Born near Philadelphia in 1739, William Bartram was the son of John Bartram, a Quaker and distinguished botanist. Franklinia Alatamaha by Bartram circa 1791. All of this tree existing today are descended from seeds collected by Bartram in the 1760s and 1770s. William Bartram was 35 years old in 1773 when he began his “great adventure.” During his three-anda- half year trip, Bartram traveled over 2,400 miles. He traveled through eight modern-day southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee), but most of his time was spent in the backcountry, mountains, and coastal areas of Georgia.

By Jack Schley

The City of Columbus owes much to its geography. The City is situated amidst the natural wonders of the Chattahoochee Valley that occur here due to the geological union of the upland piedmont region to the lowland coastal plain of Georgia. The Chattahoochee River tells the story of this union well. It is a story that spans from the Ice Age era of Mastodons, through the historic period of Native American’s hunting Bison, to modern seasons of whitewater rafting. Of course, if the river is the one to tell this story, then it learned it from the clay and sand soil that was deposited here throughout these eras, which the river has pushed and moved for millennia to carve this Valley. The union is better known as the Fall Line; the geological point where the piedmont and the coastal plain meet which spans across Georgia from Augusta, through Macon, to here in Columbus and provided the motivation for the settlement of each of these cities along the principal rivers of this state. This geological feature of the area has attracted travelers for thousands of years; from the migrating Mastodon that dropped the ivory tusk that can be viewed in The Columbus Museum today, to colonial era explorers like William Bartram.

Franklinia Alatamaha by Bartram circa 1791. All of this tree existing today are descended from seeds collected by Bartram in the 1760s and 1770s.

Born near Philadelphia in 1739, William Bartram was the son of John Bartram, a Quaker and distinguished botanist. William preferred the lifestyle of his father, to the point that he turned down a printing apprenticeship with Benjamin Franklin because it kept him away from the outdoors. John Bartram established a business from his Pennsylvania farm that sold native plants as New World curiosities to European enthusiasts. Europe was feverish for items from the New World in the eighteenth century, so John Bartram traveled the continent searching for exotic and undocumented plants he could propagate on his farm to sell in Europe. His son William accompanied him on a trip to Florida in the 1760s when the father-and-son team first documented a flowering tree they named Franklinia Alatamaha, after Ben Franklin and the Altamaha River in Georgia where the plant was found. This plant went extinct in the wild in the early 1800s and today all existing plants are descended from seeds collected and propagated by the Bartrams in 1765.

The 1728 stone Bartram Family Home at Bartram Gardens outside of Philadelphia where the Bartram family ran their botanical business.

John Bartram is remembered today as America’s First Botanist, but it is his son William Bartram who is associated with explorers and naturalists like John J. Audubon and John Muir for his published journal from his trip through the southern colonies of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida from 1773 to 1777.

The four-year excursion by William Bartram through the southern colonies was intended by its patron, Dr. John Fothergill of London, to be just for collecting seeds, but Bartram took the opportunity to record in detail his observations and studies of the flora, fauna, land, and people he encountered. His travel journal was published in 1791 and is still in print today as Bartram’s Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee County, the Extensive Territories of the Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. In this journal, several chapters are dedicated to his experiences in Georgia, with about ten pages detailing his experiences while traveling through the Chattahoochee Valley.

Golden St. John's Wort, native flowering plant, discovered by Bartram in 1775 in Taylor County, GA.

William Bartram spent a considerable amount of time in Georgia traveling north and south along the coast before pushing west into the Creek Nation. He crossed the Ocmulgee and Flint Rivers in June of 1776 and spent about a week encamped along the Chattahoochee River in early July of the same year. He commented on the “ruins of a capital town” consisting of “artificial hills” that exhibited the great power and wonder of “the ancients of this part of America.” This was the Ocmulgee Mounds along the Ocmulgee River in present-day Macon which can be visited today, preserved as a National Monument. He discovered a “beautiful shrub” growing along the banks of the Ocmulgee River with large green leaves and heavy cones of flowers. This was the first documentation of Oakleaf Hydrangea. Bartram crossed the Flint River the next day and camped along a large creek cutting deep into the high ground around it. There he made another discovery of the flowering herb known today as St. John’s Wort. This site is designated by a historic marker in Taylor County where GA-208 crosses Patsiliga Creek.

Bartram Trail marker on Patsiliga Creek in Taylor County, GA.

This territory between the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers Bartram described as having the potential of being “a delightful and fruitful region in some future day” due to the rich soil of the hills, savannahs, and “vast cane meadows” that were watered by numerous flowing brooks. However, not everything Bartram experienced in this region was pleasant.

A particular July day, somewhere in Talbot or Taylor County, was described by Bartram as very hot, and a swarm of horse flies engulfed his horse. The whole day passed with Bartram surround by a “vast cloud” of flies “so thick as to obscure every distant object.” The bites of the flies caused himself and his horse “fierce pain” and drew large drops of blood. Some sanctuary from these “persecuting demons'' was found on the high ridges where the wind and sun passed through the vast pine forests, but in low areas of cool and humid tree groves, the “dark clouds” of the flies would quickly overrun him. Naturally, Bartram preferred spending his travel time atop the elevated pine ridges of the Chattahoochee Valley.

Oakleaf Hydrangea, discovered by William Bartram in 1775 growing near the Flint River.

From a vista at the summit of one such ridge, Bartram observed “open airy groves of the superb turpentine Pines, glittering rills playing beneath, and brooks meandering through and expansive green savannahs, their banks ornamented with coppices of blooming aromatic shrubs and plants perfuming the air.” The description goes on to recount a typical summer day in Georgia; suddenly the sun was veiled in dark clouds and Bartram became startled by the sounds of thunder shaking the earth, roaring winds, floods of rain, and flashes of lightning that disturbed his eyes. He quickly threw his extra clothing and animal skins over his provisions and the samples of plants and seeds he had collected, but before he could settle down to let the storm pass the dark clouds opened and the warm sunshine broke through; “I am instantly struck dumb, inactive, and benumbed—at length the pulse of life begins to vibrate [again], the animal spirits begin to exert their powers, and I am by degrees revived.” The storm was followed by a “serene sky and a pleasant cool night” in which he collected pine knots to build a roaring fire to dry his clothes.

The Chattahoochee River was crossed in present-day Chattahoochee County across from the site of the Uchee village where the Native Americans met Bartram in large canoes and ferried him across the river. The village was impressive, as Bartram recorded, with its large and youthful population and the red-clay huts the people lived in. He spent a few days there in the company of some traders lodging in the village who showed Bartram the surrounding countryside. Bartram made detailed notes of the Native people and the plants growing along the Chattahoochee River before departing towards the established town of Mobile, Alabama.

Drawing by William Bartram of a turtle and a snake.

This sort of travel narrative, once published later by Bartram, created a literary sensation that inspired many other naturalists after Bartram to record their travels through wild lands and frontier regions. He eventually returned to his farm outside of Philadelphia, and his family continued the botanical business created by his father using many of the seeds Bartram collected during his time in Georgia. The Bartram farm can be visited today as one of the oldest and most historic botanical gardens in the country.

Long before this region became the City of Columbus or even the State of Georgia, William Bartram explored the forests, hills, creeks, and rivers of the Fall Line region of Middle Georgia to document the native species growing here. His account gives us a view into an original, natural environment that no longer exists, though we occupy the site where Bartram visited it. Parts of that environment remain, however, in the native trees, flowers, and plants that he helped classify, name, and in some cases save from extinction brought on by the clearing of the landscape that followed over the subsequent two centuries. These plants grow in our yards and public parks, in parking lots, and office flower pots still today and, in this manner, we benefit from the passionate work of this explorer that passed through our region almost a quarter of a millennia ago in search of how he could use his skills to influence the world.

WILLIAM BARTRAM