18th century naturalist William Bartram remembered in Athens through speeches and beer

Famous 18th century naturalist William Bartram began a well-documented exploration in March 1773 as he entered an unmapped wilderness of what today is Georgia.

That journey 250 years ago will be the subject of much discussion at the 2023 Bartram Trail Conference planned for Friday and Saturday at the University of Georgia Special Collections Library.

The historic surveying expedition would not end until 1777 as Bartram and others crossed several Southern states, but spent most of the first year in Georgia. Bartrams’ eventual book, “Bartram’s Travels,” became a classic that describes the untarnished fauna, flora and native Indians of those bygone days of history.

The conference on Saturday features several speakers including Kathryn Braund lecturing on Bartram’s mapping of the land, Brad Sanders on the search for the Great Buffalo Lick and Bud Freeman on the fish species in the Broad River.

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Other speakers include Zach Wood of the Southeastern Grasslands Institute, Wendy Jo Ledbetter of the Longleaf Alliance, Micah Taylor of the UGA College of Environment and Design and Darlene Farris-Labar, the keynote speaker from Stroudsburg University, who will speak on Bartram’s art.

The conference was created in the 1970s by a group primarily led by the garden club movement in the Southeast, according to Dorinda Dallmeyer, president of the Bartram Conference.

Those organizing the conference felt there should be signage and markers placed along the path that Bartram’s party took, she said.

“We start this year basically in August in Athens and the 250^th anniversary is almost exactly to the day that he was here on the eastside of the Oconee River,” said Dallmeyer, an author and specialist on environmental history.

The trail of William Bartram

Bartram and a group of about 70 traveled on horseback as they traversed the land ceded to the colonial colonies by the Cherokee and Creek Indians, according to Dallmeyer.

In Clarke County, there is a Bartram marker at Cherokee Corner in southern Clarke County off U.S. Highway 78.

“We know almost exactly where they went because they were surveying the land and that made it easier,” she said.

Dallmeyer said that while Bartram was in the area of what would become Athens, he wanted to see the Middle Oconee River. He made his way to an area that is believed to be where Dudley Park is now located, she said. Bartram described the area as having cane swamps, oak forests and fertile land.

“I think everybody has looked at a landscape and wondered what did it look like 100 years ago,” she said.

One place Bartram visited was a location in Oglethorpe County known as the Great Buffalo Lick.

Dallmeyer said people thought the place was like a salt lick, but Bartram tasted the clay and described it as sweet.

Dallmeyer said the late UGA geography professor Lou De Vorsey, an expert in historical geography, located the site about 8 miles south of Lexington.

Bartram also described the native Americans he met, documenting their family structure, community lifestyle, spiritual beliefs and their foods and clothing, Dallmeyer said.

The State Botanical Garden in Athens also has an historical marker honoring the explorer. On its website, the garden notes that Bartram’s “travels likely took him through the current boundaries of the State Botanical Garden.”

Dallmeyer said there is a map on the Bartram Trail website showing the location of all historical markers in the Southeast.

Spotlighting William Bartram's work

The Bartram conference, she said, helps introduce new generations to Bartram. The conference was held in Montgomery, Ala., in 2019 and next year it will meet in North Carolina, with a future conference planned for Charleston, S.C.

In 2019, the film “Cultivating the Wild – William Bartram’s Travels” was premiered. The film, Dallmeyer said, tells the story through “modern-day Bartrams,” or people who embody the talents that Bartram had including his artwork, and his scientific documentations from botany to anthropology.

Among those showcased in the film is Phillip Juras, an artist in Athens, whose paintings are showcased in the 2015 book “The Southern Frontier: Landscapes Inspired by Bartram’s Travels.”

“Bartram painted a picture in words that I always wanted to see growing up in the South. That’s why I set about to do those paintings,” Juras told the Banner-Herald.

His paintings take Bartrams’ words and reimagines those long-lost scenes of nature.

Others in the film include the writer Janise Ray, Muscogee Creek tribe member Jim Sawgrass, and James Holland, who died a few years ago but was known as the Altamaha River Keeper.

The storied naturalist will also be honored in Athens with a fermented drink.

Athentic Brewing Co. on Park Avenue is brewing a new suds called "Bartram Trail Pale Ale.” The brewery mixed a special recipe for the beer.

Conference members will also have the chance to chug or sip the brew when Athentic rolls it out in a commemorative can on Thursday during a Bartram Trivial Night from 7-9 p.m.

“They’ve poured it up and they say it’s really good,” Dallmeyer said.

Those interested can register for the conference at https://bartramtrail.org/2022-Conference.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Bartram Trail Conference comes to Athens for 250 year anniversary