History Lesson in Oconee

Our field trip this week takes you to Oconee Station Historical Site.  

Before leaving, I read that the buildings were only open on the weekends.  Still, we headed out to see the buildings, one built in the 1790's, and then take a short hike to a waterfall.  

As Cari and I stood reading the sign about the property, the ranger approached us and offered to let us in the buildings and show us around.  We were the only ones in the park and received a personal tour. 

The building above is Oconee Station.  In the late 1700's it was a military outpost.  Mostly used for scouts to watch for Indian attacks against settlers.  The ranger told us that they have records showing up to 26 men were stationed at this location at one time.  They believe most of the land around the building would have been cleared of trees to give better visibility.  The building itself was used for protection.  It has thick stone walls.  Look at the thickness of the doorway in this shot:

I asked if all 26 men lived in the one room building and was told that it was most likely that the troops had built small huts to live in.  There were also mounted units stationed here, so other support buildings would have been needed as well.  All of the buildings may have been walled in with this "Station" as the most significant building. 

Directly next door was this brick building built in 1805.  

The two are very close together.  In fact, the Station is located just to the right of the frame in the above photo.  This house was built for William Richards.  He ran a trading post out of both buildings.  By this time the Station was no longer used for a military outpost as threats of an Indian attack was low.

The amount of trade that happened here was amazing to me.  Wagons drawn by six horses would weigh two tons each.  A popular item to trade was deer skin.  The Indians would bring in deer skin to trade with the settlers.  During one recorded inventory, over 30,000 deer skins were held in the buildings.

One final note about William's house.  Notice the door on the 2nd story.  At one time there was a stairway outside leading to this door.  There were no stairs inside because they took up valuable space inside and provided a path for the heat to escape during the winter.  To go upstairs and go to bed, you had to walk outside and go up the stairs.

After our tour of the buildings the ranger went about his day and we headed over to the waterfall nearby.  I've been to this waterfall several times and was a bit disappointed to find very little water running.  The hike to the falls is a peaceful trail meandering through the woods and crossing the creek several times.

On this day, the waterfall was not the most photogenic.

On our hike back to the car, I bragged to Cari about the ranger taking us and showing us around.  He took his time and answered all our questions as he let us in and around the buildings.  Thanks to this park ranger I was able to get a much better understanding of the history of this park and a much higher appreciation of our park rangers.