Chesser Island, Okefenokee Swamp
Charlton Co., GA - Page 2

All indoor pictures were taken with no flash or any type of electrical light - the only light source was what made it through the windows. I have attempted to lighten them up somewhat.

When facing the front of the house, the porch is on the left side. You would enter the porch from the kitchen. There is no indoor plumbing so bathing was done in the bathtub on the screened in porch - notice the hand pump.

This is the back of the house. To the very left is a bedroom, in the center is the kitchen (with the chimney), and to the right is the back porch. The house is in relatively good shape. All of the walls are unpainted.

This little fella was sunning himself on the gate to the fence that surrounds the backyard. I didn't see many animals on the island. A few reptiles and some birds. While I'm sure there are probably still deer out there, they kept well away from the homestead!

This is the view from the back yard of the house. Inside this sugar cane shed it's dark but clean. Inside this building the Chessers would boil sugar cane to make sugar cane syrup. Every October folks gather at the homestead to eat, drink, and make cane syrup!                                                                                                                                                                        The cast-iron pot was used to make once-famous Chesser Island Sugar Cane Syrup. In the shed are other farming tools - long unused.

Both water pumps - the one in the house and the one in the shed, still work.

After entering the backyard from the kitchen, there is a smokehouse on the right side of the house. Meat was hung from the ceiling to cure. These outbuildings also held tools of all sorts and jarred goods.

When facing the back of the house this would be the right side. The back porch (where the bathtub is) and the living room chimney are visible. The object to the right is a whetstone used to sharpen blades. A better picture of the stone is below - handsomely displayed by my one and only!

This device is used to grind sugar cane. A pair of horses were attached to either end of the long, horizontal, pole. The turning causes the cane to be ground between stones. Carl Mobley said that the barrel caught the juice. It was then boiled down into syrup. Click here to learn more about grinding sugar.

The hand-drawn well with pulley system.

Outside, the bugs kept us moving quickly along! While the windows had screens over them, there was some small spaces between the floor, wall, and ceiling planks. However, I never noticed any bugs inside. [END]