on my morning stroll

Linking to Through My Lens - an International group where photographers are invited to share.

a hike through mason farm biological reserve

Some time during the 1740's, the Morgan family settled in southeastern Orange County, NC. (Morgan - as in Morgan Creek - for you James Taylor fans). In 1894, Mary Morgan Mason, one of the last descendants of the Morgan family, gifted the farm and it's property to the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. Much of the property has reverted back to woodlands now and parts of the forest are 150 years old and contains trees that are over 300 years old. Amazing. There's a 65 acre ancient forest that has been continuously forested (never plowed or clear-cut) since before European settlement. The old fields, open since before the Civil War, are being rehabilitated to their wet meadow and Piedmont prairie states. Mason farm is 367 acres, set aside for study, contemplation, appreciation and exploration. On this day we hiked through slowly, to listen, explore and enjoy. The only sound was birdsong, summer insect noise and the occasion deer bounding through the woods.

When you see a tree in the woods, bent awkwardly but purposefully like this, you know that you've come across on old native Indian trail.

It was mid-day when we arrived so the birds were hiding in the shady growth,

but the dragonflies were everywhere!

 

 

 

 

 

musica: music lovers, musicians, the scene

heads

Every museum has it's own collection, it's own vision, and curators design exhibits based on their own personally chosen themes. As we walked through the quiet halls at the Ackland in Chapel Hill, I realized that there were heads everywhere. We visit a lot of museums and I don't really recall any other gallery quite so rich with so many fascinating faces. Heads, from a wide range of time periods and from so many different corners of the world. Who knew?

burk uzzle at the ackland

Dave and I completed our Burk Uzzle exhibit hat-trick with a visit to our final destination: The Ackland Museum in Chapel Hill. The intriguing thing about this trio of exhibits is that The Ackland, The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh and The Nasher Museum in Durham all collaborated to showcase Uzzle's great photographs while at the same time presenting different themes/programs/subjects at each site.

One of our favorites at the Ackland (and there were many!) was this emotional piece that Uzzle captured while photographing Martin Luther King's funeral

and the scene surrounding that event.

Still relevant after all these years, don't you think?

walking the occoneechee speedway trail

The Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail (HOST) is located on a site in Hillsborough, NC, whose history dates to the 17th century, when the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation resided here along the banks of the Eno River.
In the late 1700’s, James Hogg, along with many other families, settled here and farmed the fertile land. Hogg’s 3-home plantation was named Poplar Hill. In the 1890’s, General Julian Carr purchased Poplar Hill and the surrounding land and expanded the farm to include a horse racetrack.

Tall trees line the old dirt straight-away.

In 1947, Bill France discovered the racetrack as he flew over Orange County. France partnered with 4 other men to form Hillsboro Speedway, purchase of the 200-acre parcel that included the racetrack in order to develop it for use as an auto racetrack - the Occoneechee Speedway.
In 1949, NASCAR hosted their first race on the 1-mile dirt track - a 100-mile race with over 20,000 fans in attendance. Interesting fact: NASCAR and automobile racing in the South originated in the early 1900’s as informal competitions among bootleggers who modified their vehicles for speed and handling in rural landscapes.

Dave takes the turn.

The track hosted many races, local athletic games, and community events over the next 20 years until 1968, when the opening of the Talladega track in Alabama took the place of the Speedway. The final NASCAR race at the track, “The Hillsboro 150”, took place on September 15, 1968, with Richard Petty as the winner.

The old cement grandstand remains, along with the concession stand decorated with Pepsi signage.

By 1969, racing had fallen out of political favor in the area and with the Speedway out of use, nature began to reclaim the land.




In the early 1980’s, this property was threatened as a proposed location for a bypass intended to redirect traffic congestion in the area. The Preservation Fund of Hillsborough, Preservation North Carolina, and the James M Johnston Charitable Trust, along with Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, worked together to preserve the natural and historic integrity of the Speedway property and surrounding land.

This skink makes his home inside the shell of car #72.

In 1997, CAHPT took ownership of the HOST property and in 2002 this site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2006 local racing enthusiasts formed the Historic Speedway Group to help in restoring and maintaining the site. In 2011, CAHPT joined with the Mountains-to-Sea Trail to connect HOST to the statewide trail system. The HOST is the only dirt track speedway remaining from NASCAR’s inaugural season.

(The information and text on this post was collected from site placards. The photos are all mine.)