Jenkins High senior working to mark Indigenous waterway paths at Savannah-Ogeechee Canal

Isabel Palacios is on a mission.

The Jenkins High School senior plans to be the first Girl Scout in history to blaze a water trail by GPS. She’s partnered with the Savannah Ogeechee Canal Museum and Nature Center to mark a series of canoe paths that are also potentially some of the oldest human-created, Indigenous waterways in Georgia.

The canoe trails will be cataloged and accessible to everyone on the Georgia River Network App.

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On Sunday, you can be part of this historic adventure when the Ogeechee Canal Museum and Nature Center hosts a barbecue and silent auction for preserving and interpreting these Native American canoe trails. You can also get to know more about the Ogeechee Canal system, its ecosystems, and local history.

Palacios, who in second grade joined the scouts as a Brownie, knows the Ogeechee canals well. Her brother was a Boy Scout, and she would sometimes accompany his troop on outdoor projects at the canal museum. A couple years back, some scouts partnered up to recruit volunteers in marking and clearing hiking trails at the 185-acre land trust.

They marked and cataloged trails on AllTrails, a smart-phone application. Palacios is also an avid kayaker, and since eighth grade has known she’s wanted to do this specific project.

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“We do lots of community projects as Girl Scouts, and for my Gold Award project, I wanted to work on something that I really loved and would benefit the community with outdoor opportunities,” said Palacios. “I’ve been kayaking with my family, and Girl Scouts for seven years, and just want more people to know about paddling in the Ogeechee Canal.”

Many of the waterways are overgrown and need to be cleared before they’re officially designated on AllTrails. That’s where Palacios is hoping to entice community volunteers to come and help with the project.

What makes these trails — much smaller than the nearby, human-made commerce canals — so special is that they possibly were a series of waterways that Native Americans created for travel and transport to and from the Ogeechee River.

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“We have part of a dugout canoe found on property that University of Georgia carbon-dated to a thousand years old,” emphasized Connie Shreve, master naturalist for the organization. “There’s pottery here that dates hundreds of years back. Uchee Indians were on the lower Ogeechee and Savannah Rivers long before other settlement. With the fundraiser we’d like to raise money for Native American interpretation of the trails.”

The Savannah Ogeechee Canal Museum and Nature Center has over two miles of walking trails through cypress bottoms, sand hill ecosystem, and hardwood forests.

The canoe trail network, once completed, could encompass more than five miles of water paths and be the organization’s largest project undertaken since clean up and debris removal from Hurricane Matthew.

“I want to be part of making more outdoor opportunities for the Savannah community and clear a path for more Girl Scouts to get involved in trail work,” said Palacios. I want to study marine ecology and conservation, and this project fits in with my career interests.”

Begun in 1828, the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal entailed hundreds of enslaved Africans and Irish immigrants who labored two-and-a-half years digging out and constructing 16-and-a-half miles of canals to connect the Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers.

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Today, portions of the canal have been conserved for walking and biking and can be found in Pooler near Tom Triplet Park and in west Savannah near the Savannah River.

“Isabel could make history with this project,” reflected Shreve. “She could be the first Girl Scout in the history to blaze a canoe trail, and we’d like as many in the community as possible to be part of that historic achievement.”

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA Girl Scout wants help charting waterways at Ogeechee Canal