25 May

Homeplace geography: a drive through Glascock County, GA

Posted by Rachel in Georgia |

The following lyrics are from a song called Old Home Place written by The Dillards, a 1960s bluegrass band:

What have they done to the old home place?
Why did they tear it down?
And why did I leave the plow in the field
And look for a job in the town?

An overgrown home place, a common sight in rural Georgia.

In Georgia, the decaying remains of the homeplace are a common sight from the state’s two lane country roads.  Their solemn presence has sparked the interest of laypeople and scholars alike.  Nearly everyone is curious about spooky ruins, afterall.  Each homeplace has a unique story since its beginning and end are tied to the idiosyncracies of a single (albeit usually extended) family.  Interestingly, the family histories seem to have a few things in common based on the general age, condition, siting, and contemporary use of the structure and the surrounding property.  First, a definition:

homeplace (plural homeplaces)

-noun

The part of a piece of land on which a home is built; a person’s birthplace or family home

-origin

1730–40, Americanism; “home” + “place”

In early April, friends I was visiting in Louisville took me on a Saturday morning drive through Glascock County.  Their aim was to show me some of the state’s finest examples of historic rural-residential decay.  Why you ask?  Well, first, the homeplace typology – as a way to explain a lot of things about the region, economy, climate, and patterns of social change – seemed a good fit for the travel fellowship project I am doing.  Second, it involved a country drive, a past time my friends Helen and Kathleen often enjoy on their own.  So we were off.

The county is small, with only 2771 residents and four small towns.

The typical homeplace ruin is wooden frame construction built around the turn of the century.  The facade might be embellished with Victorian detailing – cornice, eaves, shutters, etc.  Others are simple A-frames with a modest sitting porch.  Two positions in the landscape are most common:  One, as seen above, the structure is enveloped in layers of strangling vines, the roof line silhouette the only indication of order, sagging windows and buckling walls, open windows that welcome vegetation to pull the place apart from the inside.  Two, as seen below, the structure is more or less preserved and well-displayed.  Absent of tangling vegetation, they often have boarded up front doors and windows, though appear to receive some degree of upkeep (someone mows around the base of the structure every few weeks, yard furniture, etc.).

On the same family property, prefab dwellings contrast with a traditional homeplace in Glascock County, GA.

Inevitably, as time passes family structure changes.  Jobs change.  Technology begins to alter the landscape.  Even the weather patterns seem a little different.  It is of little surprise the old family homeplace is not immune to the passage of time.  The structure succumbs to weathering.  Soon, repairs overwhelm what remains of the family.  Like other rural areas, more and more young Glascockians have left the county for higher education or eastward to Augusta for salaried jobs.  The few that remain struggle to reconcile the future of their family assets.

Because it makes little sense to keep putting money into a crumbling relic, the family moves on as well.  They don’t move far, however.  A prefabricated home, within the purchasing power of the younger descendants, is delivered and set up a few hundred feet away from the old homeplace.

The original homeplace, now abandoned and perhaps boarded up, remains as important symbol in Georgia’s rural landscape.  It’s a vestige of a bygone era of building tradition as well as the vessel of family memories.  In many ways, it is as though every established clan in rural Georgia erected their own personal family history museum!  As you can imagine the nearby mobile home begs the question of permanence.  How much longer will the family remain here?  If the old homeplace lasted for 110+ years, how long will the mobile home be around?  20-25 years?  30 (at best)?  Do the remaining family members conceive the mobile home as an equal replacement to the structure built by their (great) grandparents?  When the day comes to abandon their newest home, will it be preserved and displayed like the old homeplace?  Left to the ravage of the vines?  Or simply carted away and replaced with another outright?

The old homeplace porch appears to remain in use, with an aging mobile unit in the background.

18 May

Graphic on Kentucky surface mining

Posted by Rachel in coal, Kentucky |

The Lexington Herald-Leader published an interesting article on the prevalence of surface and MTR mining in KY.

Graphic credit: The Lexington Herald-Leader

6 May

Time out

Posted by Rachel in friends |

Flying a few thousand miles west to spend Mother’s Day with my favorite lady.  There will be some post interruptions this week, but should resume once I return from the garden isle.

This week we are in Kauai...

4 May

A new profile at the Port of Savannah

Posted by Rachel in Georgia, savannah, shipping |

Bigger is better. (um, yeah.  next!)

Build it and they will come. (sounds risky…)

He who hesitates is a damned fool.  (sign me up)

These quotes capture the looming concerns of U.S. port facilities.  For years, shipping conglomerates have been phasing out smaller ships to invest in the largest vessels possible to realize greater economies of scale in shipping costs.  In an effort to retain market share, the Panama Canal authority decided to expand to accommodate these ships.  The anticipated completion of the Panama Canal improvements in 2014 will enable some of the largest ocean-going vessels to achieve shorter passage routes between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.  As a result, port facilities around the world are in a tizzy to stay competitive once the large ships are allowed to make the 48 mile journey through the newly expanded 180′ wide locks.

Vessel terminology is a critical issue in the discussion.  Currently, the 110′ wide Miraflores locks allow “Panamax” ships to pass through.  It’s a tight squeeze considering the ships are 106′ wide.  The class of vessels able to pass through the Panama Canal once improvements are made are termed “post Panamax” or “new Panamax” ships (between 134′-160′ wide, respectively, passing through a 180′ lock).  “Post” and “new” Panamax ships are eclipsed in size by a superior grade of ships, termed “super post Panamax.”  The super post Panamax vessels, at 176′ wide, will not be able to pass through the improved Panama canal.  They are limited to ocean-only routes between ports.

Ports around the world are upgrading to super post Panamax cranes to the tune of $5 million each.

Port facilities are hedging bets and expanding as big as state and federal budgets will allow.  Ports do not want to miss the proverbial train (er, container ship) and find themselves out of the cargo handling game.  The Port of Georgia’s Garden City Terminal (just north of Savannah) serves as a prime example of this sea change (ba-da-bing) in global shipping trends.

In the last several years, the Port of Georgia has purchased a number of cranes that can offload super post Panamax container ships.  The implication of replacing the current cranes with larger ones becomes obvious once you get out on the water. These cranes are ENORMOUS and have nearly twice the reach of a standard Panamax class crane.  Their ominous perch over the river suggests the Port expects to be ground zero for global shipping in years to come.  To fulfill the Port’s imminent destiny, the Savannah River must be dredged to maintain a 48′ depth along the channel thus increasing the likelihood of salt water intrusion inland.  The neighboring Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, home and breeding ground to aquatic and avian life, can be expected to suffer fallout from the increase in river congestion and associated pollution resulting from these and other Port enhancements.

I spent a sunny morning with a self-described Port advocate a few Saturdays ago.  For about an hour, the two of us cruised around on his for-hire motor boat looking at the newest improvements.  I asked him about his work and his outlook on the present and future Port.  With the current troubled economy, he believed most Savannahians are fully supportive of the Port’s expansion and improvements.  No surprise, really, considering the Port of Georgia is one of the biggest employers in Chatham County.  When I picked his mind about the ecological and recreational impacts on the river,  he admitted there would be consequences, but he reminded me of the ways the Port has attempted to be a ‘good neighbor’ to nature.  For example, the newest cranes will use less energy than the current ones, plants along the river have reduced their emissions, and technology advances have enabled the Port to regulate and better manage the flow of ships past the city.  I agreed in part – there is no way of getting past the fact that shipping is, and will be, a core element of Savannah’s economic aspirations.  I also agreed that without the improvements the city would be rendered uncompetitive.  I was less able to agree on the upbeat outlook he was selling for river ecology and recreational user opportunities.  The behemoth ships will mean bigger wakes and more erosion, degraded marshland, less room for recreational boaters (forget kayaking!!), and an overall reduction in physical and visual accessibility of the Savannah River.

I didn’t mind playing the fool in this case.  Click here to look at photos from my Port of Georgia Garden City Terminal cruise on April 10, 2010.