Happy

Japanese Postcards

On the verso is a rubber-stamped message from The Thompson Company of San Francisco: “This is a hand-colored photographic Japanese post-card. Our stock is large and varied, covering every aspect of the Japanese empire. In ordering hand-colored Japanese post-cards state whether you desire views of Japan or of her people. Set of 6, postpaid, 15 cents. Set of 12, postpaid, 25 cents.”

Petting Zoo

The animals play rough on Mill Mountain.

Camp Onawaw

Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em

Going Up

“This tunnel and the elevator shaft were blasted out of the solid granite cliff, taking nine months and eight tons of dynamite to open up the passages. The tunnel pictured is 7×7 feet inside dimensions and lighted by fluorescent fixtures, with a total length of 196 feet.”

Grossverkehrsflugboot

Walking the Pack

Adoration

Laura Pope

“Museum contains more than 200 statues, all the work of Mrs. Pope Forester (shown at gate). Statues honor heroes of both World Wars, Martha Berry, Red Cross, Gold Star Mothers, and many others, including old maid school-teachers. (Photo by Woody)”

Up until her death in 1953, Laura Pope created an extraordinary garden around her home in Ochlocknee, Georgia, with more than 200 figurative sculptures, bas-reliefs and busts set into the walls and the elaborate arched gateway. She built her works up on found items such as scrap iron and tin cans, then covered them with concrete. (It was said that she preferred a sack of cement to a new dress any day.) She also colored her sculptures with vegetable dyes she made from flowers and berries.

In 1974, her only surviving son sold the property to a mill owner from the nearby town. He thought that the sculptures “had done passed their days of bein’ useful,” so he destroyed most of the freestanding works, leaving only some dozen that had been built into the walls.

Those works that had been part of the street-side wall and gateway are viewable from the road. The site’s current owners have formed a nonprofit called Popes Museum Preservation Inc., “established to preserve the history and artwork of the former home of Laura Pope Forester.” While the home is currently a private residence, tours may be arranged.