The Backroads Traveler Part II: On the Way to Tybee

 

Shrimp boats in Lazaretto Creek on the way to Tybee.

Tybee Island is a great destination, but there's also good stuff to see along the Islands Expressway from Savannah to the island. Including one you should not miss.

Preparing to fire the cannon at Fort Jackson.

Leaving Savannah via East President Street/Islands Expressway, turn left on Woodcock Street and follow it to Ft. Jackson Road and Old Fort Jackson, built in 1808 at a strategic location on the Savannah River as part of President Thomas Jefferson’s coastal defense system. After the fall of Fort Pulaski in 1862, Fort Jackson became the headquarters for all the river defenses protecting Savannah during the Civil War. It fell to Federal forces in 1864, as General Sherman culminated his March to the Sea by taking Savannah. 

The U.S. War Department abandoned the fort in 1905 and it is now operated by the Coastal Heritage Society as a museum dedicated to education and military history. Open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., a demonstration of muzzle-loading cannon firing is given at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily. There are also interactive programs for kids, adults, and families. 

Moat and wall at Fort Pulaski.

 From Fort Jackson, go back to Islands Expressway and go left (east) for ten miles to Fort Pulaski National Monument on the left.

Completed in 1847, its seven and a half–foot solid brick walls, backed up by concrete piers and earthworks, were considered impregnable. At the onset of the Civil War, it was seized by the State of Georgia, which then transferred the fort to the Confederacy. In November, 1861, Federal forces established a beachhead at Hilton Head Island, causing Confederate forces to abandon nearby Tybee Island. 

Inside the walls of Fort Pulaski.

The Federals brought in something new: rifled cannon capable of far greater range and power than anything previously known, and in April, 1862, set up batteries on the northwest shore of Tybee and swiftly proceeded to breach the “impregnable” walls of Fort Pulaski. The Confederate commander surrendered in just 30 hours. It was a turning point; the beginning of a new era in warfare.

From Fort Pulaski, continue east on Islands Expressway for about two miles, crossing Lazaretto Creek as you go, and turn right on Catalina Drive, then immediately left on Estill Hammock Road to the Crab Shack, a don't-miss destination!

 Lunch at the Crab Shack. Don't miss it!

Voted Savannah’s best seafood since 1998, the super-casual atmosphere at the Crab Shack might make you think you’ve stumbled upon a pirates’ hangout, but the food and service are worth walking the plank for. If you’ve never had their low-country shrimp boil, you are going to hate yourself for all the years you’ve wasted.

Also, don't miss the Tybee Island sunrise. It's worth getting up early for!

About the equipment: The photographs of the shrimp boats and sunrise were made with Olympus OM film cameras and (probably) Kodachrome 64 film, scanned with a Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner. For the other photos, I used an Olympus E-M5 digital camera with a Panasonic Lumix Vario-G 14-140mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2001-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    travel     Olympus E-M5 digital camera     Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm lens    digital photography    Olympus OM film camera     Tybee Island, Georgia    Kodachrome 64 film    Georgia coast     Tybee Island     lighthouses     film photography     U.S. Highway 80     Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 film scanner     The Crab Shack     Fort Jackson, Georgia     Fort Pulaski National Monument

The Backroads Traveler: Tybee Island, Georgia

Sunrise at Tybee Island.

I prefer Georgia's mountains to its flatter lands, but everyone likes to go to the beach sometimes. And when you go, Tybee Island is the place to go.

As every Georgian knows, you get to Tybee by taking U.S. Highway 80 from Savannah. U.S. 80 originally ran 2,538 miles from San Diego, California to the beach at Tybee Island, but  now its western end is Dallas, Texas. 

'Most everyone who thinks about Tybee thinks about the beach, of course, but the island includes a community of about3,000 more-or-less permanent residents. With all the tourists occupying the many hotels, motels, and rental condos, the population is probably double that at any given time. Needless to say, the town's main industry is tourism.

The Tybee Island Lighthouse is open for tours.

While you're on the island, be sure to see the Tybee Island Lighthouse and Fort Screven. 

Completed in 1867, the lighthouse is 154 feet in height and is the fourth on this site, going back to 1736. The first two were wooden and did not survive long. The third tower was built of brick in 1773. When the Confederates abandoned Tybee Island, they attempted to blow it up with a keg of gunpowder, but its brick shell, twelve feet thick at the base, survived and forms the first 60 feet of the present lighthouse. The beacon, still with its original lens, continues to guide maritime traffic at the mouth of the Savannah River. The lighthouse keeper's house was built in 1881. The lighthouse is open for sunset tours on a limited basis, including climbing all 178 steps to the top. 

Fort Screven was finished in 1905, but decommissioned in 1947.

Fort Screven, the fortification adjacent to the lighthouse, was mandated by the state of Georgia in 1786, but construction did not actually begin until 1897, after the federal government took over the site. Completed in 1905, it was used as a coastal defense artillery fort and an infantry post and was decommissioned in 1947. Today, Battery Garland, one of six remaining batteries at Fort Screven, houses the Tybee Museum which, along with the Tybee Island Light Station, is operated by the non-profit Tybee Island Historical Society.
Also at Fort Screven is Officer’s Row, a group of houses with sweeping ocean views that were built as officer’s residences around 1900.The fort district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

 Drift fences help prevent erosion of the beach.

Other things to see on Tybee include the Tybee Island pier, which juts out into the Atlantic just off US 80 at Tybrisa Street. It’s a place for fishing, walking, and people-watching, and the pavilion at the end is available to rent for social functions. Also, while you’re near the pier, visit the Marine Science Center, located off the 14th Sreet parking lot. Their mission is “to cultivate a responsible stewardship of coastal Georgia’s natural resources through education, conservation, and research.” They offer walks, talks, and treks, maintain a gallery of exhibits of coastal Georgia flora, fauna, and habitats, and operate week-long sea camp ocean adventures for kids 6–11 each summer. They’re open Thursday to Sunday.

The dunes behind the beach at Tybee Island.

More about Tybee Island coming soon.  

About the equipment: A bit of guesswork here, because I've been to Tybe numerous times and and am not sure exactly when some of the pictures were made. The photos of the anchor, the drift fences, and the sand dunes were made with Olympus OM film cameras (best guess), probably on Kodachrome 64 film, and scanned with a Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner. The lighthouse and Fort Screven were photographed with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera fitted with a Panasonic 14-140mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2001-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    travel     Olympus E-M5 digital camera     Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm lens    digital photography    Olympus OM film camera     Tybee Island, Georgia    Kodachrome 64 film    Georgia coast     Tybee Island     lighthouses     Fort Screven     U.S. Highway 80     Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 film scanner     beaches

Winter Light: An Island of Rocks and Trees

An island of rocks and trees in a large field.

 From 1984 until 2000, I had commercial photography studios in Chattanooga. The last and best one was at 730 Cherry Street, downtown, where I worked from 1993 to 2000.

By the late '90s the studio was just barely paying its own way. More and more of my work was done on location, and the income derived from in-studio photography was at best only covering the costs of operating the studio. A no-brainer. A sad one, because it was a great studio space and I loved working there, but a no-brainer nonetheless. It was time to move my business home and use my basement as a studio.

In preparation for the move, I began to reduce my equipment inventory. I sold my Cambo 4x5 view camera and my medium format Mamiya RB67 and their lenses and invested the money in a Fuji GX680, which I thought would be able to do the work of the other two. Although the format was smaller than 4x5, it was larger than the RB, and also used cheaper 120 roll film. It also had front-standard movements, which offered some perspective control, like the 4x5. 

The GX680 was very capable and I liked it, but it was a big, heavy beast of a camera! In 2003, again reading the handwriting on the wall, I sold it to buy my first digital camera.

Sometime in the winter of 2001, I was on my way home from Nashville, driving down one of the old U.S. highways (41 or 41A), when my eye was caught by a small island of trees in the middle of a large field. It was surrounded by a ring of very large rocks, which had apparently been dug out of the field in years past to make it usable for farming. I had the trusty GX680 with me, of course (I seldom go anywhere without a camera), so I pulled over and made a couple of exposures on Ilford Delta Pro 100 black and white film, which I processed in Kodak T-Max developer and scanned on my old but still good Epson Professional 4990 scanner.

First Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga.

 I also had some pictures of Chattanooga's First Presbyterian Church on that roll, part of a project I was working on at the time, so I'm including one of them to show how the front rise movement of the GX680 enabled me to keep all the vertical lines vertical without showing too much of the street in the foreground.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2001-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   film photography   black and white photography    Fuji GX680 camera     Ilford Delta Pro 100 film    Kodak T-Max developer     Epson Perfection 4990 scanner    First Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga

The Fuji X-T20: A Little Camera for Big Pictures

The Fujifilm X-T20 digital camera, looking snazzy in its black half-case.

I have a Fuji X-T3 camera, and like it a lot. It goes with me when I go out purposefully looking for photographs. But when I'm out and about, just carrying a camera in case I might see something I want to photograph, the camera that goes with me is the tiny, lightweight, yet fully capable, X-T20. 

Actually, the weight difference isn't all that great -- only a little over half a pound. But it feels like more than that. Bulk might have something to do with that. The X-T20 with the 16-50mm kit lens weighs only one pound, seven ounces, and makes a tiny package. In fact, it's so small that I had to add the half-case to improve the handling!

 The X-T3 with the Fujicron 16-80mm f4 lens weighs two pounds, four ounces and is noticeably larger than the X-T20. But still a small package, as digital cameras go.

Although in earlier years I was 6 feet, two inches tall, weighed about 240 pounds, and was quite strong, I've always had a thing about carrying more weight than necessary. In 1979 I dumped my heavy Nikkormats and Nikon F2 and switched to the small and lightweight Olympus OM system, which I used very happily for the next 13 years until aging eyes forced me to move to a system that offered autofocus. The X-T20 is very close to my Olympus OM2n in size and weight.

Butterfly and azalea in our back yard at the farm.

The X-T20 doesn't give anything away in terms of picture quality, either. Its 24-megapixel sensor is at what many experts call the "sweet spot" of sensor size -- neither too many pixels, nor too few. The photo above hangs as a 24x36-inch print above our fireplace and looks great. The X-T3 has a few more pixels, but not enough to make a noticeable difference.

  

 The Grand Canyon. Looking upriver from the north rim. Fuji X-T20.

I bought the X-T20 used from an online forum in 2018, and it was my principle camera on our trip west that year. I used it for the above picture of the Grand Canyon, which I had printed as a 32-inch-wide panel and gave to my sister-in-law. 

I've thought about selling the X-T3 and getting another X-T20, or perhaps the slighter newer X-T30, but I'll keep the 3 for now because it balances better with my heavier lenses such as the XF 16-80  and the XF 55-200.  

(All my opinions about gear, by the way, are subject to change and/or revision!)

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2011-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   digital photography   Fujinon XC 16-50 lens    Fuji X-T20 camera     Fujicron XF16-80 lens    Fuji X-T3 camera     Fujinon XF 55-200 lens    Grand Canyon  

Great Dogs: Part II

Harley and Schnoodles quickly adapted to life in the country.

 When we moved from Miami to Chattanooga in 1970, we bought a small house in East Brainerd and soon were adopted by a small, black, Labrador type dog that we named Joe II. He had apparently suffered some abuse and didn't fully trust adults. He bonded with Don (we called him Donny in those days, before he became a successful businessman), who loved him and grieved when he was killed by some neighborhood dogs several years later.

David and Hot Dog.

 Around 1974, someone gave us one of our all-time favorite dogs. He was a feisty, little Toy Manchester mix, and one of the two most intelligent dogs we've ever owned. We named him Hot Dog. Unfortunately, he was with us less than a year before a car hit him in the street in front of our house. He is gone, but never forgotten, and we still laugh about some of his antics.

Harley and Schnoodles.

 In 1976, a friend gave us a schnoodle (half poodle/half schnauzer) puppy. She looked like a purebred poodle. We named her Schnoodles. She was our other smartest dog. When she was grown we mated her to a full schnauzer and she had a litter of four, of which two looked like purebred poodles, and two looked like purebred schnauzers. 

Louise and baby Harley.

We found good homes for three of them and kept one, which we named Harley. Harley was a great singer. Just say, "Sing Harley" and he would throw his head back and sing "Awoo, awoo, awoo." 

Schoodles and Harley were great companions for each other, and for us. They came with us when we moved to the farm in 1987 and soon adapted to life as country dogs.

To be continued. 

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2011-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   family history   dogs

A Lifetime of Great Dogs

 

Rusty and Honey. Our last two big dogs.

For nearly 60 years it has been our privilege to have been owned by a succession of great dogs. Pooch was the first.

I wish I had a picture of Pooch, but I wasn't a photographer in those days. I had a little Kodak box camera, but didn't take many pictures. But think "beagle," and you'll know what Pooch looked like.

The year was 1965 and Louise and I were newlyweds, living in a small house in Tallahassee. She was a Music Ed. student at FSU, and, since there weren't many openings for teachers in Leon County (too many FSU grad students' wives) I was working my alternate career as a barber, which required me to work some evenings. Louise welcomed Pooch into our lives as her companion for those lonely evenings. She was broken-hearted a few months later when a car hit Pooch as he was running to her across the road behind our house.

Everyone who is owned by a pet must come to terms with the fact that you are most likely going to outlive the pet. Are the joys of having pets worth the grief that will inevitably come? For us, the joys of having our dogs have far outweighed the times of sorrow at their passing.

Pregnant Louise and Joe in our yard in Miami. Yes, that's a 1950 Packard.

A few weeks after Pooch's passing, our next-door neighbor gave us a purebred black Labrador puppy that we named Joe. He was to be our BFF and companion for the next several years and was the only purebred dog who has ever owned us. I have better pictures of him, but they're in a box somewhere in the garage -- a major project to dig out, but one of these days I'll dig them out and scan them.

After Louise's graduation from FSU, we moved to Miami, her home town, where we both took teaching jobs.

(About the Packard: Our first home was in southwest Miami, off Bird Road. I taught in an elementary school in northeast Miami -- about a 20-mile drive up the Palmetto Expressway [we called it the Bypass in those days]. I rode my Honda 305 SuperHawk motorcycle every day, until one day I had a small accident. I wasn't hurt, but after that I bought an old Packard from a friend for $50. It used a lot of oil, but ran great, and was like driving an armored tank up the Bypass.)  

In 1968 our son Don was born and we were involved in the founding of Florida Christian School. (Which continues to flourish to this day.) We both became teachers there, and moved into a duplex on the school property. I had been keeping Joe on a chain, but because the school property was extensive, I thought it would be safe to let him run loose. I was wrong. He was hit and killed by a car in front of our house. I cried like a baby. He was a great dog, and we have never forgotten him.

(To be continued.)

Blog Note: I just watched President Trump's inauguration. I have lived a long life, and I thank God that I have lived to see this day.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2011-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   family history   dogs

The Lonliness of the Long Distance Blogger

 

In 1959 Alan Sillitoe published a short story titled "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner." In 1962, it was made into a film of the same name. I never read the story or saw the film, so I don't know what it's about. But the title has always intrigued me. It seems to me to suggest persistence in a solitary endeavor.

I began this blog in 2011 while on vacation, wrote six consecutive posts, then abandoned it for eight years. In December, 2019, I came back because I thought I had some worthwhile things to say about photography and about life. I've managed to post three times a week, most weeks since then. I've repeated a few posts, but mostly it has been new material. I'm now up to almost 700 posts, and I will have to say it has been a solitary endeavor. Google stats tell me that at least some people are reading this blog, but I average only about one comment for every two posts. That's lonely.

I began my photography career in the heyday of photography magazines. In fact, it's safe to say that if it hadn't been for the magazines I would not have become a professional photographer. But one thing I learned after reading the magazines for a number of years was that photo magazines recycled their content about every five years. The writers may have been different and their approaches may have been different, but the same ideas were repeated in different forms.

I've now been doing this blog for a little more than five years.  I don't want to recycle content, but every week brings a lot of head-scratching and soul-searching as I look for new things to write about.

If I had my druthers, every post I write would be about photography. But I'm running out of things to write without recycling content. So I'll be writing more posts about travel, mills, bridges, small towns, and life in general and my own life in particular.

So, please, if something I write resonates with you, send me a comment. It's fine if you comment as "anonymous," but if you do, please sign your name so I'll know who you are.

The photo above was made on assignment some years ago for a now-defunct magazine to go with an article about a marathon runner. The camera was a Canon EOS A2 and the film was Fujichrome 100.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2011-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   film photography   Canon EOS A2 camera     blogging    Alan Sillitoe    Fujichrome 100 film

Dahlonega, Part II

A variety of shops make the town square an interesting place to spend an afternoon.

Dahlonega has been named as Georgia's best small town for 2023, according to an article in Southern Living magazine.

In many ways, Dahlonega is the gateway to the north Georgia mountains, located as it is at the northern terminus of Georgia Highway 400. a direct, four-lane, 65-mile pipeline to Atlanta. Close enough that there actually some people who live in Dahlonega and commute.

Whether you enjoy rummaging through the many shops that surround the town square, hiking, biking, or driving the nearby mountains, or sampling the wares at the many vineyards that surround the town, Dahlonega is a great place to visit. It has some excellent restaurants, too. I can especially recommend the Smith House on South Chestatee Street, which features home cooking, served family style.

Pryce Memorial Hall on the University of North Georgia campus.

Dahlonega is also home to the University of North Georgia and Georgia Military College. The school was founded in 1873, and the military college is one of only six senior military colleges in the United States. The university offers over a hundred courses of study. Pryce Memorial Hall, the administration building, was built in 1879 on the foundation of the 1838 U.S. Mint. Its steeple is covered in gold leaf.

In 2000, after 30 years as a registered nurse, Louise enrolled in the Master of Science nursing program at the university to become a Nurse Practitioner. For two years, she and another nurse from Summerville made the 112-mile trip to Dahlonega several days a week, leaving about 5:30 a.m. to arrive in time for 8 a.m. classes. Through all of this, she also worked full or part-time nursing jobs. I don't know how she did it, but she is determined. And tough. She only looks delicate and fragile.

Piggin' out at Dahlonega's Gold Rush Days Festival.

 The Gold Rush Days Festival, held the third weekend in October, draws as many as 200,000 people to Dahlonega to enjoy the fall colors at their peak, learn about the history of the gold rush, and check out the more than three hundred arts and crafts and food vendors that line the Public Square and Historic District. Especially, for some, the food vendors.

The photos: The shops on the square were photographed with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera fitted with the Panasonic 14-140mm lens.Pryce Hall was photographed with a Canon EOS A2 and Fujichrome 100 film, and the corn-on-the-cob connoisseur with a Leica M3 and 50mm Leitz Summicron lens, also loaded with Fujichrome 100.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2011-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   digital photography   Georgia     Canon EOS A2 camera     Leitz Summicron lens      Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm lens     Olympus E-M5 camera     Dahlonega     Leica M3 camera     gold     gold rush     film photography     Dahlonega Gold Rush Days     University of North Georgia

Dahlonega: "Thar's gold in them thar hills!"

The 1836 Lumpkin County Courthouse is now the Dahlonega Gold Museum.

To me, the northeast Georgia town with the unusual name of Dahlonega has always been one of the state's most interesting small cities. (The name, by the way, means "yellow earth" -- the Cherokee word for gold.) It is forever tied to the discovery of gold in the north Georgia mountains and America's first gold rush. 

In 1828, gold was discovered in nearby Auraria (the name means "city of gold"). By 1829, more than a thousand miners had flooded into the area. Auraria was the county seat from 1828 to 1832, and boasted 20 saloons, five hotels, and a newspaper. 

The general store in Auraria was built as a tavern in 1830.

The county seat was moved to Dahlonega in 1832, and now nothing is left of Auraria except one of the taverns, which stayed in business as a general store into the 1980s. It is still standing, but not in good condition. Some person or organization needs to step up and do an intervention or this historically significant building will be lost.

The Georgia gold rush ended in 1849, when gold was discovered in California and the miners left en masse, even though the Dahlonega Mint assayer Dr. M.F. Stephenson stood on the courthouse steps and tried to persuade miners to stay in Dahlonega by telling them, "There's millions in it," usually misquoted as "Thar's gold in them thar hills!" He was no doubt correct, as the "Mother Lode" has never been found.

Robbie and Jennifer panning for gold at Crisson's Gold Mine.

Did you know you can still prospect for gold in the area? My wife and I spent an enjoyable afternoon with two of our grandchildren panning for gold at Crisson's Gold Mine, which has been in business since 1847. We did in fact, find some gold, some of which my wife incorporated into her wedding band when she had it recast. At Consolidated Gold Mines, you can not only pan for gold, but also take a tour of the largest underground gold mine east of the Mississippi.

 The photos: The old courthouse/gold museum was photographed with a Canon EOS 5D Classic with the Canon EF 17-35L lens. For the old store in Auraria I used an Olympus E-M5 with the Panasonic 14-140mm lens, and for the photo of my grandchildren panning gold I used a Canon EOS A2 film camera.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2011-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   digital photography   Georgia     Canon EOS A2 camera     Canon EF 17-35L lens      Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm lens     Olympus E-M5 camera     Dahlonega     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera     gold     gold rush     film photography     Dahlonega Gold Museum

Two Unusual Tennessee Mills

Sergeant York's Mill. U.S. Highway 127, Pall Mall, Tennessee.

 Sergeant Alvin York was the greatest hero of World War One, wiping out a German machine gun nest and capturing 132 enemy soldiers with a small band of men. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his exploits and had many opportunities to profit from his celebrity. 

But he chose to live a simple life. After the war, he returned to his home at Pall Mall, Tennessee, a community about 45 miles north of Crossville on U.S. Highway 127. In 1919, the Nashville Rotary Club began raising money, and in 1922, bought a 400-acre farm and built a two-story house for York and his wife. In 1925, York opened a general store across the road from his home, and in 1943, he bought the mill on the Wolf River just downstream from his house and operated it until his death in 1964.

After his passing, York's widow sold the mill and farm to the state of Tennessee, which eventually made it the Sgt. Alvin C. York State Historic Park.

The mill was built in 1880, and, thanks to excellent maintenance by the Tennessee state parks department, is a pristine example of a turbine mill of its era. It's well worth a visit if you're at all interested in old mills.

The Ebenezer Mill. Ebenezer Road, Knoxville, TN. 

The Ebenezer Mill is one of two mills that are actually within the Knoxville city limits. Fronting on Ebenezer Road, the mill is only about a mile from my home. The other one is on private property and I haven't yet been able to photograph it.

The Ebenezer Mill was built around 1870 on the site of an earlier mill called the Heiskell Mill, which dated from around 1835. The millstones were powered by a turbine, rather than a wheel, and originally ground corn and wheat. The mill was later modified to serve as a saw mill. Water power came from Sinking Creek, now known as Ten-Mile Creek. The mill dam washed out around 1930, signalling the end of the mill's useful life. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

The equipment: The Sergeant York Mill was photographed with a Canon EOS 20D digital camera and a Canon USM  24-85mm EF lens. For the Ebenezer Mill, I used a Fuji X-T3 with the Fujicron XF 16-80mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2011-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   digital photography    Canon EOS 20D cameras   Canon USM 24-85mm lens    Fuji X-T3 camera     Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens     old mills     Sergeant York Mill      Ebenezer Mill     Knoxville     Tennessee     U.S. Highway 127

Taking a little break. . .

Sunrise over Chickamauga Creek. McLemore Cove, Walker County, Georgia.

Taking a few days break. I'll be back soon. Wishing you a happy new year. Louise and I had a lovely time with our sons and their families here in Knoxville and in Atlanta over the holidays.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2011-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography   Olympus OM film camera     film photography    McLemore Cove    Walker County    Georgia