Rare Dugout Canoe Scheduled for Public Display at Fernbank Museum of Natural History 

ATLANTA (February 25, 2008) – Fernbank Museum of Natural History will soon unveil a 17-foot-long dugout canoe that was donated to the Museum by international forest products company Rayonier last year. The historic find – one of only a few ever documented in Georgia – was discovered submerged in sand and shallow water on Rayonier property adjacent to the Satilla River in Ware County in 2006. 

   The canoe, which dates to approximately 1680-1740, will go on display in Fernbank’s First Georgians exhibition of Native American objects on March 1, 2008. In celebration of the installation, the Museum will first welcome some of the people instrumental in finding, protecting and donating this historic artifact, including Josh Landon, who first spotted the canoe in the low water levels of the Satilla River. Also on hand will be representatives from Rayonier, who safeguarded the canoe while finding it a home at Fernbank to assure its preservation and access for research.

   Fernbank Museum is dedicated to telling the story of Native American life both before and after European arrival in Georgia and will use this important artifact to further teach visitors about Georgia’s first citizens. 

   “We can’t understand local Indian lifeways without considering the role of dugout canoes, any more than we can think about our own society without taking cars into account,” said Dennis Blanton, Curator of Native American Archaeology for Fernbank Museum. “Dugout canoes were the only transportation alternative available to local Indians beyond foot travel, and they were especially important on Georgia’s coast and in the wetlands of South Georgia.”

   “Rayonier has a long history of protecting special sites on its lands. As foresters, we’re usually focused on conservation of the sites themselves, which may have historical, cultural, geological, ecological or recreational value. In this case, we had the privilege of helping to preserve an extraordinary item discovered on our lands,” said Larry Davis, director of Eastern Forest Resources for Rayonier. “We’re very pleased to partner with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Fernbank Museum of Natural History to preserve this rare canoe, so future generations can learn about its significance to the history of our region.” 

   Fernbank Museum spent a year preparing the canoe for display, including radio-carbon dating it, cleaning the water-logged wood and protecting the artifact with a chemical solution that replaced the water with natural oils. Blanton also studied tree rings in the wood itself, revealing that the canoe was made from a single long-leaf pine tree that was more than 200 years old at the time it was crafted into a canoe. Recognizing charred wood inside the canoe, he also determined it was hollowed out using a traditional burn-and-scrape method.

   Native Americans most likely would have burned some of the tree to hollow it, then used shell or stone tools—until the introduction of metal tools by the Spanish—to scrape away pieces of wood. An average canoe measured approximately 15 feet long and could carry several people, such as a family. 

   Blanton, who is conducting archaeological research on Native American sites in South Georgia, has been trying his own hand at carving a dugout canoe with a group of archaeology participants using traditional Native American methods, including the use of a metal tool recreated from an artifact he recently excavated in Telfair County. They also have tried a few modern tools for comparison. 

   He said he was impressed with how well the primitive metal hatchet worked. “I could really imagine how Indians would have been enamored with the metal tools introduced by the Spaniards.” 

   After investing more than 20 hours of work burning and scraping the unfinished 12-foot canoe, Blanton and a handful of other interested participants have a new appreciation for the process.

   “It takes a lot of effort, as simple as it sounds,” he said. “The labor has made it clear to me that these canoes would have been valuable based on not only effort, but on the canoes’ ultimate uses. Indians would have valued these canoes as much as we value our cars today.”

   Blanton said he’s looking forward to continuing his hand at Native American craftsmanship, but that his original impression still holds true: “All along, I’ve just been happy I already had a canoe and didn’t ‘have’ to make one.”