Creekfire RV Resort- Savannah, GA

 Creekfire RV Resort- Savannah, GA

The swamp in the campground has posted a warning concerning alligators in the area. We looked but did not see any gators.

Forsyth Park (formerly known as the Military Parade Ground) is a large city park that occupies 30 acres in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia.

This monument is in honor of Georgians that served in the Spanish-American War.

Built in 1874, Forsyth Park hosts a large monument to the Confederate lives lost in war. One of the first and largest in the state, the monument was unveiled in 1874. The bronze statue of a Confederate soldier added several years later in 1879.

As one of the most photographed fountains in Savannah, the Forsyth Park Fountain was installed in 1858. Paris was the inspiration for the park and the fountain. At the time of installation, Parisian urban planning was centered on the development of residential neighborhoods radiating out from a central green space. The Parisian model of developing large city parks was emulated by cities in the United States, including Savannah.

This memorial honors Marines from Savannah that served from WWI thru Desert Storm.

Monterey Square is one of the 22 squares in the city of Savannah. It was laid out in 1847.

Monterey Square commemorates the Battle of Monterrey (1846), in which American forces under General Zachary Taylor captured the city of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War.

In the center of the square is an 1853 monument honoring General Casimir Pulaski.

Madison Square is located in the fourth row of the city's five rows of squares. The square is named for James Madison, fourth president of the United States. Madison Square features a vintage cannon from the Savannah Armory. These now mark the starting points of the first highways in Georgia, the Ogeechee Road, leading to Darien, and the Augusta Road.

William Jasper was a noted American soldier in the Revolutionary War. 

Jasper distinguished himself in the defense of Fort Moultrie on June 28, 1776. When a shell from a British warship shot away the flagstaff, he recovered the South Carolina flag in the Battle of Sullivan's Island, raised it on a temporary staff, and held it under fire until a new staff was installed. Governor John Rutledge gave his sword to Jasper in recognition of his bravery.

In 1779, Sergeant Jasper participated in the Siege of Savannah, led by General Lincoln, which failed to recapture Savannah, Georgia, from the British. He was mortally wounded during an assault on the British forces there.

Sgt. Jasper's story is similar to that of Sgt. John Newton. Five states (Indiana, Missouri, Texas, Mississippi, and Georgia) have adjacent counties named Jasper and Newton, as these were remembered as a pair, due to the popularity of Parson Weems' memorializing early American history. Several other states have a Jasper County with a county seat of Newton, or vice versa.

Lisa and Superdog Karma were posing at Madison Square.

Mark, Lisa and Superdog were in Madison Square at another memorial.

Chippewa Square is located in the middle row of the city's five rows of squares. 

The square named in honor of American soldiers killed in the Battle of Chippawa during the War of 1812. 

The James Oglethorpe Monument honors the founder of the Province of Georgia, who established the city of Savannah in 1733. Efforts towards the monument's erection began in 1901 and were led by members of several patriotic groups in the city, who secured government funding for the monument. It was dedicated in 1910, in a ceremony that attracted several thousand spectators and was attended by several notable government officials.

Wright Square is located in the second row of the city's five rows of squares, and was laid out in 1733 as one of the first four squares. 

The second square established in Savannah was originally name Percival Square, for John Percival, 1st Earl of Egmont, generally regarded as the man who gave the colony of Georgia its name. It was renamed in 1763 to honor James Wright, the third and final royal governor of Georgia.

The square is the burial site of Tomochichi, a leader of the Creek nation of Native Americans. Tomochichi was a trusted friend of James Oglethorpe and assisted him in the founding of his colony. When Tomochichi died in 1739, Oglethorpe ordered him buried with military honors in the center of Percival Square. In accordance with his people's customs, the grave was marked by a pyramid of stones gathered from the surrounding area. In 1883, citizens wishing to honor William Washington Gordon replaced Tomochichi's monument with an elaborate and highly allegorical monument to Gordon, called the William Washington Gordon Monument. Gordon's own daughter-in-law, Nellie Gordon, objected strongly to this perceived insult to Tomochichi. She and other members of the Colonial Dames of the State of Georgia planned to erect a new monument to Tomochichi, made of granite from Stone Mountain.  The new monument was erected in 1899. It stands in the southeast corner of the square and eulogizes Tomochichi as a great friend of James Oglethorpe and the people of Georgia.

William Washington Gordon was a railroad baron during the mid-1800s who served as the founder and first president of the Central of Georgia Railway. In 1842, Gordon passed away at the age of 46. Several years later, in 1883, efforts were underway to erect a monument in honor of Gordon in Savannah. 

In 1733, Johnson Square was the first square to be laid out and remains the largest of the 22.  It is named for Robert Johnson, colonial governor of South Carolina and a friend of General James Oglethorpe.

Interred under his monument in the square is Revolutionary War hero, General Nathanael Greene, the namesake of nearby Greene Square. Greene died in 1786 and was buried in Savannah's Colonial Park Cemetery. His son was buried beside him after drowning in the Savannah River in 1793. Following vandalism of the cemetery by occupying Union forces during the Civil War, the location of Greene's burial was lost. After the remains were re-identified, Greene and his son were moved to Johnson Square. An obelisk in the center of the square now serves as a memorial to General Greene.

The Nathanael Greene Monument honors the general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. While the cornerstone was laid in 1825, the monument was not completed until 1830, at which time it served as a joint monument for Greene and fellow Continental Army general Casimir Pulaski. The monument became solely dedicated to Greene in 1853, after which two bronze plaques honoring Greene were added to the structure. In 1902, Greene's body was reinterred under the monument.

The Savannah Cotton Exchange was established in 1876. Its function was to provide King Cotton brokers who were serving planters' interest in the market, a place to congregate and set the market value of cotton exported to larger markets such as New York City or London. 

The cotton exchange went out of business in 1951.

African American Monument was spearheaded by Abigail Jordan, an African American activist from the city who spent several decades trying to get the monument created.  In 1998, the city's Historic Site and Monument Commission approved the monument.

In January 2001, the city council approved the monument, but deferred action on a decision regarding a quote by Maya Angelou that would appear on the base of the monument. The proposed quote would have read, in part, "We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave ships in each other’s excrement and urine together, sometimes died together, and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together. At the time, the quote was considered controversial in part due to the monument's proposed location along the Savannah River promenade, which was one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city.  David Jones, an African American city council member at the time, had the following to say about the quote: “Maya Angelou’s description was a little far out. I myself wouldn’t want to be reminded of that every time I look at it. History . . . can hurt.” Savannah Mayor Floyd Adams Jr. was also opposed to the quote. In January 2002, Angelou submitted to the city council the following addition to the quote: "Today, we are standing up together, with faith and even some joy." This amended version of the inscription was unanimously agreed upon by the city council in May of that year.

Florence Margaret Martus, also known as "the Waving Girl", took it upon herself to be the unofficial greeter of all ships that entered and left the Port of Savannah, Georgia, between 1887 and 1931. A few years after she began waving at passing sailors, she moved in with her brother, a light keeper, at his small white cottage about five miles up the river from Fort Pulaski. From her rustic home on Elba Island, a tiny piece of land in the Savannah River near the Atlantic Ocean, Martus would wave a handkerchief by day and a lantern by night. According to legend, not a ship was missed in her forty-four years on watch.

This bell which is believed to be the oldest in Georgia, bears the date 1802.  Imported from Amsterdam, it hung in the cupola of the City Exchange from 1804 until a short time before that building was razed to make room for the present City Hall.

In it's day, the bell signaled the closing times for the shops and was rung by a watchman when fire broke out.

The Haitian Monument, in Savannah’s Franklin Square, recognizes the contribution of the all-Black Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue to the fight for American independence.

Few Black regiments fought on the American side during the Revolutionary War. The Chasseurs-Volontaires – recruited from present-day Haiti, at that time the French colony of Saint-Domingue was the largest Black regiment to serve in that war.

Although they had been enlisted to occupy an auxiliary role, the Chasseurs-Volontaires did serve on the front line, the 545-strong force providing cover for their French allies during the Siege of Savannah in 1779.

The Telfair Academy is a historic mansion in Savannah, Georgia. It was designed by William Jay and built in 1818, and is one of a small number of Jay's surviving works. It is one of three sites owned by Telfair Museums. Originally a family townhouse belonging to the Telfair family, it became a free art museum in 1886, and thus one of the first 10 art museums in America, and the oldest public art museum in the South. 

Orleans Square boasts the German Memorial Fountain, which commemorates the contributions of the early German immigrants to help the colony of Georgia grow. Beautiful stone benches and shaded by huge live oaks surround the fountain, which appeared in the square in 1989.

The construction of Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist began in 1859 and was completed in 1876. The structure was nearly destroyed by fire in 1898, but was rebuilt by 1899. 

The colonial charter of Savannah prohibited Roman Catholics from settling in the city. The English trustees feared that Catholics would be more loyal to the Spanish authorities in Florida than to the English government in Georgia, however this prohibition faded shortly after the American Revolution. The church's congregation was reorganized about 1796. French Catholic émigrés established the first church in 1799 after they fled Haiti after slave rebellions that began on the Caribbean Island in 1791. It became the main church for free blacks from Haiti in the early 19th century.   

Lafayette Square is located in the fourth row of the city's five rows of squares and was laid out in 1837.   The square is named for Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution who visited Savannah in 1825. The oldest building on the square is the Andrew Low Carriage House, which dates to 1849.

The square contains a fountain commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Georgia colony, donated by the Colonial Dames of Georgia in 1984.

Troup Square  is located in the fourth row of the city's five rows of squares and was laid out in 1837.  The square is named for George Troup, the former Georgia governor, Congressman and senator. It is one of only two Savannah squares named for a person living at the time (the other being Washington Square).

In the middle of the square is the fascinating Armillary Sphere, a sphere held up by six tortoises. Originally invented by the Greeks and used to track celestial orbits, armillary spheres were also used by ancient astronomers to show the recurrence of equinoxes and solstices.

Whitefield Square is located in the southernmost row of the city's five rows of squares. In 1851, it was the final square to be laid out. The oldest building on the square dates to 1855.

It is named for the Rev. George Whitefield founder of Bethesda Home for Boys (a residential education program, formerly the Bethesda Orphanage) in the 18th century, and still in existence on the south side of the city.

The square has a gazebo in its center.

The Armstrong Kessler Mansion is a nationally significant example of Italian Renaissance Revival architectural style located in the Savannah Historic District. The structure was built between 1917 and 1919 for the home of Savannah magnate George Ferguson Armstrong (1868–1924). It was owned by the Armstrong family from 1919 to 1935. Afterward, the structure and grounds served as the campus of Armstrong Junior College. Threatened with demolition, the Historic Savannah Foundation purchased the Armstrong House along with five other threatened historic buildings from the college for $235,000 in 1967. Once saved, Historic Savannah Foundation then sold the Mansion (and Hershel V. Jenkins Hall) at the exact purchase price to preservationist and antique dealer Jim Williams who restored it as his home. Eventually, both were sold to a major Savannah law firm as offices. 

The Savannah Historic district was a wonderful visit.  We knew little about Savannah when we arrived and ended up consumed by the city.  The historic district was an easy walking tour but extremely deep in history.   The original founders of the city had the amazing foresight to lay it out with green spaces. It is just a fabulous and gorgeous city, so rich in beauty and history. It is definitely one of my favorite cities in the nation.  

A view down a street in Savannah with a canopy of Live Oaks and Spanish moss covering them. This scene is uniquely southern. My southern pride ran deep in Savannah. 

We had a great visit and a fabulous dinner with my nephew John and his wife, Savannah, at their home. He is a former Marine and now serving in the Army. They are currently stationed at Fort Stewart. Unfortunately, we neglected to take a single picture of them during our visit. They have 3 dogs, 2 are German Shepherds. Karma loved being able to play with them. It was so great to visit with them. I have not seen John since before he joined the Marines. Not being a bigger part of his life is one of my biggest regrets. He went into the Marines as a boy and he came out a man. I am so proud of his service to our country.