Started my day headed to Cole Creek to hike the bottomland hard wood forest. Stopped briefly to see Pigeon Roost where the now extinct Carrier Pigeons would stop on their migration north. Then a small pioneer village at French Camp caught me eye as I was passing by, so I took a little walking tour. I would eventually spend a couple of hours here photographing as many of the old buildings as I could line up and converting the photos to B&W. I hope you enjoy the pics.
I did spend a little time visiting the folks at French Camp Academy which owns the village and it is in fact an operational private school with less than 140 students. Chatted with some of the volunteers here over a cup of coffee and a home backed oatmeal cookie sweetened with sorghum. I could only eat about half so soon after breakfast. The rest would be dessert after dinner tonight.
Finally made my way to Cole Creek and witness the transition stage of forest development as the hardwoods started to take over from the cypress and tupelo swamp land. It’s interesting to see how things gradually change over hundreds of years as the more dominant trees take over and create a whole new eco-system.
Traveling backwards in time so to speak, my next visit was Cypress Swamp which as the name suggests, a mature cypress swamp. I have visited several similar swamps in Florida but this one is a bit different in that it is beginning to fill in as well with soil and sentiment. Eventually, it will begin to become a hardwood forest much like Cole Creek.
For lunch today I stop in at Carter’s Family Restaurant in Kosciusko, MS. The food is home cooking buffet style and pretty darn cheap, especially since the price includes a drink. Kosciusko by the way is the home town of Oprah Winfrey, among a number of other notables.
The name of the town struck my curiosity a bit so I sought out the source at the city welcome center. The name is Polish as I guessed and is named after Revolutionary War General Tadeusz Kościuszko, a military engineer who designed West Point among other military forts for the Americans. I remembered a statue of the general on Michigan Avenue in Detroit. Funny how stuff begins to tie together. Note the minor change in spelling of the town name as they have dropped the Z. Of course, as Americans are known to do the name is not pronounced the same either. Big surprise!
The balance of my afternoon is spent traveling with brief stops at the north border of the former West Florida Territory, Reservoir Overlook, the NPS Ranger Station and the Cowles Meade Cemetery.
I settle in for the evening in the park’s Rocky Springs campground. This is dry camping at it’s finest. No electricity, no water, no sewer (of course) and best of all, NO cellular service. No way to update my blog, post my photos or even inform my family of my whereabouts.
Good night, people!