is standing in a marker which reads, "Stand in a Revolutionary soldier's footprints."
Kings Mountain National Military Park, Gaffney, South Carolina
Thomas Jefferson deemed the victory at Kings Mountain, "the joyful annunciation of that turn of the tide of success which terminated the Revolutionary War with the seal of our independence."
Russell Cave National Historic Site, Jackson County, Alabama
This cave is significant because it shows some of the earliest inhabitants of America and is considered an archaeological treasure.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
This was our second trip to the Great Smokey Mountains. We hiked to Laurel Falls on the 2.5 mile round trip trail to the waterfalls shown on the right.
Here we are at the John P. Cable Grist Mill at the Cades Cove Visitor Center Mill Area. We enjoyed the 11- mile Cades Cove Loop too. Cades Cove was a 19th century mountain community with homes, churches, mills, lots of farmland.		This scenic waterway is part of the beauty we enjoyed on the Roaring Forks Motor Nature Trail. The steep road is so windy and the trees encapsulate your vehicle which makes you forget you are in your car. This is a fantastic drive and a must to any visitor of the park.
Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, Greeneville,
At the site is Johnson's tailor shop from which he embarked upon a career which led to the Presidency of the United States. The park also includes an early home of his; the above replica of his birthplace; and the home he lived in at the time of his death.		Paul and I are sitting on the porch of the President's house!
The site is scattered on various places on the south side of the city of Greeneville. We drove down to the cemetery named for its first occupant-Andrew Johnson. An interesting bit of trivia, Johnson's body was wrapped in the America flag and the U.S. Constitution draped across his face.
Friendship Hill National Historic Site, near New Geneva, Pennsylvania
This historic site is one of the former homes of Albert Gallatin. This Swiss immigrant came to the United States because of his strong interest in the new republic. He stood alongside Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe as they worked to design the new government. Gallatin served as the Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He arranged the financing for the Louisiana Purchase. Patrick Henry called him "a most astonishing man".
Fort Necessity National Battlefield
It is no wonder that George Washington lost the battle. Look at the fort, trench, and the canons he used. Fort Necessity recognizes the place where 22-year old George Washington fought the opening battle of the French and Indian War. This battle goes down in history as the first and last time that Washington surrendered during his military career. The park also commemorates the National Road which was begun in 1811. This road was America's first Federally funded highway and the first step in the development of a national road system. It ran from Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois. As you drive along U.S. Route 40 you will be essentially on the original National Road. Interestingly enough, Gallatin drew up the plan that led Congress to approve construction of the road.
Appomattox Court House National Historic Park, Appomattox, Virginia
Paul is walking up the front steps to the McLean House where Generals Lee and Grant met. Dana is standing in the room where the two general met on April 8, 1865 when Lee surrendered to end the Civil War. It was a moving experience to stand in that room.

Red Hill-The Patrick Henry National Memorial, Brookneal, Virginia
Patrick Henry's bedroom where he died.		Patrick Henry and wife's graves.
White Mountain National Forest, New Hamsphire
The beautiful Crawford Notch Opposite: View of Saco River from Saco Crag outside of North Conway		Waterfall along Tuckerman's Ravine Trail to Mount Washington in Pinkham Notch.

Chimney Bluffs State Park, Lake Bluff, New York
Paul and Dana along bluffs along Lake Ontario.
Scottsbluff National Monument, Gering, Nebraska
Click the Oregon Trail marker on the right to see why you should "Stay on the Trail"