The Raeths won a free one-year Friends membership from Friends of Magnolia Springs State Park for their support of Camp Lawton and Magnolia Springs.  Presenting the free membership are Neil Dickey (left), Commander, Buckhead-Fort Lawton Brigade Camp 2102, Sons of Confederate Veterans, and Matthew Newberry (right), logistical coordinator of the Camp Lawton/Magnolia Springs Research Project.

Magnolia Springs State Park covers over 1,000 acres containing woods, hiking and off-road cycling trails, campsites, cabins, a lake for fishing and boating and a swimming pool open during the summer.  From September to November 25, 1864, the park was the site of Camp Lawton, a Confederate Prison housing Union prisoners transferred there from Andersonville.  The prison was abandoned two days prior to the arrival of Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman.  Within the past two years, archaeological work under the direction of Dr. Sue Moore of Georgia Southern University and a grad student at the time, Kevin Chapman, has led to the discovery of artifacts considered the most significant discoveries in many decades.  For information on events at the Park, go to www.gastateparks.org and click on Magnolia Springs State Park.