State land buy will boost Jarrell site

April 15, 2005
By S. Heather Duncan
Telegraph Staff Writer

JULIETTE - Jarrell Plantation State Historic Site in Monroe County is expected to quadruple in size next week when the state buys about 180 acres of adjacent land.

The addition will extend the park to the Ocmulgee River.

The current 50-acre park focuses on the farmhouse, sawmill, cotton gin and other outbuildings that belonged to the Jarrell family for more than 140 years. The new purchase will bring more of the original 1,000 farm acres back into the park, including a tumbled-down house where a Jarrell teacher lived around 1900, said co-owner Art Domby of Atlanta.

He and his two brothers are selling the land to the state for less than its market value of about $600,000, he said. The sale, which was 25 years in the making, will be finalized next week.
" We know if we put the property on the market, there's some dot-commer who would love to buy it," he said. "But there's more to land than just the economic return: There's stewardship."

Steve Saunders, assistant chief of operations for state parks and historic sites, said the state eventually hopes to return a portion of the land to a working farm. Park employees will be able to demonstrate how the Jarrells would have cleared land, plowed and harvested.

" We also hope to eventually have a day walking trail there," said Saunders, who is a former manager of the park.

Victor Simmons, who leased the Domby land with his brother for the Buckhorn Hunting Club for about 40 years, says the high ridges and deep draws are home to raccoons, ducks, turkey and deer. He once shot a 10-point buck there and often fished from the riverbank during spring and summer.

" Too many times over the years, we've said 'It's too bad we can't afford to buy this and protect it,' " Simmons said. "I'm very glad the DNR is the one that beat us out of it. ... When they get it like they want it, I want to be first in line to walk it and just reminisce."

Art Domby said his father, Charles, bought the land in 1944. But when Charles Domby became a professor instead of a cattle farmer, the property was used for timber income.

When Charles Domby died, his widow and young sons moved to Massachusetts. But Art Domby grew up hearing fond stories of Georgia. As a young man, Domby began visiting. Selective timbering from the property put the brothers through college, and the time spent hunting and fishing on the land inspired Domby to become an environmental attorney.
Thursday, Domby drove through a tunnel of privet overhung with wisteria, stopping at the old house. Shaggy pads of wisteria roots hold pieces of the tin roof dangling.

The floor has given way in many places, but the pine boards, cut from trees on the property, still hold.

" Vultures used to live in here," Domby said, before a flapping sound echoed. "They still do!"
He followed the track to the river, where piles of turtles often sun themselves on the bank.
Bordered by the river, the Hitchiti Experimental Forest and Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, the Domby property fills in a hole among protected areas and will help Jarrell Plantation's 10,000 annual visitors to feel they are stepping back in time.

The park also completed walking trial improvements last month and expanded the museum and visitors' center last year.