RESEARCH SITES
Introduction to Research Sites
Currently, faculty and students affiliated with the lab are undertaking work in a diverse range of locations: Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma; Founders Memorial Garden in Athens, Georgia; Hyde Farm in Cobb County, Georgia; Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia; Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston, South Carolina; Cowpens National Battlefield in Gaffney, South Carolina; Blue Ridge Parkway, Peaks of Otter in Virginia; and Wormsloe Plantation on Isle of Hope, Georgia.
Cherokee Landscapes, Southeastern United States
In 2008, with the guidance of UGA’s Institute of Native American Studies (INAS), Professor Alfie Vick conducted the first Plant Communities of the Cherokee Landscape Maymester course. The course immerses students in the study of plant communities and Cherokee history. We start in the Cherokee Homeland of the Southern Appalachians, and then follow the 900-mile Northern Route of the Trail of Tears out to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where the Cherokee Nation is located today. For two to three weeks, we camp and hike in the places that have significant cultural meaning to the Cherokees. In addition to learning about ecology, history and ethnobotany, students reflect on the roots of cultural identity, and the impact of uprooting a culture from one place and relocating it to a distinctly different place. Students keep a journal to record their observations and reflections during the trip.
Founders Memorial Garden, Athens, Georgia
The Founders Memorial Garden on the campus of the University of Georgia commemorates the twelve founders of the first American Garden Club, the Ladies Garden Club of Athens, which was founded in 1891. With funds raised by the Garden Club of Georgia, Dean Hubert B. Owens, his staff, and students of the Landscape Architecture Department designed the garden during the 1940s around a Greek Revival-style house built in 1857.
Stratford Hall, Montross, Virginia
Adding great interest to the Great House complex is Stratford Hall’s extensive landscape, consisting of nearly 1,900 acres and over two miles of Potomac River shoreline. Previously not studied as a whole, this large property has tremendous potential to reveal a fascinating story about how humans have valued and used the land from pre-historic times to the present.
Wormsloe, Savannah, Georgia
The landscape is part of the oldest chain of marsh islands on the Atlantic Coast and holds numerous opportunities for research and inspiration, including colonial roads and fort-house foundations, Civil War earthworks, slave quarters, an estate house and formal garden, cemeteries, and outbuildings, as well as magnificent avenues of planted oaks.
Cowpens National Battlefield, Gaffney, South Carolina
The Revolutionary War Battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781, was a decisive victory for American forces as they held their ground, forced a British retreat and surrender, and only lost 12 soldiers.
Blue Ridge Parkway, Peaks of Otter, Virginia
The concept for the Blue Ridge Parkway began in 1933 as a way to connect the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains national parks; built in phases, the parkway was completed in 1987.
Ft. Sumter National Monument, Charleston, South Carolina
The human-constructed island upon which Fort Sumter National Monument resides was completed in 1861 and saw the first shots fired during the United States Civil War (1861-1865).