Haffye Hays Park is a very cool park located in the small town of Greenville, Florida in the…read moreFlorida panhandle. The park is not overly big, but offers a gazebo, a pavilion, a children's playground, a small lake, a walking path and a Ray Charles statue, who I guess was raised here in Greenville, Florida. If you are in the area, go check out this cool park.

Stop to see beautiful bronze statute of infamous Ray Charles in his hometown. Splashing lad to…read morecool off on hot Florida days!

Well, dang. I knew this bridge had been closed to traffic for a very long time but when I pulled up…read moreafter a long detour into the sticks it was news to me that it's now closed off to pedestrians as well. I could have used a heads up on this one as getting on the bridge as advertised was my whole reason for coming out this way. I had a whole backpack of spray paint leftover from Krog Street Tunnel in Atlanta. And all the pictures I had seen of people traipsing over this colorful bridge with impunity only made it worse. I got the best pictures I could from behind the fencing and they were disappointing. Fortunately there's a bit of graffiti under the bridge as well and it's not all mindless toy scribbling like much of what's on the forbidden bridge is. And there's some oddball abandoned house right there that's all tagged up and a weird disused basketball hoop. And some nature trails. Think those should technically be in a review for the adjacent park though but I've got too many reviews on my queue so I doubt I'll get to it. I walked as far as the next bridge over the river, an off limits train property bridge but the trails might go a lot farther. Not really sure.

We encounter a closed bridge also covered in graffiti paint. Very dry river with a very intense…read moresmell.

Last review of my 2022 February Black History Series & I honestly don't know how to rate it. This…read moreis by far the most difficult piece of history to digest and the most uncomfortable to write & read. It is so difficult in fact, that I don't think I'm capable of presenting it without myself becoming upset. Here are the words from the historic marker that was removed and place in the National Center for Civil & Human Rights because was constantly being defaced and pierced with high caliber BULLETS. It reads: [ historic marker ] MARY TURNER AND THE LYNCHING RAMPAGE OF 1918 Near this site on May 19, 1918, twenty-one year-old Mary Turner, eight months pregnant, was burned, mutilated, and shot to death by a local mob after publicly denouncing her husband's lynching the previous day. In the days immediately following the murder of a white planter by a Black employee on May 16, 1918, at least eleven local African Americans including the Turners died at the hands of a lynch mob in one of the deadliest waves of vigilantism in Georgia's history. No charges were ever brought against known or suspected participants in these crimes. From 1880-1930, as many as 550 people were killed in Georgia in these illegal acts of mob violence. Erected by the Georgia Historical Society, the People's Temple, Valdosta State University - Woman and Gender Studies Program, and The Mary Turner Project. *** [ missing details of the sign ] What the sign does not describe is the circumstances of the death of the white planter by his black "employee". While the emancipation proclamation freed enslaved blacks in the United States, the 13th amendment allowed for one loophole. Penal labor in the United States is explicitly allowed: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." That amendment gave rise to CONVICT LEASING, a system of forced penal labor that provided prisoner labor to private parties, such as plantation owners and corporations (e.g. Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, Chattahoochee Brick Company). The lessee was responsible for feeding, clothing, and housing the prisoners AND could punish or discipline them as they saw fit. Considering slavery had barely been outlawed, the treatment of these mostly black inmates was often bitterly WORSE that of their previous slave status. These convicts were actually profitable for state revenue. In 1898, 73% of Alabama's entire annual state revenue came from convict leasing. Corruption, lack of accountability, and racial violence resulted in "one of the harshest and most exploitative labor systems known in American history." TheConversation.com writes this in a February 2017 article: "They lived in squalid conditions, chained, starved, beaten, flogged and sexually violated. They died by the thousands from injury, disease and torture. For both the state and private corporations, the opportunities for profit were enormous. For the state, convict lease generated revenue and provided a powerful tool to subjugate African-Americans and intimidate them into behaving in accordance with the new social order. It also greatly reduced state expenses in housing and caring for convicts. For the corporations, convict lease provided droves of cheap, disposable laborers who could be worked to the extremes of human cruelty." link: https://theconversation.com/exploiting-black-labor-after-the-abolition-of-slavery-72482 *** These were the conditions of the "employee" that killed the white "planter". This killing set off a manhunt that swept southern Georgia killing more than a dozen innocent black men. When Mary went to the courthouse to complain and demand justice for her husband who was wrongfully slain, the crowd turned their anger on Mary, and, well... she and her unborn baby lost their lives in a horrifically brutal act that you can learn about here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1maRFmP8o [ side note ] I should mention the correlation between the end of slavery and the rise of the incarcerated population are practically successive. Many of these men were being sent to prison for the smallest of infractions... most commonly for being unemployed (vagrancy). [ FINAL THOUGHTS ] Mary Turner went to the courthouse to seek justice for the murder of her innocent husband, and the same irrational violence that took him took her at the sheer complaint of unfairness. There is so much to unpack in this American History tragedy, including how even a modern day sign erected in 2010 is treated as violently as Mary. Many have left flowers at the base of the metal cross now standing at the site. Rest in Power Turner family, my heart weeps for you all. May God repay you 100 fold for every act of violence against you. Thank you for following my month of Black History reviews! 2022 / 60

Interesting tour, the guide is very knowledgeable. The house is very unique. Tickets are purchased…read moreat the Historical Society building in the next block.

the tour was extremely amazing and the house is so beautiful! I highly recommend touring!read more

Love this sculpture! I circle the roundabout at sunset just to see sunlight reflecting through the…read moreglass. Looks cool after sunset, too, though I would love to see some LED's.

This home is just behind a park in Madison, Florida and was built in the 1880 for Mahor William H…read more Dial. It is an attractive home and gives us a glimpse of what a home here would look like from 1880. Florida was a very different place than it is today and I love to come across these glimpses into Florida's past.

Cool little place that I checked out while I was in Valdosta, Georgia. Well this downtown is not…read moregoing to make New York City envious, there is a certain charm to it. It definitely screams Deep South in a good way. There are multiple restaurants, small businesses and more in the downtown area. If you find yourself in Valdosta, Georgia, I would definitely recommend coming to check the downtown area out.

The Big Oak was a nice place to stop. We took a photo with the tree, and the instructions were easy…read moreto follow. We stopped by on a Sunday, and there was no one around. Very easy to find and worth the stop! I was a little worried because Google Maps told us the tree closed at 5 PM, but that was not the case lol

This is a must see if in the Thomasville, GA area! I've never seen live oak tree branches of this…read moresize. They estimate the start of the tree around 1685. In 1936, it was registered as the 49th member of the National Live Oak Society. There's a brochure on the back of the oak tree statistics plaque with information on the Big Oak Cam. You can call a number and it will take a pic of you in front of the tree. You can then go to their website and download the photo for free! Kinda cool! Would highly recommend! Such a cool historic landmark.

Late March, 2025. The historic St. Marks Lighthouse, first constructed in 1830, is located roughly…read moreseven miles from the Visitors Center for the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. It's reached via slow-moving Lighthouse Road, on which people in cars or bicycles search for sightings of wildlife, including migratory birds, monarch butterflies, alligators, and more. While the lighthouse was closed to the public when we visited, it was still an interesting area to visit and to photograph. There are a few walking paths near the small parking lot, and visitors occasionally glimpse loggerhead sea turtles, West Indian manatees, and alligators offshore from the lighthouse. The ownership of the historic property was transferred in 2013 from the U.S. Coast Guard to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge "has completed a renovation to repair damages of time, termites, age, and weather. A replica 4th order Fresnel lens has been installed."

Not open to the public right now because of COVID but you can still see it and walk around and…read moreenjoy. I was here in daytime so the light wasn't running but it was awesomely cool to see and experience. Construction started in 1829 and then it was moved inland in 1842 because of beach erosion. The adjoining building is not original, having been rebuilt a bunch of times for various reasons. The lighthouse played a part in the Civil War when it was destroyed in 1862. Rebuilt, it was again attacked by a Union landing party in July 1863 where they burned the steps and the interior woodwork. And again, in 1865, Union troops landed for a major raid that was planned to take the capital city, though they were repulsed at the Battle of Natural Bridge. The lighthouse was restored to service after the war and resumed the role of navigational aid. There are plenty of pathways nearby where you can get a bit further away from the lighthouse for great pictures. Enjoy! [Review 14068 overall, 1390 of 2020, number 1130 in Florida.]

Visited the Old Hamilton County Jail as part of Paranormal Kicks Cancer, an orginisation that…read moreraises funds for kids who have cancer. They are currently renovating the Jail, so there are spots that are works in progress, but the location is a historical land mark. It is a reportedly (ok, It IS) a HAUNTED location! We were actually able to do an over night, which gave us the ability to actually investigate the location thoroughly. I personally had the experience of the "presence" of a guard walking toward me while I was in their walk way at the Solitary Confinement area. We experienced phantom voices, voices on the ovulous, and shapes appearing and interacting on the FLIR camera. Overall it was a really fun investigation. I look forward to future events.

VERY HAUNTED BUILDING! 3 start rating is because the building needs to be cleaned and remodeled due…read moreto mold and possible lead paint or other things. But we had an awesome time with the investigation. The building needs someone to come in and give it some TLC for sure and add cameras inside and out! Fix the bathroom!!!!