Bartram Trail

These photos were shot in response to an invitation from Kinship Photography to explore the Bartram trail. William Bartram (b. 1739) was the son of a wealthy botanist in New England who, after failing in several business ventures, decided that all he really wanted to do was walk through the woods and draw/write about what he saw. I can relate. Alas that sort of freedom is still only afforded to the whitest, wealthiest, and most testosterone saturated among us.

The Bartram trail is long and traverses through eclectic terrain including through at least one small town; Franklin, North Carolina. I started my Franklin journey at Nikwasi Mound, built over 1,000 years ago by the Cherokee people and is still considered a holy site by the nearby Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.  It is now surrounded on all sides by small town sprawl; parking lots, gas stations, a CBD dispensary, a U-Haul rental facility, and a farm to table cafe. I spent over an hour circling this small mound. When it came time to continue my Bartram trail journey I had the choice to either venture  towards a greenway along the Little Tennessee River - a path that no doubt would have lead me to ample natural beauty; trees dripping in picturesque kudzu, sunlight twinkling through the full summer trees - or to the path that led to the kitschy splendor of downtown Franklin. On that particular day the pull towards kitsch was strong. Franklin did not disappoint; I discovered among other things; a gem store/museum full of treasures that white men found on stolen land then claimed as their own (arrowheads, stone pipes…), an antique shop spilling over with generations of things people had to have and then had to get rid of,  a Scottish tartan museum, and a history museum with confederate soldier figurines, nineteenth century medical equipment, and a large display case containing a Nazi Flag and a Japanese flag – both captured during WWII by American soldiers.