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Dr. B. W. Wells of State College says that the Savanna Garden, when at its height, in its display of wild flowers, is positively one of the finest in America, and that he knows nothing to match it. — Mattie Bloodworth from The History of Pender County,1947
2. The Big Savannah
Pender County is flat and broad, so during heavy rains the land may be rapidly converted to lake, as the water fills low-lying areas and begins to rise above your shoes. It is the fifth largest county in the state with roughly three-quarters of its land in either natural or planted forest. It contains extensive rivers, among them the beautiful Black River, so named for its tannic tea-colored water. Along the banks of the Black grow 1,600-year-old cypress trees; older than any trees in North America east of the Rocky Mountains.
Niche
Here, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission manages much of the Holly Shelter and Angola Bay Game Lands, where red-cockaded woodpeckers live in hollows they drill into the soft centers of old-growth longleaf pine trees. Black bears roam the Bay’s forests and wetlands, feeding on low bush blueberries and other plants.
According to a 2000 inventory of the county by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, the county’s broth of waters and soils supports exceptional natural diversity, with several species that occur nowhere else on earth. 83 plant species and 65 animal species in the county are recognized as rare at the state or national Level, according to the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program.
Wells and his colleague Dr. Ivan Shunk and others studied the plants, climate, soils, movement of, and the historic use of fire in the Savannah. In The Natural Gardens of North Carolina Wells devoted a chapter to the area entitled “The Most Beautiful Gardens: The Grass-sedge Bogs or Savanna Lands.”
The Big Savannah, located just north of the town of Burgaw, was treeless and wet, and was burned historically by lightning strikes or fire set by Native Americans. In more recent history, during the winter, locals burned the savannah to keep it clear for grazing. Through the seasons, showy wildflowers grew in the large green meadow of the Savannah. In an article published in 1928 in The Raleigh Times entitled “Garden of God: On the Big Savannah in North Carolina,” Wells compares backyard to natural gardens:
In the spring and early summer when the flower gardens in the yards and parks are showing their attractive blooms and one is sensitive to the appeal made by floral beauty, an account of one of the outstanding gardens of God in North American should be of interest to all North Carolinians since this particular wild flower garden is located in our state…the native areas where nature unaided by any horticultural art is able to bring forth each year marvels of floral loveliness which rival the finest products of the gardener’s skill.
In addition to the violets, lilies, and numerous orchids that grew in the Savannah, there were insectivorous plants including pitcher plants, sundews and the Venus' fly trap. Wells hypothesized that wildflowers grew here in abundance in part because of the special soil, the wet conditions (seasonal flooding he referred to as hydroperiods,) and the annual burning regime that reduced the woody plants that would have overtaken the area.
In the 1920s, establishing a network of roads in North Carolina to connect rural agricultural areas to urban markets was a high priority. North Carolina was referred to as "the good roads state.” In the 1928 Raleigh Times article, Wells refers to the state’s new roads:
Now that the new hard surfaced highway from Goldsboro to Wilmington cuts across this unique plant community, it will be possible for an increasingly large number of people to become acquainted with this extraordinary areas and wander over it to enjoy its unusual contribution to the aesthetic and (if one is botanically inclined) intellectual faculties.
Wells’ automobile/Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries (0021220)
As the state’s road network developed, boggy land like the Savannah that was once considered useless for agriculture, grew in value. At the same time, the state’s population increased, along with and the demand for agricultural products. Even swampy land like the Big Savannah could be ditched and drained given economic incentive and an enterprising farmer.
Wells’s efforts to conserve the Big Savannah were underpinned by his writings and lectures, and awareness of the Savannah’s significance grew. He promoted the area as a preserve and a tourist attraction. The owner of the property offered to sell the Savannah to the Cape Fear Garden Club at a bargain price, but no one was interested in purchasing the tract because they believed that the land could not be farmed and would never be developed.
In his landmark book, North with the Spring, Pulitzer Prize-winning naturalist and author Edwin Way Teale wrote about the Big Savannah and encouraged its preservation. Richard Hooper Pough, then president of both The Natural Area Council and The Nature Conservancy, included the Savannah in the Conservancy’s inventory of state parks. In spite of these efforts, the Big Savannah was not spared.
In the 1960s, the 1,500 acre Big Savannah, Well’s “Garden of God,” the focus of his professional life, and the best-known savannah habitat in the Southeast was drained and tilled, and its unique flora destroyed. But all was not lost.
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