This year the trail is undergoing a total makeover, re-design, and upgrade. I posted photos of the first phase recently, and the trail can be walked at anytime. Still to come will be a layer of hardwood chips and some attractive new signage.
For those of you who participate in Facebook, I have started a new page called "Friends of the Sandhills Farm Life Nature Trail." I have already posted dozens of photos from over the years. I'll keep adding a few at a time until you can take a "virtual nature walk" (at least until you can visit the trail).
We really had a trail even prior to '85-'86. But there were no signs, no trail guide, and we had to find a sandbar to cross the creek. But that was the class that dug the holes for 40 signposts, hauled load after load of dirt to fill in soggy low spots on the trail, and built the bridge, that is still serviceable, though rickety.
In honor of their work, I'm listing the names of the third graders of 1985-86 who did that work.
SKIP ALDRICH
KELLY ANDERSON
LEAH BLACK
ELIZABETH BRUCE
KATE CLAY
KOREN COX
CHERYL DOBBINS
TIMMY FERGUSON
SABRINA GRAVATT
LANCE MATTHEWS
DANIELLE NELSON
DEE MCKENZIE
ZACHARY RILEY
JENNIFER TAYLOR
BRADLEY WHITAKER
JONATHAN ALDRIDGE
MARY BARNES
ADRIAN BLUE
JIMMY CALHOUN
TIM COOPER
RYAN DIXON
MANDY BOGER
JOHN GIBBONS
AMY MASON
ROBERT MATTHEWS
JAIME MCGILL
JASON REYNOLDS
CLYDE TAYLOR
BRENT VAUGHAN
Some adults who offered valuable assistance were also listed in our original guidebook. First and foremost is Dawn Horne, my faithful longtime assistant. She put up with my antics and my snakes and never complained. The others are Steve Bow, Mary Anne Johnson, Wayne Black, Shirley Cox, Ronnie McKinnon, Keith and Jo Ellen Stewart, and Ray and Ann Bruce. Our chief consultant was Superintendent Mac Goodwin of Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve.
There was one more significant line in the dedication:
"3rd Graders of years past for keeping the dream of the Nature Trail alive."
Happily, it looks like the trail will endure for many more years to come, even better than before. Former students have already expressed a desire to bring their own children there. And my hope is that a whole new generation of Farm Life students will experience this wonderful place as part of their "outside the box" education.
1 comment:
The first snake we found while "building" the nature trail was a garter snake, and the plant that I picked/was assigned to do my report on for the nature trail guide was the sassafras [tree]. I'd give anything for a copy of that guide with that report in it. I believe it was #14 or #12 in the guide - 13 maybe? Unfortunately, somewhere between high school and the service it was misplaced and lost. Still makes me sad; the older I get, the more nostalgic for that time I grow and the more treasured a possession thag original guidebook becomes.
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