{"id":59200,"date":"2023-05-22T12:38:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T16:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/?p=59200"},"modified":"2023-05-22T12:38:46","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T16:38:46","slug":"history-feature-a-journey-through-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/lifestyle\/history-feature-a-journey-through-time\/","title":{"rendered":"History Feature: A Journey Through Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retracing William Bartram\u2019s Route<\/h2>\n
\"\"

(Main) Jones Knob along the Bartram Trail. Photo courtesy of The Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy. (Upper left overlay) William Bartram<\/p><\/div>\n

By Lauren Stepp<\/p>\n

The year was 1775 and the north Georgia hills blazed scarlet red and rusty orange with licks of buttery yellow.<\/p>\n

William Bartram startled at the sight. The forest was surely on fire, he thought. But as he coaxed his gelding closer, he realized the inferno before him was no inferno but rather a dazzling display of Rhododendron calendulaceum\u2014flame azalea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is certainly the most gay and brilliant flowering shrub yet known,\u201d Bartram later swooned.<\/p>\n

The son of John Bartram of Philadelphia, the Royal Botanist to King George III, Bartram grew up sketching creeping vines and fluttering birds during remote expeditions with his father. However, it wasn\u2019t until his 30s that he decided to strike out on his own, roving the southeastern backcountry in search of plants.<\/p>\n

His 2,400-mile voyage is chronicled in Bartram\u2019s Travels, a publication still in print today. Rife with vivid language and detailed drawings, the book is positively transportive. But if readers want a more immersive experience, they should lace up their hiking boots and hit the Bartram Trail (BT).<\/p>\n

Officially designated as a National Recreational Trail in 1968, the BT is a 110-mile footpath winding through Georgia and WNC. According to Brent Martin, executive director of The Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy, the trail loosely follows the 18th-century naturalist\u2019s route through the mountains from Russell Bridge near Clayton, Ga., to Cheoah Bald near Robbinsville, NC. \u201cBartram\u2019s descriptions of the area are all we have from this period and are interesting to keep in mind as one walks the trail,\u201d says Martin.<\/p>\n

The botanist offers a lyrical account of his ascent of the Nantahala Mountains (then called the Jore Mountains). After resting on the \u201cmost elevated peak,\u201d Bartram \u201cbeheld with rapture and astonishment, a sublimely awful scene of power and magnificence, a world of mountains piled upon mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

This literary style, says Martin, was ahead of its time. \u201cNo one else in America was writing such rhapsodic and descriptive prose,\u201d he says. \u201cBartram could be described as America\u2019s first creative nonfiction writer, as he combined his own observations and feelings in a first-person narrative while including scientific observations creatively.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bartram documented much more than the natural world. He was one of the first white men to approach Native Americans with no firearms, bibles or ulterior motives. \u201cHe was only curious about the plant world around them as well as the landscape and their customs and humanity,\u201d says Martin, adding that he was known to the Seminoles as Puc Puggy (The Flower Seeker).<\/p>\n

In his journals, Bartram logged 358 plant species\u2014from the dwarf pawpaw to the oakleaf hydrangea. But none offered a \u201cgreater shew of splendour\u201d than the flame azalea. \u201cThe clusters of the blossoms cover the shrubs in such incredible profusion on the hill sides [sic], that suddenly opening to view from dark shades, we are alarmed with the apprehension of the hills being set on fire,\u201d Bartram writes.<\/p>\n

To learn more about William Bartram, visit BlueRidgeBartram.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The year was 1775 and the north Georgia hills blazed scarlet red and rusty orange with licks of buttery yellow. William Bartram startled at the sight. The forest was surely on fire, he thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":59202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heritage","category-lifestyle"],"yoast_head":"\nHistory Feature: A Journey Through Time - The Laurel of Asheville<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The year was 1775 and the north Georgia hills blazed scarlet red and rusty orange with licks of buttery yellow. William Bartram startled at the sight. 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