If You Go
Scull Shoals Historic Site
A lot of history has taken place at this site along the Oconee River in the Oconee National Forest in Greene County. Taking advantage of the river’s water power, Georgia’s first paper mill operated here 1811-1815. Then came a series of grist mills, sawmills and other commercial ventures. In the mid-1800s, Scull Shoals was a thriving town, its economy based on a major textile mill. Today, Scull Shoals is a ghost town. All that remain are some of the walls and foundations of the old mill and the homes, stores, warehouses and other structures that surrounded it. The ruins can be seen from short trails starting at a parking lot.
Free and open to the public. Hours: Sunrise to sundown.
Directions: From I-20, Exit 130, travel north on Ga. 44 to downtown Greensboro. Take Ga. 15 north about 12 miles to the intersection of Macedonia Road. Turn right and go about two miles to Forest Service Road 1234 (also known as Scull Shoals Road). Turn left and travel approximately 1.8 miles to Scull Shoals Historic Site. (Approximately one-fourth mile after turning onto FS Road 1234 is the entrance to the Durham Herb Walk on the left; free and open to the public.)
More information: 706-485-7110; www.scullshoals.org.
Along the Oconee River, deep in what is now the Oconee National Forest in Greene County, the mill town known as Scull Shoals thrived in the mid-1800s. In the four-story textile mill, some 600 workers tended its 4,000 spindles.
By 1920, however, Scull Shoals was a ghost town. Disastrous floods, fires, labor problems and failure of owners to upgrade the mill had led to the town’s downfall. In 1949, it was absorbed into the national forest. Walls and foundations of the old town’s mill, stores, warehouses and homes can still be seen.
Scull Shoals, however, may be better known for its remarkable physician, Dr. Lindsey Durham, who relied heavily on herbal medicines from native plants to treat patients in the early to mid 1800s.
Durham’s botanical lore is what drew several of us Georgia Botanical Society members to Scull Shoals the other day. We wanted to see some of the same plants he had used in his 19th century herbal remedies.
Our visit included a stroll through the Durham Herb Walk, a 13-acre plot owned by the Friends of Scull Shoals. It harbors many of the dozens of plant species that Durham employed.
Durham, who lived directly across the river from Scull Shoals, attended medical School in Philadelphia. But he was heavily influenced by the herbal medicine skills of Cherokee Indians, who had taught their lore to European settlers.
Durham, who died in 1859, became one of Georgia’s leading physicians. People came from long distances to be treated by him and his staff at his sprawling hospital.
During our recent walk, our leader, Debbie Cosgrove, pointed out several native plants that Durham would have used. They included sparkleberry, used to calm nerves; sourwood, whose juices were a main ingredient in Durham’s “blood pills”; and pipsissewa, used to treat female ills.
Cosgrove paused at a loblolly pine tree. “This probably was the most common plant that Dr. Durham used,” she said. Its turpentine, for instance, was used to treat a wide range of maladies, from kidney and bladder ailments to sores and wounds.
IN THE SKY: The Draconid meteor shower, visible over the next several nights, reaches a peak of 20 meteors per hour Monday night, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer. Look to the north throughout the night.
The moon will be a thin crescent low in the west at dusk Saturday night. Mercury and Saturn are very low in the southwest at dusk. Mercury appears near the moon Monday evening; Saturn near it on Tuesday evening. The two planets appear close together Thursday night. Venus is in the west at dusk and sets two hours later. Mars rises in the east about three hours before dawn. Jupiter rises in the east around midnight.
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