Savannah Dan's Tour

For Brynn's birthday, we scheduled ourselves to go on a tour of downtown Savannah. After some research, the tour I chose was Savannah Dan. It was a walking tour, and was extremely interesting.

Savannah Dan models himself a Southern gentleman, and definitely looks the part. It was a windy day here on Saturday, and he walked up to the meeting area wearing a long overcoat, with a seersucker white pin-striped suit underneath. And of course the Havana hat to complete the outfit.

His tour was extremely interesting, and he was extremely knowledgeable about both the history of Savannah and some of the people that helped to tell its story.

The picture to the left is of a monument in Wright Square. The monument is to honor one of Savannah's more important residents, William Washington Gordon. However, they came to find out shortly after it was built that the remains of the Indian chief who had welcomed to the colonists were actually underneath the monument. Oops.

The story actually becomes more interesting at this point. One of Gordon's relatives (a grandson I believe) had "married a Yankee", and was insulted that the Indian chief Tomochichi had been so ignored. Apparently she didn't like her in-laws, and that was one of her main reasons for complaining so vehemently about this.

As a result, she did this. This giant piece of granite is in the same square, and is from Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta. It apparently riled up her in-laws to no end. When the seller of the stone found her what she wanted the stone for, he set the price at $1, payable on Judgment Day.

Now this, is a dirt mound. Among the many movies that were filmed in Savannah was Forrest Gump. That dirt mound is where the bus bench was that Forrest sat on while telling his story. You'll notice that there's no bench. And apparently there never has been. It was only there for filming. Something else that's odd is the fact that the traffic on that street (a one-way) actually flows in the opposite direction of the way it is shown in the movie.

For those familiar, this one is a picture of the Mercer House from the book and movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I actually just finished reading it, and I highly recommend it. The book is considered a non-fiction novel, and it's interesting now that we're here to see some of the places that the author mentioned during the book. It was really interesting, as Savannah Dan used to be a policeman here, and has actually talked to the main detective from the book. You'll have to come visit and take his tour to find out what he said!

There are a ton of old churches here in Savannah as well. I chose this picture because it came out the best, but I also have pictures of half a dozen more as well. Savannah is home to the church which has been having Sunday service for the longest consecutively. The First Baptist Church in the downtown area has had Sunday service every Sunday since 1833. The most unique time was when they had Sunday service one Sunday to a group mostly made up of Confederate soldiers, and the following Sunday to a group made up mostly of Union soldiers.


The city is extremely interesting, and we are both looking forward to doing more exploring of it!