Bennett Place Forest Trail
This story map was created as a North Carolina Lives and Legacies Project .
This tour starts at the Bennett Place home fence gate. Fences themselves can inform on the history of a place. In the Harpers illustration depicting the surrender, we can see an idea of what the fence looked like in 1865. By the 1880s the fence had changed from using fewer wide posts to more thin posts. You can use the slider to explore the difference.
Fences changed substantially during and immediately after the Civil War in the South. Before the war, most farmers fenced in their house and garden and let livestock graze free-range on their otherwise unfenced lands. During the war, many fences were destroyed by soldiers on both sides for firewood and other needs. These soldiers also cut many trees in forests near battle fields for similar purposes. After the war, wood was scarce, so it was used sparingly. Still, at this time, most farmers began to fence their livestock into barns and pastures, and left their other property un-fenced (Mauldin, 2018). Learn more about fences here .
Just like fencing practices changed as natural resources changed, the land itself has evolved with time. This tour is focused on the way that the Bennett's used their land, and the way that a forest has grown on the property since to tell its own ecological history. What has changed? What has stayed the same?
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1
Front Gate
Where we start.
2
Youngest Forest
Out of the gate, turn left onto the trail. On your right are some of the youngest trees. Do you see how they are skinny and growing close together?
3
Entrance to the Woods
Enter the nature trail and look up. Most of the sky is blocked by sweet gum and other hardwood trees, but these grew under the shade of the oldest pines. Imagine the changes in this area since these pines were young, like the ones we saw before.
4
Below Your Feet
Take a moment to look down at the ground and notice how sandy the soil is (1920 map). Although the conditions were less than ideal, farmers of European descent eeked out a living on this land from the 1780s to the 1880s (Markham map, Menius 1981).
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Rocks Too
Rocks can tell historic stories too! Can you see where this rock may have been cut by a human tool, such as a plow?
Please note that we are not affirming that this rock was cut by a plow, as we await field verification.
6
It's Wet!
Water pools formed on top of the trail, because this soil is poorly drained. This makes for a unique agricultural situation- Besides livestock, Bennett grew wheat, corn, oats, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, and hops (1850 agricultural census). It was relatively rare for someone in the area to grow hops… probably because hops drown with this kind of soil.
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Mushrooms, Acorns, and More
Before the Civil War, hogs were branded and then allowed to roam forests free-range, where they foraged on mushrooms, acorns, and more forest floor finds (Mauldin, 2018). In 1850, James Bennett had 17 swine roaming the property. This comes out to a bit less per acre than other farmers in the state and county had- but Bennett had more cows, and they liked to forage in the forests too (1850 Agricultural Census). The flavors of the earth would have seeped into the families’ butter- and they made a lot of butter.
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A Tale of Two Pines
Both of these pines are what ecologists call “intolerant” trees, meaning that they are often the first trees to grow during the earliest days of the forest. Their presence here tells us that something- whether the plough, axe, fire, or storm- has taken its toll on the forest in the last 150 years. It is somewhat unusual to find mixed-pine forests, and the fact that we have both here may mean that this forest grew in stages (Christensen, 1989).
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Pasture Trees
Do you see that tree over there? Notice its branches stretching far beyond what a school child would call its “personal bubble of space”. That tree did not grow amongst other trees, and may in fact date to James Bennett’s time. (verification needed)
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Look Up and Exit
As you exit the trail, be sure to look at the sky. With pollution and air plane trails, it may not quite be the same as it was in James Bennett's time, but it still makes for a fine day.
Sources
- “Agricultural and Manufacturing Census Records of Fifteen Southern States for the Years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880.” 1850. Center for Research Libraries. Accessed June 14, 2023. https://dds.crl.edu/item/183245 .
- A. Markham Map, “First Settlers in Durham County- Early Land Grants”, 1750-1800, Duke Rubenstein Library
- “Bennett Place | Open Durham.” n.d. Accessed June 13, 2023. https://www.opendurham.org/buildings/bennett-place
- Christensen, Norman L. 1989. "Landscape History and Ecological Change." Journal of Forest History 116-125.
- “Fences | NCpedia.” n.d. Accessed June 13, 2023. https://www.ncpedia.org/fences .
- Mauldin, Erin Stewart. 2018. Unredeemed Land: An Environmental History of Civil War and Emancipation in the Cotton South. Oxford University Press.
- Menius, Arthur C. 1981. "James Bennitt: Portrait of an Antebellum Yeoman." The North Carolina Historical Review 305-26.
- " Soil map, North Carolina, Durham County sheet ," 1920. North Carolina State Archives call number MC.036.1920p.
