LeConte-Woodmanston Foundation, Inc.
HISTORY
Woodmanston Plantation, located just west of Riceboro, Georgia, in Liberty County, traces its roots to 1760, when the grandsons of a French immigrant came to coastal Georgia to seek their fortunes.
On this land, Louis LeConte carved out one of the largest plantations in the area and began a tradition of intellectual inquiry and scientific study that manifested in his sons and nephews, who made great contributions to the advancement of academics and scientific inquiry in 19th century America.
Since the early 1970s, efforts have been underway to preserve e and restore the plantation site: The site's historic significance was recognized in 1973 when it was named to the National Register of Historic Places. This act ensures the preservation of a 64-acre tract of the original plantation.
John Eatton LeConte established Woodmanston in 1760 as an inland swamp rice plantation, one of the earliest forms of rice growing in America. It relied on the diversion of slow moving swamp creeks into a reservoir created by earthen dams. Water from this reservoir was then released through trunk gates into fields at lower elevations of the swamp. At the turn of the 18th century, inland swamp rice production was being replaced by a more efficient method of production known as the tidal flow system. Plantations of this type were built along major coastal rivers and were not as susceptible to flood and drought as were inland swamp plantations. Nevertheless, rice continued to be grown at Woodmanston until the end of the Civil War, and even after, by local freedmen. By 1774, Woodmanston had grown to encompass over 3,300 acres, making it the largest 18th century rice plantation in Liberty County.
In 1765, the American naturalist, John Bartram, passed by Woodmanston on his way to Florida. Only fifteen miles south of the Plantation, Bartram discovered the famous "lost" Franklinia altamaha. By the early 19th century, botanists from around the world were drawn to the region in search of the Franklinia and other rare or unknown plants. Many of these plants they found growing at Woodmanston under the meticulous care of its new owner, Louis LeConte, the son of John Eatton. Louis assumed control of the Plantation in 1810. Over the next twenty-eight years, he conducted many plant finding expeditions in the undeveloped areas surrounding his plantation, and built an extensive knowledge of coastal Georgia's native flora. For this, he was respected and often consulted by such renowned American botanists as William Baldwin and Asa Gray.
Louis cultivated many of the plants found around Woodmanston in his botanical garden. This garden measured over an acre, and, in addition to native plants, included many new and exotic species. Louis' collection of Camellias was extraordinary for its time. Some reached fifteen feet high with trunks over a foot in diameter. Flowering bulbs were another of Louis' specialties. He is believed to have cu8ltivated over 40 different species of bulbs in his garden, some native and others from such diverse places as Barbados, Mexico, Portugal, and Spain.
All of Louis' children inherited their father's love of science and natural beauty. This was especially true of his two sons, John and Joseph. both became professors, finally joining the faculty at the newly formed University of California, in Berkeley, where John served as the University's first president and Joseph gained an international reputation for his works in physiological optics, evolution and religion, and geology. Today, Joseph is most remembered as one of the founding members of the Sierra Club.
In 1896, Joseph made one final visit to Woodmanston where he observed the garden that was his "joy and delight in childhood" in a state of complete abandon and disrepair. Today the garden is being restored and the Plantation's former rice fields have reverted back to their original state. These gum and cypress swamps which so enticed Louis and other scientists, now host a wide variety of native plants. As gardens of great ecological diversity, they survive as living memorials to the botanical achievements of Louis LeConte.
Interest in rice growing in the Southeast is becoming renewed as people realize its historical importance as one of the 18th and 19th century America's most lucrative cash crops. The LeConte-Woodmanston Foundation has restored two one-acre plats in an original rice field to show visitors how rice fields were first constructed and operated in 18th century coastal Georgia. Woodmanston's remaining rice dikes and dams now offer visitors access into Bulltown Swamp as interpretive Nature Trails, providing an excellent opportunity to learn about the area's unique plant and animal life that make-up this blackwater ecosystem.
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