Historic Sites

Walterboro’s Tuskegee Airmen

May 25, 2015 By Sandra Friend Leave a Comment

The Tuskegee Airmen Memorial at Walterboro (John Keatley)

Driving the rural byways of South Carolina, we watched families gathering around their backyard barbecues and saw lonely cemeteries under live oaks that had watched the centuries slip past. Coming into Waltersboro, we both called it out when we saw the sign.

“The Tuskegee Airmen!”

Known for their valor in the skies over Europe during World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen were called the “black bird men” by the Germans. I’d always associated Tuskegee with Alabama in my mind. This memorial at the county airport in Walterboro corrected those thoughts.

Tuskegee Airmen memorial — A walk through the memorial provides a detailed history through interpretive signage

While Tuskegee, Alabama was the birthplace of the program that enabled African-American soldiers to train as military pilots for the first time in American history, it was not the only training ground.

More than five hundred pilots in the program came to Walterboro Army Air Field from Tuskegee Army Air Field to train for duty in World War II. They already knew how to fly. They were here to learn advanced aerial combat training.

This was 1944 in the segregated South. Despite their skills as pilots, they were not allowed to mingle with white enlisted men. Instead, their new quarters consisted of “old ramshackle one-story barracks that looked to be vintage 1914.”

In the “Jim Crow” South, separate quarters, and a separate USO and dining hall, were the rule of the day. White officers refused to associate with the black officers and moved their officers club off-base to an all-white country club, despite federal orders against segregation in the military.

Despite these conditions, these pilots were at the top of their game, flying maneuvers against Marine pilots from nearby Parris Island. They trained on the P-39 Airacobra, P-47 Thunderbolt, and the P-40 Kittyhawk. After 60 hours of combat practice, each class of pilots shipped out to Europe. Class 44-F joined the 332nd Fighter Group in Italy.

Tuskegee Airmen beacon — One of the airfield’s original beacons

In addition to being a training ground for pilots, the airfield served as a POW camp for German prisoners of war and as a training ground for camoflauge warfare.

Thanks to the Hiram E. Mann Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, this memorial will educate others who take the time to stop, learn, and especially today, reflect on the sacrifices these pilots made for all Americans in the face of such ostracism in their own land.

Learn more about the Tuskegee Airmen

Seeing Yorktown by Segway

May 16, 2015 By John Keatley 1 Comment

Segway in Yorktown — Travel by Segway: a new experience for me!

I started riding things on two wheels over fifty years ago: from an old red scooter to my first 20-inch wheeled bike. At age 11, I began riding my first motorized two-wheeler. With only 65cc, I couldn’t really leave the neighborhood. Next came bigger bikes with lots more “speeds,” then motorized versions with 750 and 1100cc. After all these years of riding on two wheels, I would now tackle a most unique and odd two-wheeled vehicle: a Segway. It has no throttle or brakes, at least none as I know them.

The idea was to tour historic Yorktown, Virginia on a Segway. After watching a safety video and adjusting my helmet, I was ready to climb on board. The folks at Patriot Tours did a wonderful job of teaching me the ropes, the proper way to move about on this self balancing two-wheeler.

Yorktown historic district by Segway — Riding Segways through the historic district

How hard could it be? Step on the platform and stand still and perfectly straight. I stepped on, and could feel myself rolling forward a couple of inches, and then back a couple of inches. I was rocking from my toes to my heels, and with each roll the Segway responded.

With a slight lean forward, my rocking stopped, and I very slowly began to move forward. To stop, all I needed to do was stand up straight.

Wow, it was easier than riding a bike? Turning required only a slight leaning of the handlebar. Standing straight and leaning the handlebar allowed you to turn around with no forward or backward movement.

Before leaving the shop, we each needed to demonstrate that we could move forward and backward, stop, and turn in place.

With our brief, but thorough, instructions we were off. We headed down the brick sidewalk and around the Watermans’ museum to the pathway along the York River. Our skills improved quickly as we rolled along. From the waterfront, we crossed the road under the watchful eye of our guide.

Interpretive Segway tour — Stopping for interpretation along the route

Heading up a steep hill we entered the Historic District, a car-free zone. Our guide told us about the buildings and people who once lived in them. Looking closely at the old brick buildings, you could see damage from cannon balls fired during the Battle of Yorktown. Our guide pointed to a building that still had two cannon balls embedded in the exterior. The one between the second story windows, has been there since the battle in 1781. The lower one is a replacement for the original that was stolen in the ’40s.

Our next stop was the first memorial to the Revolutionary War on U.S. soil, the Yorktown Victory Monument. Dedicated in 1881 for the centennial of the victory, the memorial is 95 feet tall. It is topped with the figure of Liberty. Thirty-nine stars represent the 39 states of the Union, and 13 female figures represent the original 13 states.

Heading back down the hill and to the waterfront, we watched a schooner sailing on the York River as we returned to the shop we started from.

With one experienced and three first-time Segway riders, we safely and easily toured historic Yorktown.

Segway tour in Yorktown — John and his companions finishing up their ride (Sandra Friend)

The Rockefeller’s Gift

May 13, 2015 By Sandra Friend Leave a Comment

Restored home and garden in Colonial Williamsburg

John D. Rockefeller Jr. was born into riches beyond compare in American society as heir to his father’s fortune from founding Standard Oil. But John had a sense of obligation to society, deeply rooted in his strict Baptist upbringing. Why create such great wealth if not to be a steward to others? His wife, Abby Aldrich, a Mayflower descendent, felt similarly. The wedding gift she received from John, a tidy sum in a check, went to the YWCA towards a new building.

Garden near Bruton Parish Church (John Keatley)

Visiting Williamsburg to see how construction of the new Phi Beta Kappa hall was progressing at the College of William & Mary, John and Abby were shown the town. Unlike the Williamsburg we know and love today, it was a patchwork of homes and farms, decrepit buildings, commercial establishments and gas stations. Electric wires ran down Duke of Gloucester Street. It was the typical American town of its time, it’s architectural history threatened by new development, its oldest commercial buildings crumbling away.

The Reverend Goodwin from the Bruton Parish Church on Duke of Gloucester Street proposed a novel idea to Rockefeller as they later walked beneath the shade of an ancient oak at Bassett Hall. Why not create a showplace of the American spirit by turning back the clock to show the world what Williamsburg once was?

After some deliberation, Rockefeller agreed. But his gifts were anonymous. They would total over $65 million over his lifetime. At the height of the Great Depression, no one was without work in Williamsburg as one by one, homes and businesses were returned to their former glory.

Parlor inside Bassett Hall (John Keatley)

Among them was Bassett Hall, from 1753. The Rockefellers purchased the property and it became their favorite getaway. Compared to their other houses along the East Coast, it was understated and unpretentious. Abby filled the house with her favorite things, brought together here from their other residences. Folk art lent it a simple feel.

The casual atmosphere, where neighbors would drop in for a cup of coffee and a chat, was unlike anywhere else they spent their time. “We can walk the streets without a bodyguard,” Abby marveled.

I’d been to Colonial Williamsburg as a child, and walking the streets again this morning gave me a new appreciation for this cultural treasure. Learning, through the the interpretive tour at Bassett Hall, that today’s Colonial Williamsburg exists thanks to the generosity of the Rockefellers, added an unexpected twist, a part of the story I never knew.

Are today’s billionaires performing similar cultural and environmental rescues throughout the world? Although I worry that they don’t, I’d like to think that they do.

Visit Bassett Hall

Bassett Hall is located near the Capitol in Williamsburg at 522 East Francis Street. Purchase a Colonial Williamsburg pass in advance of your arrival to visit, as they do not sell passes or tickets here.

Open Wed, Thu, Sat from 9-5.

Jamestown: History’s Mysteries

May 12, 2015 By Sandra Friend Leave a Comment

Quartz bead Jamestowne — Quartz bead found today at Jamestowne

A sparkling bead: a faceted quartz. Senior Staff Archaeologist Danny Schmidt held up the find of finds from today’s dig, screened out of the clay and sand of a basement in Jamestown Colony. Once abandoned, the basement became a garbage pit, a rich treasure trove for archaeologists today.

Danny should know. He came to Jamestown 21 years ago, in time for the most amazing of discoveries: the fort was not beneath the river, as common knowledge had thought for centuries. It, and the colony, lay on dry ground on Jamestown Island. And so the digs began.

Inside the vault at APVA lay a series of “jigsaw puzzles” using real pieces from the past. Artifacts found in John Smith’s well were laid across one table.

China from China Jamestowne — China from China at Jamestowne

Archaelogical finds by country Jamestowne — Archaelogical finds by country

Curator Merry Outlaw explained some of what we were seeing. Colorful porcelain cups from Holland, including “drug cups” small enough for packaging medicinal herbs. Delft tiles. Real china from China. Jugs from Germany. And so much more.

German jug Jamestowne — A German jug used for drinking

“We put together the edges of the jigsaw puzzle first,” said Mark Summers, the Education Specialist who introduced us to the living, breathing making of history at Jamestowne, first walking us through the Archaearium – a museum with glass floors showing off the excavations of America’s first government building – before a visit to the APVA vault. “Then we keep looking for the pieces.”

A team of archaeologists, Danny among them, swat mayflies this time of year as they sift their way through the basement discovered when they were looking for an extension of the fort. They turn up new pieces of the puzzle daily, proving that truly, history isn’t written in stone. There is always a new mystery to uncover.

New France and the River of May

May 9, 2015 By Sandra Friend Leave a Comment

Standing waves at the mouth of the St Johns River

It was May 1562 when Jean Ribault directed his fleet to the mouth of a great river in the New World. Disembarking to scale a prominent bluff, he declared the land for France and the waterway “The River of May.” He directed his men to erect a monument to commemorate the occasion. There was only one problem: the Spanish had already “discovered” Florida.

Constructing a village and fortress along the river, the French started their colony. While the Spanish had enslaved the native Timucua, the French befriended them. Who better to teach them the ways of the land?

With France and Spain jostling for control of this new land, things ended badly for “New France.” Spanish troops crept up to the settlement and massacred most of the colonists. They did the same to shipwrecked French sailors off the St. Augustine coast. Only those professing the Catholic faith were spared.

Spanish Pond, on the route taken by Spanish invaders

Today, the River of May – the St. Johns – is greatly changed. Heavy industry forms a backdrop to the replicas of Fort Caroline and the Ribault Column, a national memorial to America’s first French colony and part of the National Park Service. Mayport Naval Station stands watch over the mouth of Florida’s largest river. A shrimping fleet sails to sea within sight of the dunes. On a sunny day like today, locals flock to the beaches that flank the river’s mouth.

It was not the outcome Ribault expected when he pledged to found a colony in the New World. But at least amid the hubbub along the great river’s shore, a memorial to those dreams remain.

To Spanish Shores

May 9, 2015 By Sandra Friend Leave a Comment

Today’s a cruise up the Florida coast, destination Jacksonville to treat another roomful at REI to our How to Hike the Florida Trail workshop.

Deland calls themselves the “Athens of Florida.” US 17 cruises through the heart of downtown, where traffic can reach Athenian proportions. It’s a vibrant small city, the highway flanked with cafes and shops just south of the deeply shaded grounds of Stetson University.

Following SR 11 north through Volusia to Flagler, it’s a landscape of cultivated forests and quiet hammocks, town names like Seville echoing the deeper anchor of this region to Spain. Today’s destination is a Spanish land grant, just as the lands we drove through. Ancient live oaks knit a dense canopy over gardens first cultivated in the late 1930s.

The cultivated beauty of Washington Oaks

Owen Young, the chairman of General Electric and Time’s “Man of the Year” in 1930, bought this plantation as a wedding gift for his bride. After his death, she passed the gift on to us. It opened as a Florida State Park in 1965, just in time to form childhood memories of the hammocks of Hammock for me.

My first walk under these majestic oaks is one of my earliest memories of natural Florida. For this was a favorite stop on our family road trips, a place to walk along the trails and marvel at mangroves, which we’d never seen farther north on this coast.

At Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, you feel the grandeur of what North Florida’s barrier islands once were all like. Salt breezes sculpt the oak limbs into windswept works of art. While the gardens are superb, the Bella Vista trail is a must for experiencing the natural habitats along the 1.6 mile loop.

The Bella Vista Trail Washington Oaks — The Bella Vista Trail

On the ocean side of the park, the bigger surprise emerges for those unfamiliar with this coast. It’s a ribbon of coquina, an outcropping of the Anastasia limestone at the shoreline.

Coquina Beach Washington Oaks — Coquina Beach

Wave-hewn tidal pools and fantastic shapes emerge from this beach of stone and orange sand. The stroke of a pen transferred this land between hands: from land grant to plantation to winter home, and finally to us, preserving Spanish shores for posterity.

Learn more about Washington Oaks Gardens State Park

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