1 GEORGIA PUBLIC BROADCASTING MORE GEORGIA BACKROADS CAPTIONING SCRIPT CONTACT: CAROL FISK 404-685-2456 [email protected] Narration: There’s no better place in the whole world than right here, traveling a backroad in Georgia. Backroads can take me anywhere my heart desires. Through beautiful landscapes – to the hearths of small town friends – even into the past. Stand-Up: My name is Larry Jon Wilson and I was born and raised on a back road just like this one. My music takes me all over the world but places like this always call me home to Georgia. TITLE SONG: I’ve seen the road to ruin, the road to fame, The high road and the low road and the road to shame And the road that leads me home again, That’s why I made this song. The Georgia backroads I’ve called home so long. TITLE UNDERWRITER Narration: More Georgia Backroads was made possible by a generous grant from the Ray M and Mary Elizabeth Lee Foundation, and by Viewers Like You. Thank You! Narration: We’ll start our backroads adventure in the farmlands of southwest Georgia. Generations of farmers have worked these fields, their lives tuned to the seasons and the weather. But more than cotton, peanuts and pines spring from this soil. Here the backroad traveler can find elegant courthouses - quaint small towns - scenic rivers -and lots of surprises – some of them centuries old. Matt Bruner The temple mound is the oldest temple mound in the state of Georgia. It is three stories high. It took over two million basket loads of dirt to make. The American Indians that lived here used weaved baskets. They toted them several miles and it’s believed it took several years for them to build it. 2 Narration: This is Kolomoki Mounds State Park, near Blakely. Native Americans lived here from 250 AD for about 700 years. Matt Bruner #27 [04;11;07;00] There isn’t another site in Georgia that the dates date this far back. Also there isn’t a village area this size anywhere else. This is around 400 acres, 2000 people, seven mounds and it’s very significant to the archaeologists that we preserve this site so we can learn more and more for the future generations. Narration: The temple mound towers over the site. From here Kolomoki’s priest chiefs could survey their domain: the plaza, which was probably used for religious ceremonies - the village, now being excavated from the woods – the four ceremonial mounds - and the burial mounds. Matt Bruner They’re unique because of the remains inside of them. They have the chief priest buried in them but there was also a lot of sacrificial burials that went on here. The chief took his male servants with him, he took his wives with him, he took the pottery with him that are in shapes of animals, like ducks, bobcats, turkeys, all of the animals that we have here in Southwest Georgia and that the American Indians had at this time. Narration: The most important piece of pottery is a rare human effigy. It was among the artworks stolen in 1974 when thieves broke into the museum. Professional collectors returned most of the pottery from flea markets and artifact sales. Now the treasures help to tell the story of a long-gone culture in the land of the white oaks, Kolomoki. Narration: This part of Georgia was the last to be ceded by the American Indians. The fertile farmland soon attracted white settlers, and cotton was planted where the American Indians had grown their corn, beans and squash. Many towns were founded and flourished during the era of King Cotton. Among them was Cuthbert, which was named the Randolph County seat in 1831. It quickly became a center for business and for education. Among the new schools was Andrew College, which was started by the Methodists in 1854 as a four-year college for women. 3 Karan Pittman In the 1860’s, it started a physical culture program and the physical culture program is of course physical education and we were the first college in the United States to offer physical culture to the young women. Narration: By the early 20th Century, Cuthbert was home to an elegant courthouse and many fine homes. Georgia’s first pecan tree is said to have grown in the garden of the McDonald house. The town was thriving and so were the businesses on the square. Brooke Hixon The building has always been a hardware store but it was also a doctor’s office upstairs, and also the funeral home. So they took you from the cradle to the grave. Narration: Randolph County has been home to a number of famous people, including heavyweight champion, Larry Holmes and NFL star Rosie Grier. But one of its best-known native sons was bandleader Fletcher Henderson, who was born in Cuthbert in 1897. Mary Kearney His family was a very strict family, careful about the way they walked, talked and they were always supposed to be at their best. And his father was a principal here. His mother was also one of our teachers and she was the music person, so she taught all of her children, all three of her children to play the piano. His father became like a father for a lot of the people in the community. They would sweep their yards, tidy up their fronts and everything for him. So it was a lot of respect. Narration: Fletcher Henderson earned a science degree at Atlanta University then moved to New York for graduate work. Instead he launched a musical career by playing piano on a Hudson River Boat. Henderson’s musical arrangements laid the foundation for the Swing Era and his own bands were among the most successful black jazz bands of the 1920s. Narration: As a bandleader, he helped the careers of saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and an up and coming trumpet player named Louis Armstrong. He later arranged music for Benny Goodman and influenced a host of other musicians, as the unofficial King of Swing. Mary Kearney So the people that played with him or socialized with him or mingled with him, those are the ones that really kept his legacy going. 4 Narration: Henderson died in 1952 and lies beside his family in Cuthbert’s Greenwood Cemetery. Narration: Leave Cuthbert in any direction and you’ll see pine trees. Tree farming is big business around here. For most Georgia farmers, working on the land is much more than just a job. For some it’s even a family tradition that goes back several generations. Wynfred Morgan James My great grandfather Nathan Morgan purchased our farm in 1886 from Mr. Alexander Windsor and it has remained in our family ever since then. First great grandfather Nathan, then grandfather Milton, and my father, Carranza Morgan, have all owned this farm. Narration: The Morgan farm is one of just a few black-owned farms in the state’s Centennial Farm program. Back in 1890, Nathan’s sons hauled lumber from a sawmill seven miles away to build the house that is home today to Nathan’s great grandson, Tony. Several of the original outbuildings have also survived, along with a host of discarded farm equipment that tells its own story of working the land. Wynfred Morgan James It’s just amazing that they haven’t been destroyed or anything. Each time something is no longer in use it was just taken to a certain place to remain there. Narration: George King can remember a time before any of the tractors when he worked for Wynfred’s grandfather, Milton. George King He would feed me right here in that kitchen, I ate dinner here every day and he paid me a dollar and a quarter a day ploughing them mules from sun up to sun down. Narration: Over the years, the Morgan Farm has been a source of pride for the family and community, and a favorite gathering place, especially during the time of Carranza and Mazie Morgan. You could take them biscuits and sop them. Carolyn Thompson And I can just see the long table and long benches. That’s where we all sat, you know. The boys would wait for the ladies to be seated. She demanded that and they’re just very, very pleasant memories. 5 Wynfred Morgan James It’s a special feeling when I return here. There are special plants that my mother put here and there are special trees and things that still remain here, that were put here years ago. So it has a really, real special feeling for me. Carolyn Thompson Many years ago, down this road farther it was all a completely black community. They moved away. Their families let the property go. But at least the Morgan heritage is being carried on. Narration: The Mother of Georgia’s Pecan Industry may be back there in Cuthbert, but her offspring shade many a backroad in this part of the state. Narration: Our next stop is the neat little town of Leslie, which has a big surprise in store for us. The town is served by the SAM Shortline rail service from Archery to Cordele. Narration: Often hundreds of people pour off the train here to visit The Georgia Rural Telephone Museum, housed in an old cotton warehouse. Tommy Smith, the longtime owner of Citizens Telephone Company, started the collection back in 1951 when crank telephones became obsolete. Tommy C. Smith And the old phones, a lot of the companies were taking and piling them up and burning them.