Appalachian Artisans

Appalachian Artisans

Opening photo courtesy of Foxfire Museum | Photos by Mark Albertin Desperation begets inspiration. It happened in the southern Appalachians in the 1800s. And it happened in a Rabun County classroom in North Georgia in 1966. The meeting of the two created the...
Unpaved Paradise

Unpaved Paradise

They put up a parking lot, but they didn’t pave paradise. Mark and I discovered this after we parked in the empty lot at Radium Springs, outside of Albany, Ga., and not expecting much, walked towards the stairway at its edge. Descending the steps, we entered an Edenic...

The First and The Best

After William Tecumseh Sherman finished his March to the Sea with the capture of Savannah in 1864, he paid a visit to Nellie Gordon, an old friend he knew in Chicago before she got married and moved south. It must have been awkward since Nellie’s husband was off...
Nearly God’s Country

Nearly God’s Country

Most Augustans use Wrightsboro Road to go to the mall or Walmart, or maybe downtown to the hospital or west to Grovetown. Commuters typically take Wrightsboro Road in tiny pieces, little segments, without knowing the former history of the main thoroughfare. The...
An Extraordinary Life

An Extraordinary Life

When the Civil War ended and freedom came to the enslaved population of the South, it was as if prisoners on starvation rations suddenly found an abundant feast. But it wasn’t a feast served on plates. It was served in books. They were starving to read, to write and...