Their Old Inhabitants

“You should understand that as far as the Southeast is concerned, I am only familiar with the conditions that were in effect after 1900. The old inhabitants I refer to were those people and their descendants that occupied the lands after the colonization of North America by Europeans. The really old inhabitants, the ones that were here between the year the last glacier receded and the arrival of DeSoto and his 600 pigs in 1539, were a different breed of cat altogether. It is interesting to note, however, that indications are beginning to suggest that there were many more of these truly old inhabitants than we thought there were, and they had much more of an effect on their surroundings than we have given them credit for having. The so-called trackless forests have very likely never been trackless.”

Copyright Tom Kelly Inc. 2011