3 minute read
ZIRKLE
THE TOWN HASN’T EXISTED FOR ALMOST A CENTURY, BUT THE BEAUTY OF THIS PIERCE COUNTY SPOT IS TIMELESS
Story and Photography by WAYNE MORGAN
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Fifteen years ago, I was leaving to go take pictures early one morning when my neighbor fl agged me down. Je had been in a horrible wreck many years before; much of his body had scars and he was in a wheelchair. Just about every time I saw him, he would be sitting on his porch drinking beer (maybe to kill the pain).
I pulled over to see what he wanted and he asked me if I had ever been to Zirkle. I had never heard of it. He told me to look on the wall of his trailer. It was a painting of a steel dam with trees on both sides. I told him it was pretty and asked him where it was located. He told me, and I had my doubts, but I thought it was worth the 12 miles from our house to go see. I was always looking for places and things to take pictures of (and still do).
When I got to Zirkle, I could not believe that I had lived this close all of my life and never been to, or even heard of, this place. It was an old steel dam with the Little Satilla River running through it and trees on both sides – just like the painting he had on his wall.
That was in 2007, and I have tried
my best to fi nd out anything about the place that I could. About 500 people lived there in the early 1900s. The dam was installed in 1918 and there was a post o ce, horse stalls, a cemetery, a commissary, and a sawmill, and they had their own money system. Actor Ossie Davis mentioned in his autobiography that he had lived there as a child and some bad people with hoods came in and tried to scare them o .
Not much is there anymore except the old dam and a few bricks where maybe a well once was. I have made the 12-mile trip to Zirkle so many times I have lost count. About a year ago, I got a call from a man who was in Waycross. He wanted to meet me and have me show him Zirkle. He was from near Maryland and working on a construction job nearby. His name was Whit Zirkle and he was a descendant of Lewis Zirkle, who originally started the town.
I have had two di erent people give me coins, and I even decided to use Zirkle in the title of one of my books. I wanted to do a book on places I have been to take pictures; instead of going A-Z, I turned it around and called it “Zirkle To Alaska.” To me, the place has so much mystery, and recently some more has been added to the place. A man in his 20s was found dead on the road leading into Zirkle and the law has been asking for help locating his killer or information leading to it.
On a recent evening, I once again made the trip to my favorite and most photographed place in my 20 years of photography. My neighbor passed away several years ago, but I will always be in his debt for fl agging me down that day and showing me his painting on the wall. OL
ARTSvCULTURE
Wayne Morgan is a Brantley County artist whose photographs are owned by the likes of President Jimmy Carter and Governor Sonny Perdue. His stunning stills of local river and swamp life capture the spirit of the Satilla and Okefenokee.
