Magnolia Springs State Park: Fort Lawton Historic Trail (Blog Hike #453)

Trail: Fort Lawton Historic Trail

Hike Location: Magnolia Springs State Park

Geographic Location: north of Millen, GA (32.87463, -81.95784)

Length: 0.9 miles

Difficulty: 1/10 (Easy)

Date Hiked: December 2013

Overview: A short nature trail with good wildlife viewing opportunities and the site of a Confederate POW camp.

Park Information: http://gastateparks.org/MagnoliaSprings

Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=941374
Photo Highlight:

Directions to the trailhead: Magnolia Springs State Park is located on US 25 5 miles north of Millen.  Enter the park, pay the entrance fee, and park in the Visitor Center parking area.  The trail starts at a large kiosk across the main park road.

The hike: For my general comments on Magnolia Springs State Park, see the previous hike.  This hike explores the site of Camp Lawton, a Civil War prisoner-of-war (POW) camp.  The prison was constructed between August 5 and November 25, 1864 to relieve overcrowding at the Confederacy’s Andersonville POW camp some 150 miles to the west.  Confederate General John Winder chose this site due to its location near Magnolia Spring for its abundant drinking water, near the Augusta Savannah Railroad for its ease of access to drop off new prisoners, and beside a small hill that provided good, high ground for gun batteries to protect the prison.  The prison lasted less than 2 months before General Sherman’s infamous march forced its evacuation, but during its existence it became the Confederates’ largest POW camp, housing over 10,000 captured Union soldiers.

            POW camps are never friendly confines, but during the Civil War they were especially gruesome.  Of every 4 enemy soldiers that walked in, only 3 walked out; the others died of starvation, exposure, disease, or injury.  Interpretive signs bring the camp’s story to life, and on-going archaeological digs continue to unearth remnants of this time.  For example, in 2010 a team from Georgia Southern University unearthed a stockade wall and personal items from soldiers in one of the most significant archaeological finds in recent history.

Information kiosk at trailhead

            Begin your tour of the prison site by crossing the main park road at a marked crosswalk and reading the numerous signs on the large information kiosk.  After learning about the prison, walk uphill along the edge of the woods to begin hiking the Fort Lawton Historic Trail clockwise.  As you climb gradually, look for animal tracks in the soft sandy soil for clues as to what creatures have been here recently.

            At 0.1 miles, you reach the breastworks, all that remains of the prison structures.  The prison had a redoubt construction, meaning that is was enclosed by breastworks on all sides.  Imagine being a captured soldier living in a tent on these grounds, exposed to the elements.

Breastworks at former prison site

            Past the breastworks, the trail heads into the woods and soon comes to the earthworks that housed the gun batteries.  Now near the south park boundary, the trail curves right to pass the highest point on this hike, then curves right again as US 25 can be heard through the trees to the left.

            At 0.4 miles, the trail exits the woods atop a bluff that overlooks the park road and Spring Mill Branch.  Two more interpretive signs and a bench are also located here.  The trail is somewhat undefined from here, but you should walk downhill, cross the park road, and angle left through a gap in a wooden fence.  You are heading for a brown carsonite post in the left corner of a meadow beside the creek.

Hiking through the woods

            From the carsonite post, the remainder of the Fort Lawton Historic Trail parallels the creek, heading upstream.  What has thus far been a history-oriented hike turns into an excellent wildlife observation hike, as Spring Mill Branch’s clear waters teem with wildlife.  On my visit fish swam up and down the creek, some tadpoles were squirming into the water, and some turtles plopped into the water off of an old pier structure on which they were sunning.  One fish squirmed in the jaws of a blue heron that had just caught itself dinner.  A snowy egret sat quietly on a log to observe the whole scene.

Turtles on old pier structure

            I could have spent the entire afternoon beside the creek watching wildlife, but other trails beckoned.  When you manage to tear yourself away from the wildlife show, walk slightly uphill beside the Visitor Center to the Visitor Center parking lot, thus completing the hike.