Field Notes

There are two-dozen cemeteries located in or near Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area. Some go back to the Antebellum period, some are still maintained, and others we know surprisingly little […]

As we near Halloween, large, golden-yellow-and-black Joro spiders have returned to hang out (literally) and provide a spook vibe. But why are there suddenly so many and do they even […]

Last September, Hurricane Helene devastated large swathes of the South, and the South River Water Trail was hit especially hard. A year later, we take a look at the recovery […]

On August 14, several years after a delay caused by COVID, more than 130 visitors attended the Arabia Alliance’s celebration of its most ambitious restoration project to-date: the stabilization of […]

Born on the Fourth of July in 1923, Roy Goddard’s life accomplishments include a seventy-plus-year marriage and serving as a paratrooper during WWII. The Fourth of July isn’t just the […]

Before it was a declared a State Park in 1974, Panola was privately owned by John Yarbrough, a local motor man who fell in love with the mountain.  It’s hard […]

Rock quarrying seems to not have been the only source of explosions at Arabia Mountain… Many sites around the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area have been used for more than […]

The illusive red succulent returns this spring with its white flowery bloom. What do we know about it and why is it so rare? Each spring in the Heritage Area, […]

Check out this photo Field Note by 2 James Madison University students who spent the week of March 16, 2025 volunteering at the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area. Spring break […]

A Junior Angler Coordinator for the Arabia Alliance, Evonne Blythers talks about her upbringing in rural Indiana, the Junior Ranger Angler Program, and her love of historic bridge builder Horace King! […]

On the Georgia author’s 100th birthday, we look at how Flannery O’Connor discovered the Monastery, and how some of her famous peacocks wound up there. March 25th this year marks […]

The Arabia Alliance’s Assistant Executive Director and resident Historian Brigette Jones reflects on the significance of Black History Month on the eve of the United States’ 250th. National Heritage Areas […]