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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE ALTAMAHA CONSERVATION MEMORIES OF A SOUTH ATLANTIC WATERSHED A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By DOYLE ROBERT LOUGHREN Norman, Oklahoma 2011 ALTAMAHA CONSERVATION MEMORIES OF A SOUTH ATLANTIC WATERSHED A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY BY ____________________________ Dr. Karl Offen, Chair ____________________________ Dr. Robert Rundstrom ____________________________ Dr. Bruce Hoagland ____________________________ Dr. Scott Greene ____________________________ Dr. Hunter Heyck © Copyright by DOYLE ROBERT LOUGHREN 2011 All Rights Reserved. For Anne, Bogy and Jinx TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .................................................................................................. viii Introduction ................................................................................................1 Memory and Conservation Landscapes ...............................................3 Memory, Text and Practice ..................................................................5 Contested Memories ..........................................................................11 Chapter Outline ..................................................................................11 1. The Physical Setting of the Altamaha Watershed .................................17 The Lowcountry .................................................................................19 Watershed ..........................................................................................20 Delta ...................................................................................................24 Savanna ..............................................................................................28 Floodplain ..........................................................................................29 2. Memory, Indigenous Toponyms and Conservation in the Georgia Backcountry .............................................................................................33 Mississippian Settlements ..................................................................34 Guale, Timucuan and Creek ..............................................................36 Muskoegan Creek Toponyms and Conservation ...............................37 Conclusion .........................................................................................40 3. Literary Memories, William Bartram and the Myth of the Altamaha River Wilderness ......................................................................................41 An Agrarian Utopia: The Wilderness Myth of the Eighteenth Century Southeast ..............................................................................41 British Colonization of the American Southeast ...............................42 Mapping and Colonizing the Georgia Wilderness .............................44 William Bartram‘s Altamaha Wilderness Scenes and Sites ..............50 Conclusion .........................................................................................60 4. Conservation and the Practices of Memory: African-American Landscapes in the Altamaha Delta ...........................................................62 The Slave Diaspora ............................................................................64 Rice Culture .......................................................................................66 Forgetting and Remembering the Role of Africans in Rice Agriculture .........................................................................................67 African-American Memories of the Ebo Drowning ..........................71 iv The Conservation of Memorial Sites and Contemporary Impacts on the African-American Landscape ....................................75 Conclusion .........................................................................................78 5. James Hamilton Couper, Charles Lyell, and the Literary Memories of the Tropical Altamaha Delta................................................................79 Tropical Imagery ................................................................................80 Charles Lyell‘s First Impression of the Altamaha .............................85 James Hamilton Couper and the Design of Hopeton .........................88 Charles Lyell‘s Tropical Delta ...........................................................91 Conclusion .........................................................................................95 6. Local Conservation and the Lived Memories of Herders and Swampers in the Altamaha Backcountry .................................................97 Herders ...............................................................................................97 Swampers .........................................................................................103 Remembering Davis Landing: An Auto-ethnography of Local Conservation ....................................................................................110 Conclusion .......................................................................................123 7. Remembering Charles Herty and the Conservation of Longleaf Pines .......................................................................................124 Charles Herty ...................................................................................125 Transforming the Pinelands .............................................................126 The Landscape Legacy of the Endangered Longleaf Pine Savanna ............................................................................................143 Longleaf Pines as Memorial Sites....................................................146 Conclusion .......................................................................................150 8. Roland Harper, Conservation, and the Scenic Memory of the Altamaha Grit Region ............................................................................152 Scenic Memories of the Altamaha Grit Region ...............................152 A View from the Railcar Window: Scenic Memories of Human Impacts ............................................................................158 Memorializing Landforms: Roland Harper‘s Geoconservation Values ..............................................................................................166 Conclusion .......................................................................................170 Conclusion .............................................................................................172 Bibliography ..........................................................................................175 v LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Map of the Altamaha River 17 1.2 Map of the Georgia Lowcountry 18 1.3 Salt marshes of the Altamaha Delta 26 1.4 Longleaf Pines in the Altamaha Uplands 29 1.5 Altamaha River Meander 31 2.1 Ocmulgee Mounds 35 3.1 Map of Margravate of Azilia 46 3.2 Painting of Oglethorpe, the Trustees and the Yamacraw 50 3.3 William Bartram 51 3.4 Title-page to Bartram‘s Travels 55 4.1 Slave auction poster 63 4.2 Map of the Slave Coast of West Africa 65 4.3 Remote Image of the Altamaha Delta‘s Relict Rice Canals 66 4.4 Map of St. Simon‘s Island 75 4.5 Remote Image of South Harrison Road on St. Simon‘s Island, 1988 76 4.6 Remote Image of south Harrison Road on St. Simon‘s Island, 2011 76 5.1 (Sub)tropical scene on the St. John‘s River 81 5.2 Field map of Hopeton Plantation, 1822 89 5.3 Section of a Hopeton Field Map, 1822 91 6.1 Frederic Remington‘s ―Cracker Cowboy‖ 101 6.2 Relict log raft on the Altamaha River 104 6.3 Scene of the Altamaha River with Workboat, 1903 106 6.4 Log Raft on the Ohoopee River, 1903 107 6.5 Graveyard on a sandhill near the Ohoopee River, 1915 109 6.6 Country Store at Davis Landing on the Altamaha River, ca. 1960 112 6.7 Country Store at Davis Landing During a River Flood, ca. 1980 112 6.8 Remote Image of Farmland in the Altamaha Uplands, 2011 113 6.9 Remote Image of the interior Altamaha Floodplain, 2011. 119 vi 7.1 Charles Herty 125 7.2 Map Showing the Range of Longleaf Pine in the Southeastern United States 127 7.3 Spanish Cork Tree 130 7.4 Pine Tree Used for Resin Production in Landes, France 131 7.5 Collecting resin in the Altamaha Uplands, ca. 1935 134 7.6 Historical Marker Denoting Herty‘s Influence Upon the Turpentine Industry 147 7.7 Longleaf Pines with Catface Scars 149 8.1 The Altamaha Grit Region, 1904 154 8.2 Altamaha Grit Outcrops in the Ohoopee River, 1904 155 8.3 Sandhill in the Altamaha Grit Region, 1904 157 8.4 Map by Roland Harper showing the natural landscapes of Georgia‘s Altamaha Grit region 157 8.5 Grit Outcrop Exposed by Railroad, 1903 163 8.6 Confederate Memorial on Stone Mountain, 2009 168 vii ABSTRACT The history of conservation is fraught with conflict between strategies employed by powerful actors (i.e., experts, governments and capitalists) and local actors (i.e., farmers, fishermen, herders, indigenes and other marginalized groups). Conservation memories of experts derived from the writings of literary, journalistic, and scientific publications can be compared to local memories drawn from ethnographic research, or in the case of this study, an auto-ethnography of the author‘s childhood to expose the perceptions and practices that influence the broader forces directing landscape change. Utilizing a landscape biography approach that weaves together the conservation memories of locals