The Way We Were                                                   
Friday, September 20, 2002

Leader: Janet Stone (History)

This field trip will involve a walking tour of the old Armstrong campus in downtown Savannah.  We will begin at the corner of Bull and Gaston, at the elegant Armstrong Mansion, with a visit to the lobby and adjacent rooms to imagine what it would have been like to be students or faculty in such a setting.  We will also take a look at the other buildings that the college built, brought, or borrowed as its ‘campus’ grew.  Then we will walk through the area that the college envisioned for its major expansion, until an escalating protest from the neighborhood and from historic preservation interests reached such a pitch that banker Mills B. Lane, Jr. broke the impasse with his offer to purchase a new site for the college in a location where it would have unobstructed room to grow.  What if Armstrong had stayed in historic downtown Savannah . . . . We can wonder as we wander.  Our walk will conclude with lunch downtown.

Daufuskie Island: A Step into the Past
Friday, October 4, 2002

Leader: Michael Hall (History)

Daufuskie Island derived its name from the Gullah language ("du fust key," meaning the first key, or island, north of Savannah).  Daufuskie Island, just across the Calibogue Sound from Hilton Head, is a world markedly distinct from that of its glamorous resort cousin.  The island remains rural, inhabited mostly by Gullahs. The tour includes a boat trip to the island from Harbor Town (there is no bridge), a wonderful low country boil lunch, and a jungle bus ride to the historical sites on the island, including (but not limited to) the Mary C. Fields schoolhouse where Pat Conroy (author of  Prince of Tides) taught, the African Baptist church (the oldest structure in Beaufort County), and the Old Winery.

Canoe the Ogeechee River
Friday, October 18, 2002

Leader:   Christopher J. Schuberth (Middle Grades, Secondary, and Adult Education)

This trip is easy and requires minimal canoeing experience.  We will paddle from Morgan's Bridge to Historic Savannah-Ogeechee Barge Canal, about nine river miles in length, taking about four hours to complete the trip.   Several stops along the way will allow us to appreciate evidence that once ocean beaches and sand dunes dominated where today the Ogeechee flows.  A barbecue lunch at Canal is followed by a tour of the canal, locks, and museum. 

From Tap to Toilet: Savannah’s Water Supply and Disposal Systems   
Friday, February 28, 2003

Leader: Jim Byrd (Academic Affairs)

Increasing demands on the Floridan aquifer – Savannah’s primary water supply – have forced local government to utilize surface water from the Savannah River.  We will visit the Industrial and Domestic Water treatment plant to see what is involved in making Savannah River water fit to drink.  As more of the city’s water is supplied from the river, most of it is returned to the river after use.  We will examine what happens to our water after we send it “away” down the drain.  During a tour of the President Street plant we will observe how wastewater is treated to make it less environmentally hazardous before being released into the Savannah River.

Marshwalk at Skidaway Island                                             
Friday, April 4, 2003

Leader: Ken Relyea (Biology)  

Coastal Georgia has what is probably the greatest expanse of temperate salt marsh in the world. This ecosystem has drawn scientists from all over the world to study estuarine ecology. On our trip we will examine some of the dominant organisms in this biologically rich and diverse ecosystem and their adaptations to exist there, discuss inter-relationships of organisms and ecosystems, and focus on the importance of salt marshes to marine productivity, coastal flooding, and pollution, and perhaps read a bit of Sydney Lanier’s insightful and beautiful “The Marshes of Glynn.”

A Day in the Country                                                 
Friday, April 25, 2003

Leaders: Barbara Fertig and Howard Robinson (History)

We will visit Seabrook Village, an outdoor museum of African-American rural life. Graduates of the Seabrook one-room schoolhouse (ca. 1930s and 40s) will guide you around the site and share a lunch on the grounds with you.  The development of this open air museum is not only a heritage project that sustains local memory, but also a bid to bring some of Savannah's tourist dollars into an area that exports too many of its talented kids. Lunch will be barbecue by John Stevens.

Site maintained by Dr. Richard Nordquist
Armstrong Atlantic State University
Savannah, Georgia 31419
912/921 5991 
e-mail: nordqudi@mail.armstrong.edu

updated 02 July 2003