(Second in a series)
MILTON, Ga. | Would Sallie Duncan Liddell recognize the Liddell farm in 2026? Of course not. Though the remnants of first growth timber were already scarce when she farmed; continued timbering projects had left few old growth trees. Sawmills had been erected onsite to make cash profits from the forests. The first growth trees that remained were in the ravine that bisected the original land grant.
In 1980, I saw the three-foot diameter stump of a once-giant tree. Someone trespassing had foolishly tried to fell it. New hardwoods, scrub growth, and pines reforested the fallow fields. The topography of the land would change so dramatically as to become unrecognizable…