Southern Piedmont Farming Tour

Mule team pulling wagon on farm in Southeast Georgia c. 1940's

with Smith Wilson 

Sunday, September 27 @ 2 pm SOLD OUT!

Join host Smith Wilson and his wife Dianne for a visit to the past on their horse and mule farm on Morton Road. Sharecroppers and tenant farmers were the real producers of their time, and Smith keeps the history of farming in the southern piedmont prior to World War II alive through seminars and demonstrations. Learn the difference between horses and mules and watch wagon hitching and plowing demonstrations with these draft animals. Did you know that tractors did not outnumber draft animals on American farms until 1945 and that, in Georgia, tractors did not outnumber mules until 1954? Ride on a mule-drawn wagon and see Smith and Dianne’s magnificent Percheron draft horses. These sturdy work horses, with their roots in France, are prized for their strength and were common in farms throughout the United States. View antique southern piedmont farm equipment and learn about salting and curing hams in a working two-story smoke house built by Smith’s great grandfather in 1885. His collection of conveyances includes a restored family one-horse buggy and farm wagons built locally between 1920 and 1940. This tour will last approximately 2 hours.

Your tour guide:

Smith Wilson is president of S&W Development Inc., a firm specializing in historic preservation which is located in the historic Franklin House. He began in the construction business building solar homes but found his niche with preservation work. His projects include restoration of the Presbyterian Manse on Hull Street, the Camak House on Meigs Street, and the adaptation of the old Coca-Cola Bottling Plant on Prince Avenue into a successful commercial and residential complex known as The Bottleworks. Wilson has had a key role in a variety of preservation and environmental organizations such as Sandy Creek Nature Center, Oconee River Land Trust, the Shields-Ethridge Heritage Farm and the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation. He currently serves as chair of the Education SPLOST II Community Oversight Committee. His passion, however, is for farm buildings, mules, and traditional farming methods. Wilson is a member of the Old Time Plow Club, which keeps the ancient plowing technique alive and demonstrates it at events throughout the Southeast.