Iron Butt Association 2014 Daytona Party – Southern Swing 1000

The 2014 IBA Daytona Party,” Southern Swing,” took us to ten historical places in Florida and Georgia. The instruction sheet for the ride gave us a brief description of the famous place. For my friend, Bob, and me, this was our first Iron Butt flag ride. We had a good time and we learned that you have to keep snacking as you go or you will get too cold. We had to stop just after the tenth stop in Brunswick, GA to warm up and have breakfast.

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This unit was used in Cotton and Peanut processing until 1919 and later carried to Taylor County for use in the Lumber Industry. With a 5-foot Piston Stroke and a 16-foot Drive Wheel, this 500 HP Engine pulled 65 Gins in the World’s Largest Sea Island Cotton Processing Plant. It was given to the Society by Earl Lee Loughridge and installed by Jesse Hughey and Paul McClune.

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Town With Unusual Name: Two Egg, Florida is a small (very small) town in northwest Florida, with a very unusual name. It has a general store and not much else [Now closed]. The sign for Two Egg has been stolen many times. There are many different stories about how Two Egg got its name. Two Egg is just a few miles away from the town of Sneads, the birthplace of T. Thomas Fortune. [Amber Nosch, 10/04/2001]

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This peanut stands at the Visitor Information Center of Dothan, self-proclaimed “Peanut Capital of the World.” Free map shows other fiberglass peanut statues around town. Peanuts Around Town – Community Art Project: Approx. 50 four ft. high fiberglass peanuts decorated by local artists are installed at various locations. Includes “The Elvis Nut,” “The Violin Nut,” “Mr. Peanut Head,” “Wise Ol’ Nut,” “The Shoppin’ Nut” and more. [BRYAN SNELL, 08/13/2006]

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The official story is that a bad swarm of boll weevils came and destroyed the cotton crop one year and the towns people decided to grow other crops and thus avoid another economic disaster. The better story is that in 1919 they were building the new main street in Enterprise and had the road all torn up, and were putting in a Statue of Lady Liberty or some other overdone statuary. Local folks got tired of answering the same question all the time, “Whatcha gonna put there?” One wit started saying it would be a monument to the boll weevil, and some traveling salesman got told this and went back to Montgomery and told a newspaper editor that this little hick town was putting up a monument to a boll weevil. So they did a big write-up, and of course the town couldn’t back down, so they but up a nice monument to the boll weevil. The bronze plaque reads, “In profound appreciation of the Boll Weevil and what it has done as the herald of prosperity, this monument is erected by the citizens of Enterprise — December 11, 1919. [THX1138, 10/11/1997] [RA:
This story may be true, since the “Boll Weevil Monument” was just a lady statue and a ountain for the first 30 years of its life. It didn’t get its bug until 1949.]

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This house was Jefferson Davis’ home while Montgomery served as the Capital of the Confederate States of America and contains many of Davis’ personal belongings.

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Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site (Hangar 1) Museum, at Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, commemorates the contributions of African American airmen in World War II. Moton Field was the site of primary flight training for the pioneering pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen. It was constructed in 1941 as a new training base. The field was named after former Tuskegee Institute principal Robert Russa Moton, who died the previous year.

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The Little White House, in the Warm Springs Historic District in Warm Springs, Georgia, was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s personal retreat. He first came to Warm Springs for treatment of his paralytic illness, and liked the area so much that, as Governor of New York, he had a home built on nearby Pine Mountain. The house was finished in 1932. Roosevelt kept the house after he became President, using it as a Presidential retreat. The Little White House was the site of President Roosevelt’s death. The house was opened to the public as a museum in 1948.

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Fort Hawkins was established in 1806 by President Thomas Jefferson and Indian Agent Col. Benjamin Hawkins as an official U.S. Army Fort and Indian Factory for trading and meeting with Native Americans. It overlooked the ancient Indian Mounds of the “Old Fields” held sacred by the Muskogee Creek Nation, the Ocmulgee River, the Lower Creek Pathway that became the Federal Road connecting Washington, D.C. to Mobile and New Orleans, and the future site of Macon founded across the river seventeen years later. Fort Hawkins played an important role in Native Relations and Homeland Security as the gateway to the west in our Nation’s rapidly expanding frontier. Andrew Jackson visited the Fort and used it successfully as a staging area for the War of 1812’s Battle of New Orleans as well as the Creek and Seminole Wars. After the frontier moved further westward and Macon was founded in 1823, the Fort was decommissioned in 1828.

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Parris Island , South Carolina, consists of 8,095 acres, of which only 3,262 are habitable. The remaining acres are primarily salt marsh. Enlisted male training began in November 1915. Enlisted female training began in February 1949. Marines have trained on the Depot during each major conflict of the 20th and 21st century.

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The original St. Simons Island lighthouse was built in 1810, which was a 75-foot-tall early federal octagonal lighthouse topped by a 10-foot oil-burning lamp. During the American Civil War, U.S. military forces employed a Naval blockade of the coast. An invasion by Union troops in 1862 forced Confederate soldiers to abandon the area. The retreating troops destroyed the lighthouse to prevent it from being an aid to the navigation of Union warships. It is rumored that the lighthouse is haunted.