Rare Dugout Canoe
The canoe is prepared for transport to the Museum. © FMNH
(L-R) Bill Simpson of Rayonier Corporation; Josh Landon, canoe discoverer; and Dennis Blanton of Fernbank Museum. © FMNH
Working to conserve the canoe. © FMNH
Pay a visit the Upper Level (near the IMAX® Projection Booth) and you’ll notice a striking new addition—a 17-foot-long dugout canoe that was donated to the Museum in 2007 by international forest products company Rayonier. This historic find—one of only a few ever documented in Georgia—was discovered submerged in sand and shallow water on Rayonier property adjacent to the Satilla River in Ware County in 2006. The canoe dates to approximately 1680-1740.
Fernbank Museum spent a year preparing the canoe for display, including radio-carbon dating it, cleaning the water-logged wood and protecting the artifact with a chemical solution that replaced the water with natural oils. Dennis Blanton, Fernbank Museum’s Curator of Native American Archaeology, also studied tree rings in the wood itself, revealing that the canoe was made from a single long-leaf pine tree that was more than 200 years old at the time it was crafted into a canoe. Recognizing charred wood inside the canoe, he also determined it was hollowed out using a traditional burn-and-scrape method.
Native Americans most likely would have burned some of the tree to hollow it, then used shell or stone tools—until the introduction of metal tools by the Spanish—to scrape away pieces of wood. An average canoe measured approximately 15 feet long and could carry several people, such as a family.
Fernbank Museum is dedicated to telling the story of Native American life both before and after European arrival in Georgia and will use this important artifact to further teach visitors about Georgia’s first citizens.
Acknowledgements and Credits
Discoverer–Josh Landon
Landowner and Donor–Rayonier Corporation
Technical Assistance–Georgia Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service