Have you ever wondered where medicines come from? How did they get started? What did people used to us to treat their ailments?

The Friends of Scull Shoals are developing trails on their Educational Center off Macedonia Church road to demonstrate plants used in 19th century medicines. They are taking as their guide the “receipts,” or remedies used by Dr. Lindsey Durham near the old mill village.

Trails called “Dr. Durham’s Medicinal Herb Walks” will take visitors to places where these plants grow naturally or have been transplanted on the property. Signs will identify the plants and list medicinal or other uses for them.

A recently–published book by Oglethorpe and Oconee County authors, Debbie Cosgrove and Ellen Whitaker, “Dr. Durham’s Receipts: A 19th Century Physician’s Use of Medicinal Herbs,” is the basis for the planned Herb Walks. Dr. Durham’s original “receipts” were found in the Hargrett Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at the University of Georgia.

Much of modern medicine comes from complex and expensive research laboratories. However, the basis for that research is often found in common plants: herbal remedies. Some of these are everyday plants you probably have in your yard or see regularly alongside the road as you travel.

Dr. Lindsey Durham, a Greene County medical doctor, learned the use of local plants for curing from the Creek Indians in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Both Indians and settlers lived around Scull Shoals on the Oconee River then. He went on to Philadelphia to study white men’s medicine, and returned to practice in a large hospital, or “sanitorium” he built around his home near Ga. Highway 15. He raised thousands of medicinal plants in his 13-acre herb garden near his home.

Cosgrove and her husband Bill are spearheading the Friends of Scull Shoals drive to open access to the Educational Center property, put in a parking area, lay out the trails, and identify the plants. They are looking for interested citizens who would like to help with stages of the project. No experience is necessary.

Cosgrove commented that they plan to “develop the trail this summer in the open space and through the woods.” She will coordinate her layout efforts with University of Georgia Landscape Architect Professor Alfred Vick. Vick and his students helped the Friends of Scull Shoals design plans for the Educational Center. They will probably seek help from local area Master Gardeners when dealing with plant identification and landscaping around them.

For additional information about this project, contact Debbie Cosgrove at turtle127@windstream.net, or Ellen Whitaker at ellenwhitaker@bellsouth.net.