The Highway 25 entrance to the Bo Ginn Aquarium and National Fish Hatchery is included in an area recently fenced in by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife with speculation being that an announcement of an archeological “discovery” at the site will soon be made. (Staff photos by Deborah Bennett) Since its acquisition by the State of Georgia in 1939, Magnolia Springs State Park has proven to be a valuable tourists’ attraction for Jenkins County, largely due to the fact that the site was home to Confederate prison Fort Lawton during the Civil War. The historical significance of the park, along with its tourists’ appeal, may soon increase dramatically as rumor of a “big” archeological find at the park has begun to circulate.

While no information has yet been released to the public by U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, an invitation only press conference has been scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 9 at the park. There are also undeniable physical signs that something is going on. A chain-linked fence has been erected around a large area on the north side of the property that includes the Highway 25 access road to the Bo Ginn Aquarium and National Fish Hatchery, guards are on-duty at the site around the clock and signs have been posted noting that the area is now “closed” to the public.

Signs like this one have been posted all along the fenced area which is on the north side of Magnolia Springs State Park. These changes began to take place shortly after the Georgia Southern University Archeological Department began conducting a dig at the park in April in search of remnants of the stockade wall that was burned by Gen. William T. Sherman on his infamous 1864 March to the Sea. A previous dig in 2007 by archeologists from the Georgia Department of Transportation and Georgia Department of Natural Resources led to the discovery of a soil-stained, charred wood fragment that the team believed could be from the stockade wall. Speculation that the wall has been located is widespread.

There is also speculation of the discovery of a burial trench. Reports from the time of the Civil War indicate that 1,300 prisoners died at Fort Lawton and were placed in two burial trenches. One trench was previously discovered, and 685 bodies were removed from Fort Lawton to Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, S.C. A second trench has never been located.

Whatever the “find”, it is rumored to be “bigger than Andersonville,” site of a Civil War Prison, Andersonville National Cemetery and National Prisoner of War Museum. Fort Lawton was built by the Confederacy in September 1864 to relieve congested conditions at Camp Sumter in Andersonville and by November 25, 1864 the camp was abandoned in advance of Gen. Sherman’s approach.

While Fort Lawton only existed for a few short weeks during the Civil War, its historical importance lingers today in Jenkins County and, perhaps, will evolve into something even bigger for the community in the near future.

Although attendance to the Aug. 9 press conference is by “invitation only”, local citizens may come to the park and wait outside the conference area for an announcement to be made public.