By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

The ruins of the colonial Fort Frederica overlook the coastline of St. Simons Island.

I just love to go to old forts and tramp around. So what better place to visit an old fort than St. Simons Island on the Georgia Coast?

Fort Frederica National Monument is really an archaeological site that tells the story of the 1736 town and fort built by General James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, and a group of British Colonists. Oglethorpe’s main purpose for building Frederica was to protect the coastline and the colonies to the north from the dreaded Spanish, who were headquartered in St. Augustine, Florida. Two battles were fought on St. Simons, the 1742 Battles of Gully Hole and Bloody Marsh – which really wasn’t that bloody. But the British victory over the Spanish eventually led to the abandonment of Fort Frederica and the town’s decline.

Most artifacts collected at Fort Frederica since archeological investigations began in 1947 are stored offsite, but the site is a fun place to explore and think about the people who built it and lived there. A 23-minute film about the park, “Fort Frederica, History Uncovered,” is shown every 30 minutes in the visitor’s center. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Visionary artist St. EOM transformed his family’s farm into Pasaquan, a wondrous work of art that is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Eddie Owens Martin, son of a Georgia sharecropper, left his home near Buena Vista at age 14 and eventually ended up in New York City where he hooked up with the underground culture of struggling artists, musicians, poets and beggars. After experiencing several phenomenal visions of futuristic people from the land of Pasaquan that prompted his artistic efforts, he eventually named himself St. EOM.

In the mid-1950s, he returned home and with paint, pen, metal and concrete began transforming the family farmhouse and outbuildings that he had inherited from his mother into the futuristic world of Pasaquan. The result is a work of visionary art that today is recognized internationally by critics as a unique artistic masterpiece.

Once a month from April to November, St.EOM’s Pasaquan, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places, is open to the public. This summer Pasaquan will be open June 6, July 4 and August 1. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

At the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon, you will find exhibits containing instruments, performance costumes, and biographies on all your favorite Georgia musicians.

If you want to learn everything there is to know about the great songwriters and musicians who have called Georgia home, it’s time for a visit to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon.

Ray Charles, Johnny Mercer, Otis Redding, Brenda Lee, Duane Allman, Lena Horne, the B52’s, R.E.M., Ludacris and Widespread Panic are just a very few of the many Georgia artists who have been inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

More than 450 artists are represented in exhibits that include music, video, memorabilia, instruments, performance costumes and more in the 43,000-square-foot facility.

Tune Town, the museum’s permanent exhibit hall, is designed to look like a small Georgia town with winding streets and buildings, each representing a different genre of music. You can wonder through the Gospel Chapel, Rhythm & Blues Revue, Skillet Licker Cafe, Gretsch Theater, Vintage Vinyl Record Store, Coca Cola Soda Fountain, Backstage Alley and Memory Lane.

Kids will particularly like watching themselves dance to Georgia music on a big screen television in the Giant Radio exhibit in the Billy Watson Music Factory. The Music Factory, a 2,400-square-foot interactive learning space for kids, includes hands-on exhibits that explore music composition, styles, instrument families and more.

One temporary exhibit currently on display at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame through July 5 features 60 of the best photographs of preeminent Nashville photographer Jim McGuire. Opening July 18 is another temporary exhibit that will chronicle the career of Savannah native and one of my favorites, Johnny Mercer, who would have been 100 years old on November 18, 2009. “Johnny Mercer: Two Marvelous for Words” is just one of many events celebrating Mercer going on around the state this year.

Read more about Macon and Bibb County, or find more activities in the Central Georgia Travel Region here at Brown’s Guides.

 By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

A river otter is just one of the many animals that kids will spot living in the wetlands at the Newman Wetlands Center.

What is your watershed address? That is a major question at the 32-acre Newman Wetlands Center in Clayton County. The wetlands center, which sits on a ridge that divides the Flint River Watershed from the Ocmulgee, is an excellent facility for teaching children and adults alike the importance of wetlands in a watershed. Here you can learn about the characteristics, wildlife and plants in a wetland as well as how to preserve these environments.

In the central exhibit area, you can watch a video on wetlands and see displays on the water cycle, watersheds, wetland wildlife, wildflowers, common wetland plants, wetland soils and wading birds. You can test your wetland I.Q., learn how wetlands purify and filter water and how they provide a place to raise the young of migratory birds and other wildlife. Children will especially enjoy wandering along the .5-mile wetlands trail, where more than 130 bird species have been identified. Beaver, river otter, fox, raccoon, muskrat, deer, wild turkey, opossum, mink and many species of reptiles, insects and amphibians all live here. More than likely, you will spot a number of them. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Southwest Georgia Travel Region > Dougherty County > Albany

Albany’s Thronateeska Heritage Center celebrates the history of the region, including its ties to the railroad industry, with a collection of rolling stock that includes a Georgia Northern steam locomotive. 

The Central of Georgia. Atlantic Coast Line. Georgia Northern. Albany & Northern. Seaboard Air Line. At one time, these five different railroads served the city of Albany with seven rail lines and as many as 55 trains converging daily at the city’s Union Station just one block from the Flint River. Today, that 1912 brick passenger terminal houses a local and regional history and heritage museum that is part of the Thronateeska Heritage Center.

Established in 1974, Thronateeska’s mission is to tell the story of Southwest Georgia, including that of Native Americans, steamboats on the Flint, the emergence of railroads and automobiles, and the Albany Civil Rights Movement.

Thronateeska Heritage Center, located on a wide, brick street in downtown Albany, includes several structures in addition to the depot. The Wetherbee Planetarium, which opened last year, boasts a high-definition projection system that is the first of its kind. It takes you on an exploration of the universe through three regularly scheduled programs: “Oasis in Space,” “Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity,” and “Molecularium.” (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

The suffering of Union prisoners at Andersonville and of POWs in all American wars is the story told at Andersonville National Historic Site.

Where the small stream named Stockade Branch merges with Sweetwater Creek, just six miles west of the Flint River, once stood the most notorious war prison in the Confederacy—Andersonville. From 1864 to 1865, Confederate guards interred 45,000 Union prisoners of war (POW) over a period of 14 months. Of these, 12,914 died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding or exposure to the elements. Stockade Branch ran through this 26.5-acre area, surrounded by a 15-foot high stockade of hewed pine logs. When it entered the pen, it carried fresh water; when it exited, it carried human filth and suffering of men living an extremely harsh and miserable existence.

Andersonville, or Camp Sumter as it was officially known, was one of the largest of the many Confederate military prisons established during the Civil War. Today, Andersonville National Historic Site is one of the most moving Civil War shrines in all the South. The white cross Union graves lie in rows in the Andersonville National Cemetery, and the prison site itself stands as a stark reminder of the horrors of that war. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

You will travel 60 feet underground to tour Consolidated Gold Mines in Dahlonega, site of the nation’s first gold rush.

It is easy to forget that Georgia was the site of the country’s first gold rush back in 1828. That 1849 one in California just seems to get all of the publicity. They say back then you could “pick it up off the ground,” and there are still a few flecks of the glitter floating around in the North Georgia Mountains. So if you are around Dahlonega, you might just want to try your hand at panning at Consolidated Gold Mines.

This gold mine is said to be the first attempt at systematic, deep underground mining in the east, and it quickly became legendary. You can take a 40-minute guided tour of the mine that goes 60 feet underground. You will see displays of actual equipment used at the turn of the century and walk through the huge mining tunnel network that still has the original track system. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Summer means lots of water fun for all ages at waterparks across Georgia, including Splash in the Boro in Statesboro. 

You can tell summer is here when the water parks start opening up for the season. In Statesboro, you can celebrate the hot weather by getting wet at Splash in the Boro, which opens this Saturday, May 23.

There is water play that will entertain everyone—water slides, an 800-foot lazy river, a 25-meter lane pool and therapy pool, a leisure pool, and a low-level water play pool designed for all ages.

The waterpark has been redesigned and updated for its 2009 opening, and three new attractions will be operational within the next couple of weeks. You’ll be able to hitch a ride on an unbroken wave on the “Flowrider,” the only such slide in the region; thrill to the 45-foot high 5-lane “Mat Racer,” and enjoy 6,000 square feet of water fun in the “Spray Ground.” (more…)

 By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Artists and artisans from around the country travel to the North Georgia Mountains on Memorial Day weekend to participate in the annual Arts in the Park Festival in Blue Ridge.

For the 33rd year, the Arts in the Park Festival is taking place this weekend, May 23 –May 24, in historic Blue Ridge City Park in Blue Ridge at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

Sponsored by the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association—which also sponsors the Wildlife Art Festival of North Georgia, the Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference, and the Southern Appalachian Artists’ Guild National Juried Show—the event draws about 15,000 people each Memorial Day weekend.

The festival boasts some of the finest arts and crafts in the southeast. You’ll find more than 150 booths with fine art, handmade crafts, and good food. There will be artists’ demonstrations and children’s art activities as well—and as you might expect, there will be plenty of fine mountain music. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

If you have a kindergartener, like I do, or anyone who remembers their kindergarten years, you might want to see Synchronicity Performance Group’s production of the musical “Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business.”

Adapted from the Barbara Park children’s book series, the musical is part of Synchronicity’s family series and is running Tuesdays through Thursdays and weekends through May 31 on the main stage at 7 Stages Theatre in Atlanta.

If your child has not been introduced to the Junie B. Jones book series, the musical might inspire you to do so. Written for ages 4 - 8, the stories about the sassy little 5-year-old, her classmates and family began with Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus, back in 1992. There are now more than 25 books in Park’s series. (more…)