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The Tools of the Time Traveler: Maps, rocks, roads, trees, and flowers.

Updated: Sep 27, 2023


Connahaynee Lodge ruins, Jasper, GA
Author and his daughter in front of the remaining chimney of the Connahaynee Lodge


Oh, how I love to explore abandoned places. Nothing quite

satisfies my curiosity like finding an old homestead in the middle

of a forest. They say that time travel isn’t possible. However,

that’s not exactly true. With a little bit of cleverness and a lot of

persistence, people can travel back in time. And while there are far

easier ways to venture back into the past than exploring abandoned

homes and roads - reading a book or watching a documentary

comes to mind – finding and investigating forgotten places are

among the most rewarding.


The way it works is as follows: I’ll be scouring over an old topographic

map or aerial photograph and notice the shape of an old barn,

silo, or home. (There are ways beyond the scope of this writing to

determine within a couple of acres, the exact locations of these old

structures.) I make notes and set out to see what’s left - if anything.

Once I’m out (usually in the middle of nowhere or on the outskirts

of a town) I’ll search for (and find) abandoned homesteads. On

the ground, one of the first things I look for is a spring-fed stream.

From there, it is not atypical to find patches of jonquils or other

perennial flowers – those hearty enduring indicators of forlorn

gardens. Next, I’ll scan the surrounding perimeter of the garden

for evidence of rock walls, foundations, or old metal equipment.

Sometimes there are burn barrels, barbed wire fences, or abandoned

metal boxes. Further investigation will typically lead to discovering

old bottles, usually without labels, but sometimes with engraved

indicators of the manufacturers.


In many ways, it is like examining a debris field from an accident.

There are fragments of a previous life that give hints to what it

was like living in the past. With little difficulty one can imagine a

farmer, tending to a crop, gathering water from the spring, filling

a glass bottle, and hanging a barbed wire fence to keep out intruding

animals. An old dirt road would have served as a challenging

entrance and exit to a distant community. And travel must have

taken longer given the lack of paved roads when the farm was

built. The population of a rural county would have been very

small, so neighbors were spaced far apart and towns even farther.

Therefore, a trip to town probably happened once a week at the

most, if not less. All-in-all, one would have lived an insular life,

one dependent upon hard work, family, and a perpetual fight with

the elements, nature, time, and entropy.

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