The Jacksonville Bridge of Flowers

If you drive down into Jacksonville and cross the town, going up the opposite hill past the Stone Soldier Pottery and towards the cemetery, then pass the cemetery bridge and follow the course of the brook on your right side, you come--after a few miles higher up and where you leave the woods--there lies Gates Pond on your left.

This photo was taken at the lower edge of the pond, which is actually an ancient beaver pond, the main dam being situated right there, where the road comes out of the forest and crosses the brook, which is fed by the pond.

Just in front and to the left of the peninsula, in the center, there used to be the ancient beaver house-- and in the early years, when Lulu started her life up here, you could see the beaver family playing in the water, gathering food or maintaining their dam. Occasionally, passing vandals would break the dam, but every time the beavers would rebuild it under the applause of the residents, and in a few days the pond would come back up to its established level.

The brook that takes its beginning at the dam, by the way, is the same as the one that fills the pond at the cemetery and forms that artificial waterfall just below the bridge over which the road to the cemetery crosses the water. This bridge, which earlier I called the 'cemetery bridge,' I just learned, is called the "Jacksonville Bridge of Flowers." Two local families, the Colmores and the Joneses, purchase all the flowers and organize a planting bee. Families is Halifax and Jacksonville share in the watering.