Whose Woods These Are

Michael Frome wrote a book published in 1984 entitled Whose Woods These Are: The Story of the National Forest. In the book, Chaper 8 is “Woody, the Barefoot Ranger.” It pays tribute to North Georgia’s legendary forester, Arthur Woody, first ranger in Georgia and one of the first in the nation. He was born, reared and lived in Suches at Woody Gap in Union County, Georgia.

      Frome’s introduction to Ranger Woody enticed me to do individual research on this forester whom I had heard about and known since my childhood.

      Born in a log cabin in Suches, Georgia on April 1, 1884 to Abraham Lincoln Woody and Eliza Ingram Woody, William Arthur Woody grew up loving the forest, wildlife, streams, and the mountains.

      Early in his life, when he saw the deer depleted by hunters, his father among them, he determined to take measures into his own hands and some day restock the deer to the mountains.

      Arthur Woody began working for the U. S. Forestry Service October 1, 1912 as an axeman on a baseline crew. Soon he was advanced to surveyor. On May 1, 1915, he was sworn in as a forest guard with the assignment of protecting the Blue Ridge District of the Cherokee National Forest against trespassers, poachers and fire.

      Then came the day, July 1, 1918, when he became the first ranger in Georgia, serving the Blue Ridge District. The forest was then still in the Cherokee National Forest. Later the Georgia acreage was named the Chattahoochee National Forest in 1935.

      In 1925, Mr. Woody secured five fawn from the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina, kept them in a pen at his home, bottle-fed hem and gave them pet names: Billy, Bessie, Nancy, Nimble and Bunnie-Girl. He released the deer into the forest near Rock Creek when he felt they could make it on their own. He kept adding others to the herd.

      When “experts” came from State Game and Fish Commission to inspect the area for deer population, Ranger Woody slyly took the men to the side of Rock Creek Lake with few natural deer signs. He was thus able to forestall the first controlled hunting season for deer for another year until 1941. As Ranger Woody worked at the checking station when the first deer was brought to be weighed, he was moved to tears.

      “That’s old Nemo. I’ve been seeing him almost every month since I put him in these woods years ago. But never no more,” Mr. Woody said.

      The streams and lakes received fish stock through Woody’s efforts. He had trout shipped to Gainesville from Denver, Colorado and Washington state by train. They were hauled by two-horse wagon in barrels of water and placed in the streams by hand. Herman Caldwell of Lumpkin County recalls, “My brother Henley and I helped put five or six little trout in every creek hole we could find. Five years later, people were catching trout as long as your arm.”

      Speckled trout were Woody’s favorite fish. He was also responsible for stocking Blue Ridge and other lakes with muskies. He delighted in keeping mum when experts from the Game and Fish Commission spent a week trying to determine why muskies, not native to the area, were in the mountain lakes. Armed with common sense that gave him a practical approach to solving problems, Woody cut through governmental red tape and ruled his forest empire with a firm (even though unorthodox) hand.

In 1925 he negotiated the purchase of an area of forest land on Highway 180 about half-way between Vogel State Park and Lake Winfield Scott from F. Alonzo Sosebee for $1,523.40. The land contained a masterful stand of yellow poplar as well as many varieties of other trees and numerous wildflowers. When Woody added this land to the national forest, little did he know he was securing a future memorial.

      The Ranger retired September 30, 1945 after a total of thirty-four years with the forest service. From his home in Suches he wrote, “I’m retired.” No fires to fight, no diaries to write, No J. F.’s to teach the poplar from the beech; No tools to grind, no desks to shine—Ah! This is the life for me!”

      A week later a stroke beset the giant forester and he succumbed June 10, 1946, some eight months after his retirement. The building and grounds were packed out at Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church in Suches with 1500 admirers who attended the funeral to show their respect for this giant among the tall timbers. He was eulogized as having one of the most uncanny minds for forestry and wildlife, and “a humanitarian, philanthropist, philosopher and friend.”

      On September 21, 1958, dignitaries of the Forest Service, political leaders, family and friends gathered at Sosebee Cove to dedicate it as a memorial to Ranger William Arthur Woody. Termed a “botanist’s paradise,” the quiet glade’s majestic trees rise as a tribute to one man’s efforts to preserve intact for future generations the natural resources of North Georgia’s forests.

      Another memorial to a giant in the mountains is Woody Gap School in Suches opened in January, 1941. The fist and main unit of the building was erected of granite from Arthur Woody’s quarry, lumber from his forestland sawed at his mill, and built on land donated by him which had originally been the home place of Civil War Governor Joseph Emerson Brown.

      This isolated school fulfilled a dream of Ranger Woody to bring a better way of life and more accessible education to his beloved mountain people.

      “Whose woods these are I think I know” are lines from Poet Robert Frost. The words evoke recollections of a tall man among towering trees.

(Published in The News Observer, Blue Ridge, GA, April 19, 1990. ©1990 by Ethelene Dyer Jones All rights reserved.)

Thoughts at Easter

Just outside Jerusalem is an area known as Gordon’s Calvary frequented by tourists to the Holy Land. It is one of the places designated as the spot where the crucifixion of Jesus Christ occurred. Although the exact location of Golgotha (Place of the Skull) is lost in antiquity, many scholars hold to the theory that Gordon’s Calvary is a true representation of the spot in geographical appearance and proximity to Jerusalem.

      Damascus Gate is on the northern wall of the great wall surrounding Jerusalem. The Nablus Road (known in biblical days as the Road to Damascus) leads northward from the gate. It is also called the Gate of the Column because of a stately column erected there by Emperor Hadrian in 135 A.D.

      Prior to that was a gate of the Herodian Period which was standing during the time of Jesus. Through the Damascus Gate went the major traffic lanes into and out of the city of Jerusalem.

      General Charles Gordon, a British soldier on leave from duty, was in Jerusalem in 1882. He was an avid Bible scholar. He was walking on the city wall late in the afternoon, meditating on the death of Jesus. He saw the hill slightly northeast of the Damascus Gate.

      As if in a moment of sudden inspiration, he noted that the outcropping of rock on the side of the hill and the indentations formed by grottoes made the place look like a skull. This surely was the hill on which the crucifixion occurred.

      Charles Gordon explored the area and began to uncover more evidence to substantiate his belief that he had found Calvary. In a garden nearby he discovered a tomb of stone in a hillside. It had a channel for a great stone to be rolled across it to cover the opening. The tomb was near the Hill of Golgotha, Place of the Skull, and seemed to geographically match the account in John 18:38-42 of the burial of Jesus in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

      In further research, General Gordon found that other nineteenth century scholars had proposed the same hill and tomb as the locations for the crucifixion and burial.

      In 1842, Otto Thenius, a German biblical scholar from Dresden, had taught that the crucifixion occurred outside Jerusalem on the rocky knoll known as Jeremiah’s Grotto. Drawings of the location had been preserved from his studies.

      In 1867, a Greek who then owned the land adjacent to Skull Hill discovered a tomb. He cleared away the debris, thinking first he would use it as a cistern, but determining that it was an ancient tomb, he left it alone.

      When General Charles Gordon found the hill and the tomb again in 1882, he began an intensive effort in London and elsewhere to raise money for purchase of the site. By 1892, over 2,000 pounds had been raised and he Garden Tomb Association was formed. The site was acquired by the Association in 1894 and work began on restoration.

      The intention of the GardenTomb Association was to restore the area believed by many to be the location of the sepulcher of Jesus provided by Joseph of Arimathea. The Association sought to preserve the place as a sanctuary of sacred quiet and meditation. It is open to visitors now for this purpose.

      At the far corner of the Garden, an observation platform was erected from which persons may view Golgotha, the place of execution. In ancient days it was used for crucifixions and for deaths by stoning because it was outside the city walls of Jerusalem.

      Within the garden, a well-beaten path leads to the tomb, an example of a first century burial crypt. The entranceway leads into a large space known as the mourning chamber where family and friends gathered to grieve for the dead. The second chamber of the tomb contains a hewn ledge where the dead body was laid, wrapped in graveclothes and anointed with burial spices.

      Certain characteristics marked the tomb where the body of Jesus was placed:

1. It was near the place of crucifixion (John 19:42).
2. It was located in a garden and hewn from stone, a rich man’s tomb (Matthew 27:60).
3. The disciples could look into the tomb from the outside (John 20:5).
4. The tomb was closed by rolling a great stone over the entrance (Matthew 17:60).
5. There was standing room for a number of persons inside the tomb (Luke 24:1-4).
6. It was a new tomb (John 19:4).

      On Easter Sundays, thousands of travelers to Jerusalem will crowd into the rotunda overlooking the tomb to participate in resurrection celebration services. The event that took place in Joseph’s garden tomb two thousand years ago offers hope to millions. Someone has said, “The secret of the sepulcher of Jesus is not its eminence but its emptiness.”

      It was my husband’s and my privilege to visit the Garden Tomb and view the Hill of Golgotha in 1978. A deep sense of reverence and awe engulfed me as I contemplated the significance of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. These pivotal events in history changed the world. But however awesome, they can only be life-changing through faith on an individual basis.

      Like Mary Magdalene who went alone to the empty tomb on the first day of the week, met the risen Lord, and went to tell others, each one who believes must declare personally, “I have seen the Lord!”

(Published in The News Observer, Blue Ridge, GA. April 12, 1990. ©1990 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. All rights reserved.)

What Was Good about Today?

Recently I read a book entitled What Was Good about Today? By Carol Kruckeberg (Madrona Publishers, 1989). It is a true story of Sara Kruckeberg, an eight-year-old child with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML).

      The book was written by Sara’s mother with a three-fold purpose: to tell how a family deals with the crisis of a terminal illness; to give hope and encouragement for living one day at a time; and to show that something good emerges from each day if one has the optimism to seek it.

      The verdict of possible leukemia comes after Sara is examined in the Sequim, Washington emergency room following flu-like symptoms that have not responded to medication. Dr. Wendy Mouradian tells Walt and Carol Kruckeberg, “There is something very wrong with Sara’s blood.”

      She is hospitalized in Sequim overnight, IVs pumping antibiotics. The next day Sara is transferred to children’s Orthopedic Hospital (COH) in Seattle where Dr. Dan Baker and others confirm the Sequim doctor’s diagnosis: Leukemia (AML).

      What do parents do when faced with knowledge that their child has only a short while to live without treatment, and may not have much time, even with treatment?

      They have initial shock, horror, disbelief, anger, terror, desperation. Then they decide to act, to move on the long shot that treatment may result in remission and, even a miracle of miracles, a cure. They pray. They watch while medications drip and the body of their child undergoes radical changes. They hide their true feelings and wear a façade of faith and courage.

      Eight-year-old Sara is the real trooper. It is she who decides, even in the throes of nausea from chemotherapy, that she and her mother will evaluate each day and find something good about it.

      Thus began the journey of coping, of discovering laughter and pleasure in ludicrous situations, of seeking meaning in seemingly small events, of playing the ‘what’s good” game.

      Sara, artistically gifted and unusually perceptive for her age, drew cartoons and posters to amuse the other patients and the doctors and nurses at COH. She wrote stories, poems and one-liners. Her sense of humor and determination were phenomenal.

      Mail-time was a highlight of each day in the hospital as Sara’s schoolmates and friends kept the cards coming in a steady stream.

      Carol Kruckeberg and Sara spent most of the next year in B-3 at COH in Seattle, returning home to Sequim when Sara had brief remissions or was granted a weekend pass.

Walt, the father, a high school teacher, continued with his job and cared for five-year old Andy. Walt and Carol’s parents, who lived in Sequim, went often to Seattle. Friends and church members provided inestimable support.

      The end came for Sara soon after she received a near-match bone marrow transplant from her father. She suffered “guest-versus host” (GVH) rejection.

      After Sara’s death, Carol signed up for writing classes. She had a compulsion to share Sara’s story for her own catharsis and healing and to help others in similar circumstances. She wanted to show what’s good about today.

      She and Walt adopted a little girl, not to take Sara’s place, but because the bi-racial child, Molly Rose, needed a home and could be taught the good things about each day.

      Carol tells the story without rancor, straight forward and with precision. She has a unique writing style. Her conclusion is provocative:

      “Today I sit and think of Sara. Still lonely. Still sad. Still wishing her into my life again. And I work to do what she did so well: To choose where there is choice: Laughter. Love. To keep the game going. To trust.”

      The book stimulates one to look less at problems and more at possibilities. Every obstacle is either a stumbling block or a challenge. Our response determines what’s good about today.

(Published in The News Observer, Blue Ridge, GA. April 5, 1990. ©1990 by Ethelene Dyer Jones. All rights reserved.)