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00:00Georgia, from a stunning coast where nature runs wild, across fields of cotton, to snow-dusted peaks at the end of one of the world's longest hiking trails.
00:15This is a state loved by presidents, writers, and a civil rights leader who sought to heal the nation with a transcendent dream.
00:26Aerial Georgia explores the rich history of this southern state, from mysterious traces of its ancient people to painful memories of America's war-torn past.
00:39It was here that a visionary adman revolutionized television news, and a terrorist tried to destroy the Olympic dreams of thousands.
00:50Where a small pioneer town was home to America's first gold rush, and a city once leveled by war rose again to glimmer from the ashes.
01:08This is Georgia, the Empire State of the South.
01:51In the northwest corner of Georgia, on the banks of the Etowah River, stand the relics of a lost world.
02:01These earthen monuments were built by an ancient society known to archaeologists as the Mississippian Mound Builders.
02:11These people and their structures may be gone, but the outlines of their once sophisticated culture remain.
02:21From this six-story tall mound, it's believed that the city's chief priest may have presided over ceremonies on a bustling plaza down below.
02:31Smaller mounds may have been used as burial sites, or to support the homes of other prominent citizens.
02:41Many details about these Native Americans and their culture remain a mystery.
02:49Mound builders were the ancestors of the Creek and Cherokee, who dominated Georgia in the centuries that followed.
03:00But the U.S. government eventually pressed these tribes to move to Oklahoma, and in 1838, forcibly relocated those that remained.
03:12An estimated 4,000 Native Americans died on the journey, which is known as the Trail of Tears.
03:21Nearby, the Chattahoochee National Forest covers almost 750,000 acres of rugged landscape, including Springer Mountain.
03:31It's the southern endpoint of the Appalachian Trail, which starts 2,000 miles north in the state of Maine.
03:40One historian dismissed this region as nothing but a desert with trees.
03:46But rattlesnakes, copperheads, and black bears all live here.
03:52North Georgia is also home to hidden treasure.
03:59Legend has it that in 1828, a deer hunter here tripped over a shiny rock that turned out to be nearly pure gold.
04:07A year later, a newspaper reported that gold was discovered in Habersham County,
04:13and practically overnight, giddy prospectors by the thousands poured into the region.
04:19It was the nation's first major gold rush.
04:25By 1861, enough gold was discovered here for the local Federal Mint to produce 1.5 million gold coins.
04:31Much of the mined gold was transported on the newly completed Unicoit Turnpike,
04:37which is the largest gold mine in the state.
04:44Much of the mined gold was transported on the newly completed Unicoit Turnpike,
04:50a toll road that stretched from the Appalachian Mountains through this swath of northeast Georgia.
05:00Along this route was a gold rush town named Dahlonega, from the Cherokee word for yellow money.
05:09The city prospered until 1849, when news of California's gold rush lured the miners west.
05:18Today, Dahlonega is home to North Georgia College and State University,
05:23but the town doesn't shy away from its golden past.
05:27Every October, visitors from around the world come here to celebrate Gold Rush Day,
05:33in a town center that looks like it's right out of the 19th century.
05:41But when it comes to Georgia's natural resources, none has shaped her history and economy like these crops,
05:47what the locals call white gold, cotton.
05:53Cotton seed was first planted here in 1785, though it took growers nearly 10 years to make a profit.
06:00By the mid-19th century, most of Georgia's bounty was being shipped 1,000 miles away,
06:06to feed the North's prosperous textile mills, while the South's economy lagged far behind.
06:13Determined to right the imbalance, a civic leader put forward an innovative plan,
06:18to build an industrial canal alongside the Savannah River in Augusta.
06:24In 1845, the first shovels began digging out Augusta's red, rich clay,
06:30and a few years later, water was coursing through this canal,
06:35water that soon powered new textile factories.
06:39Today, this approximately 11-mile-long waterway produces hydroelectric power.
06:45The canal and mills are the first National Heritage Area in Georgia designated by the United States Congress.
06:55By the late 19th century, thanks to its mills, Augusta was booming,
07:01and in 1897, bricks were laid to build this Catholic church.
07:07Three years later, this impressive structure was complete, and ready for worship.
07:15But with more and more Augustans moving to the suburbs in the 20th century,
07:20this giant church couldn't sustain itself, and closed its doors in 1971.
07:26The building endured 16 years of vandalism and neglect,
07:31before being renovated and reopened in 1987 as the Sacred Heart Cultural Center.
07:37Today, it's a venue for weddings, wine festivals, and concerts.
07:50But Augusta, Georgia may be best known for the Augusta National Golf Club.
07:56Every April, the world's best golfers descend on this former plantation to compete in the Masters Tournament.
08:04An aerial view of the club provides a window into a pristine world few people ever see in person.
08:12Tickets to the event are among the toughest to obtain of any sporting event in the country.
08:18They haven't been available to the general public since 1972.
08:25Golf Digest rates Augusta as the best course in America.
08:30Its exclusive membership roster includes billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, among other prominent names.
08:37Notably absent from that list is a single female member.
08:42Women can play here as guests, and work as caddies,
08:46but the Old Boys Club stands fiercely resistant to changing its ways.
08:56About 90 miles southeast lies a city with a colorful past, Milledgeville.
09:04The town was established in 1804 as the state capital, on land acquired from Creek Indians.
09:11During its first decade, this scraggly frontier town was known for its seedy inns, bordellos, and gambling.
09:19But slowly, things began to change.
09:23One of the capital's most important new buildings was the Governor's Mansion.
09:30Built in the Greek Revival style, the mansion was restored in 2001,
09:36and is now a National Historic Landmark and a museum.
09:46Milledgeville was also home to one of Georgia's most celebrated authors, Flannery O'Connor.
09:55The budding author had moved to the northeast after college,
09:58but a lupus diagnosis in 1950 brought her back to this place, a 544-acre family farm called Andalusia.
10:09It was here, cared for by her mother, that she completed her most famous novels and short stories,
10:15such as A Good Man is Hard to Find, that explore the theme of a decaying south.
10:21O'Connor spent her final days doing what she loved,
10:25raising peacocks and drawing inspiration from the landscape surrounding Andalusia.
10:32She died of lupus in 1964, at the age of just 39.
10:42A few miles away stands the old state capitol building.
10:47With its pointed arched windows and rooftop battlements,
10:50it's considered one of the oldest public buildings in America built in the Gothic Revival style.
10:57But it's what happened inside that forever changed the course of history.
11:03It was here, in January 1861, that Georgia lawmakers voted 160 to 130 in favor of secession from the United States.
11:14This 30-vote majority would plunge the state into four years of war and devastate many of its cities.
11:25Right in the middle of the state sits the city of Macon, nicknamed the Heart of Georgia.
11:34From the air, its quaint neighborhoods offer a stunning glimpse of the Old South.
11:40There are dozens of homes here that look just as they did in the late 19th century.
11:47Many of them were built on the spoils of King Cotton.
11:52But Macon's crown jewel is a mansion on Georgia Avenue known as Hay House.
11:59The four-story home with a cupola above was built between 1855 and 1859 by railroad magnate William Butler Johnson.
12:11He and his bride had fallen in love with Italian architecture during their honeymoon in Europe
12:17and decided to bring the elegance of the old world back to Georgia.
12:22Not only was the 24-room, 16,000-square-foot residence magnificent to behold,
12:28it was also one of the most innovative homes of its day, complete with hot and cold running water and central heating.
12:37No wonder Hay House earned the nickname the Palace of the South.
12:52Within just two years of the completion of Hay House, the glory days of the Old South were subsumed by cannon fire, bloodshed, and fear.
13:03In northeast Georgia, the little town of Washington is best known for an unsolved mystery, the case of the lost Confederate gold.
13:13Right after the Civil War ended, federal troops seized what was left of the Confederate treasury.
13:19But right outside of Washington, renegades stole the fortune back.
13:23The stash, now estimated to be worth a million dollars, has never been accounted for.
13:30Many are convinced it was hidden nearby.
13:34In the distance, a giant dome pushes up from the earth.
13:39This is Stone Mountain, an 800-foot-tall solid granite monolith.
13:46It was born over 300 million years ago, at the time that the Appalachian Mountains were formed.
13:52You'd have to walk five miles just to circle its base.
13:57A visitor center and TV radio transmitter now sit atop Stone Mountain.
14:03But there was a time when it was a meeting place for the Ku Klux Klan, its peak crowned with a burning cross.
14:11Today, Stone Mountain bears other memories.
14:16In 1916, the Klux Klan was called the Klux Klan of the Great Depression.
14:22The Klux Klan was a small group of people who had been forced to leave their homes and live on the streets.
14:28They were called the Klux Klan of the Great Depression.
14:32They were called the Klux Klan of the Great Depression.
14:35Stone Mountain bears other memories.
14:39In 1916, the United Daughters of the Confederacy got permission to oversee the carving of a Civil War monument here.
14:48The finished work covers three acres of rock face and took 57 years to complete.
14:55It depicts three Confederate heroes, President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee, and General Thomas Stonewall Jackson.
15:08By the 1960s, Stone Mountain had become so emblematic of hatred and racism,
15:14it even got a mention in Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous I Have a Dream speech when he said,
15:19Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain in Georgia.
15:32Less than 20 miles away stands the city that would feel the Civil War's fiery wrath like no other,
15:39Atlanta.
15:41It was founded in 1837 and named for the railroad on which the city was built,
15:46Atlantica Pacifica, shortened to Atlanta.
15:51And in 1868, it became the state capitol.
15:58The design of the Georgia Statehouse followed the same neoclassical style used for the U.S. Capitol building in Washington,
16:05but it maintained some distinctly local touches.
16:09Inside, one-and-a-half acres of Georgia marble line its floors and hallways.
16:15Amazingly, the building's dome was originally adorned with 43 ounces of real 23-carat Georgia gold,
16:23mined not far away in Lumpkin County.
16:27On top of the dome is a 15-foot tall dome,
16:30Just a stone's throw away, Centennial Olympic Park was created to be a town square for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
16:36But it's best remembered as the scene of a domestic terrorist attack.
16:39On the night of July 27th, 1996,
16:43the city of Atlanta, Georgia, was bombed.
16:47The city was evacuated.
16:50The city was bombed.
16:53The city was bombed.
16:56The city was bombed.
16:59The city was bombed.
17:02The city was bombed.
17:05The city was bombed.
17:07On the night of July 27th, 1996,
17:10the largest pipe bomb in U.S. history was detonated in the midst of a concert,
17:15killing one person and injuring 111 others.
17:19Confessed bomber Eric Rudolph had hoped to force the cancellation of the games,
17:24but Atlanta would not be bullied, and the games went on.
17:29It's hard to believe that the gleaming metropolis standing here today was once a wasteland.
17:40In 1864, after a weeks-long artillery bombardment of the city,
17:45General William Tecumseh Sherman ordered all civilians to evacuate.
17:50His troops set fire to the city,
17:52and everything except for churches and hospitals burned to the ground.
18:02From the ashes, Atlanta slowly but surely rebuilt.
18:09Here, in the 1920s, lived a struggling young writer,
18:13inspired by the epic tales of her state's war-torn past.
18:17It was inside apartment number one,
18:19that Margaret Mitchell penned most of the wildly popular novel, Gone with the Wind.
18:24In her later years, Mitchell frequently remarked about how much she hated living here.
18:29Little could she have imagined the apartment she referred to as
18:33the dump would one day serve as the Margaret Mitchell Museum.
18:37But while Mitchell's own accommodations were humble,
18:40those of her characters were not.
18:43According to Georgia Law,
18:45this plantation house in nearby Jonesboro was Margaret Mitchell's inspiration for Terra,
18:51the iconic setting of Gone with the Wind.
18:54This Greek Revival-style plantation house was built in 1839,
18:58and true to its name, lies amidst a grove of stately old oaks.
19:03One can't help but imagine Scarlett O'Hara twirling about the porch, sipping lemonade.
19:15Atlanta's history, though, has been anything but storybook.
19:20A century after the Civil War, the city fell again on hard times.
19:25In the 1980s, it was this company's headquarters that came to Atlanta's rescue.
19:31Originally intended to be an entertainment complex,
19:35this 100,000-square-foot building was bought in 1985 by a successful Georgia adman,
19:41Ted Turner.
19:43He used it to house the world's first 24-hour news channel, CNN.
19:49By locating his company's headquarters downtown, Turner helped revitalize the city.
20:01Just a mile from the heart of downtown Atlanta lies a place that was once a world away,
20:08the neighborhood of Sweet Auburn.
20:10It was here, on January 15, 1929, in the upstairs room of this yellow house,
20:17where one of Atlanta's most distinguished sons, Martin Luther King Jr., was born.
20:23His father, Martin Luther King Sr., was an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement
20:28and pastor of nearby Ebenezer Baptist Church.
20:33It was here where Martin Jr. was both baptized and ordained,
20:38and it was the site of his funeral in 1968.
20:45But it's the King Center, just next door, that serves as his memorial.
20:51In the midst of what's called Freedom Plaza, surrounded by a five-tier reflecting pool,
20:57lies the body of Martin Luther King Jr.
21:01His marble crypt bears the words,
21:04Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.
21:18Two miles from downtown, on a hill from which General Sherman monitored the siege of Atlanta,
21:24is the Carter Center.
21:26Founded by President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalind, in 1982,
21:31the Center's mission is to advance human rights and end human suffering around the world.
21:37Four of the five interconnected pavilions house staff offices and meeting spaces.
21:42The fifth is home to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
21:47150 miles outside of Atlanta lies a wilder Georgia.
21:53Magnolia Springs State Park is best known for its cool springs,
21:58which produce close to 9 million gallons of water a day,
22:02and for its pristine 28-acre lake.
22:06It may look like any other unspoiled stretch of Georgia wilderness,
22:11but it's a natural wonder.
22:13But during the Civil War, it was the setting of Camp Lawton,
22:17a Confederate stockade that imprisoned about 10,000 Union soldiers,
22:21500 of whom died in the camp.
22:25Though nature has largely erased the park's wartime past,
22:29in the summer of 2010, a team of archaeology students
22:33dug up about 200 Civil War artifacts from here.
22:37The site, undisturbed since the camp's abandonment in 1892,
22:40is expected to yield unprecedented information
22:44about the lives of prisoners and guards at the camp.
22:49The vestiges of an even larger Confederate prison
22:53lie about 130 miles south of Atlanta,
22:57the notorious Camp Sumter, better known as Andersonville.
23:03This clearing was once home to a 26.5-acre stockade,
23:06some 45,000 prisoners entered its gates
23:10over its 14-month existence.
23:14Many never made it out.
23:18Overcrowding, disease, and starvation
23:22made for a grim existence here.
23:26Said one Union soldier,
23:30as we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes
23:33that almost froze our blood with horror.
23:37Stallworth men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons,
23:41covered with filth and vermin.
23:45No wonder many of the prisoners believed
23:49they had died and gone to hell.
23:53Fifteen-foot walls like these
23:57once surrounded the entire stockade.
24:00Makeshift tents and huts
24:04were all that stood between the prisoners and the elements.
24:08Guards were perched in towers along the fence line.
24:12Anyone getting within three feet of the wall was shot dead.
24:16All told, 13,000 souls perished
24:20in the hellhole that was Andersonville.
24:24Their naked bodies were carted off in wagons,
24:27buried shoulder to shoulder in three-foot deep trenches.
24:31So cruel and inhumane was the treatment at Andersonville
24:35that after the war, the prison commandant
24:39was convicted of war crimes and hanged.
24:47After the camp closed,
24:51Clara Barton led a detachment here
24:54and marked the graves of the Union dead.
24:58On August 17, 1865,
25:02she raised the stars and stripes over the cemetery for the first time.
25:11Since the Civil War,
25:156,000 more veterans have been buried here,
25:19including active duty servicemen killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
25:25Providence Canyon
25:29There's a slice of the American Southwest
25:33tucked into Southwest Georgia.
25:37It's called Providence Canyon.
25:41Seeing this natural wonder from the air
25:45offers a chance to glimpse 16 distinct gorges,
25:49some plunging to depths of more than 100 feet.
25:52This little Grand Canyon.
25:56But these massive gullies aren't the work of Mother Nature alone.
26:00The primary sculptor is rainwater runoff
26:04from poor farming practices in the 1800s.
26:08But what beauty that erosion has revealed.
26:12Within Providence Canyon,
26:16several million years of Georgia's geological record stand exposed.
26:19And it's in distinct colors.
26:2835 miles north lies Fort Benning,
26:32home of the U.S. Army Infantry School.
26:36Named for Confederate Brigadier General Henry Benning,
26:40a native of the area.
26:44It was built during World War I with the express purpose
26:48Fort Benning has turned out such distinguished military leaders
26:52as Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, and Colin Powell.
26:58The 287 square mile base
27:02also operates an airborne school for paratroopers,
27:06a ranger school for elite skills and tactics,
27:10and a program that teaches soldiers how to operate M2 Bradley fighting vehicles in combat.
27:18About 35 miles north,
27:22outside the town of Warm Springs,
27:26is a much more peaceful place,
27:30Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Little White House.
27:34Stricken with polio, FDR first came here in 1924
27:38after hearing about the spring's restorative powers.
27:42He didn't find a cure, but he did fall in love with the town
27:45and started acres here in 1926
27:49where he built a polio treatment center.
27:53This six-room structure was built in 1932,
27:57a year before Roosevelt was elected president.
28:01It often served as a presidential retreat.
28:05On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt was inside sitting for a portrait
28:09when he suddenly grabbed his head complaining of a sharp pain.
28:13A few minutes later, America's longest-serving president
28:17would be dead of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.
28:22Roosevelt's legacy lives on in a national park that bears his name.
28:28After bathing in the Warm Springs nearby,
28:32he used to come to this park for picnics.
28:36With 9,000 acres of protected wilderness,
28:39this national park is the largest state park in Georgia.
28:46To the south, in Somerville, is a very different kind of park.
28:51This is Paradise Gardens,
28:54the legacy of Baptist minister and self-taught artist Howard Finster.
28:59In 1961, Finster claimed to hear the voice of God
29:03commanding him to create sacred art,
29:06and the Reverend obeyed.
29:09He used found materials like bottle caps,
29:12rusty bicycle parts, and old jewelry
29:15to construct thousands of unusual works of art.
29:18Many consider this handcrafted five-story building to be his masterpiece.
29:23Built around a pre-existing church,
29:26it's known as the world's folk art chapel.
29:30Paradise Gardens may look familiar to fans of the band R.E.M.
29:34It was featured in the video for their song Radio Free Europe,
29:36and Finster then went on to paint their next album cover.
29:45R.E.M. was just one of the groups that emerged from the music scene in this college town,
29:51Athens.
29:53The B-52s, Pylon, and Indigo Girls also got their start here.
29:58So did actress Kim Basinger and football legend Fran Tarkenton.
30:03Now the fifth largest city in Georgia,
30:06Athens grew up around the University of Georgia.
30:09Opened in 1801, it was the nation's first chartered state university.
30:14The school's football team plays its home games here at Sanford Stadium.
30:19Originally built in the late 1920s by convict labor,
30:23it has since expanded from 30,000 to more than 90,000 seats.
30:28From the air, you can see the famous hedges
30:30that have encircled the field ever since its opening game,
30:34Georgia Bulldogs versus Yale Bulldogs, 1929.
30:38It was the Yale football team's first visit to the South.
30:42But after the Bulldogs had battled, Yale went home defeated, 15 to nothing.
30:50It's about 100 miles from Athens to Rome,
30:54at least in Georgia.
30:55Here, in front of City Hall, stands a permanent reminder of the bond between Old Rome and New Rome,
31:02a bronze replica of Italy's famed sculpture of Romulus and Remus.
31:10During World War II, because of Italy's ties to Nazi Germany,
31:15the sculpture was removed and replaced by an American flag.
31:19It was returned to this spot in 1952.
31:21Rome prides itself on its historic Main Street.
31:26Rebuilt after the Civil War, this revitalized neighborhood
31:30is one of the best-preserved Victorian city centers in all of the South.
31:43Seeing Georgia from the sky, you quickly come to realize how beautiful, wild, and beautiful it is.
31:49You realize how beautiful, wild, and diverse this state is.
31:55From a timber-town-turned-Bavarian village in Helen,
32:00to a global village at Habitat for Humanity in Americus.
32:06But one thing that's long held Georgia together is its railroads.
32:11Since the trains first ran in the 1830s, more than a hundred railways have operated here.
32:17Like the Hook and Eye Line, the Iron Belt Railroad, and the Vidalia Route.
32:29During the Civil War, the railroads provided a critical network for Confederate troops and weapons.
32:36As General Sherman began his fateful march from Atlanta to Savannah,
32:40he set his sights on the railways, hundreds of miles worth.
32:44The melted, twisted tracks he left behind became known as Sherman's Neckties.
32:51This hearth is all that remains of a home his troops burned,
32:55all part of an effort to destroy Southern morale and force a surrender.
33:00I want to make Georgia howl, he said, and he succeeded.
33:06A month into Sherman's march, his troops were nearing Savannah,
33:09but they were in desperate need of supplies.
33:12The Ogeechee River could provide a perfect delivery route for offshore Union ships.
33:19But the Ogeechee was under the protection of an earthen-walled Confederate stronghold called Fort McAllister.
33:26During the war, the fort had repelled seven attacks from the sea,
33:30but it was virtually helpless against a strong land attack.
33:33On December 13, 1864, a division of Union soldiers laid siege to the fort.
33:40Just 15 minutes later, they declared victory.
33:47Union ships were now able to rendezvous with Sherman's army
33:51and provide them with the supplies they needed to stage their attack on Savannah.
33:56Before Sherman's men even entered the city,
33:58the opposing Confederate general turned tail and disappeared.
34:02The next morning, Savannah's mayor offered a formal surrender.
34:09Today, Savannah is a bustling industrial center and the largest port in Georgia.
34:16But that's not what draws tourists here.
34:19They come here from all over the world to experience Southern charm,
34:23rich cultural history, and, in this case, a spooky connection to the past.
34:30Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery is the title character in author John Behrendt's best-selling novel,
34:36Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, with the cemetery featured heavily in the plot.
34:43The Bird Girl sculpture that graces the book's cover was removed from his collection.
34:49The Bird Girl sculpture that graces the book's cover was removed from here shortly after publication
34:55and donated to a local museum to keep it safe from tourists.
34:59But other ghostly figures can still be glimpsed between the mournful trees draped in Spanish moss.
35:07Among the noteworthy residents here are songwriter Johnny Mercer,
35:11writer Conrad Aiken, and six-year-old Gracie Watson,
35:16a Savannah girl who died of pneumonia just before Easter Sunday, 1889.
35:23One New Orleans minister wrote to his wife,
35:26Bonaventure Cemetery is a beautiful place to die.
35:30He then traveled straight here and committed suicide.
35:33Many ghost hunters claim that this is the most haunted cemetery in the United States.
35:40If only the spirits could talk, what tales they would tell of 200 dramatic years in Georgia history.
35:56Georgia's 100-mile-long coastline is one of America's great natural wonders.
36:01The longest unbroken stretch of wild Atlantic beachfront and marsh on the East Coast.
36:07And there's no better way to take in its rugged beauty than from the air.
36:13Thirteen barrier islands, nicknamed the Golden Isles, line the coast,
36:19separated from the mainland by deep tidal inlets.
36:23Soaring over these islands is a journey into Georgia's colonial past.
36:28At their northernmost point, a 150-year-old lighthouse guards Coxspur Island.
36:36The coast probably looks much the same as it did when English chaplain John Wesley,
36:41one of the founders of Methodism, first arrived here in 1736 on his way to Savannah.
36:49Long after Wesley sailed away, the island became home to Fort Pulaski,
36:54built between 1829 and 1847 to protect the eastern seaboard.
37:02The moat surrounding the fort is between 30 and 48 feet wide, with an average depth of 8 feet.
37:10Today, turtles and alligators make their home just beneath the surface.
37:16When this outpost was built, brick forts were considered the best forms of defense.
37:21But that would change during the Civil War.
37:25On April 10, 1862, Union troops launched their attack on Fort Pulaski with a brand new technology, the rifled cannon.
37:34Able to fire longer distances with greater accuracy,
37:38this weaponry completely dominated the fort in a matter of 30 hours.
37:44The damage is still visible.
37:46Not wanting to expose the garrison to further destruction, Confederate General Charles Olmsted surrendered.
37:53No one would ever build a brick fort again.
37:59None of Georgia's barrier islands has a more fascinating history than this one,
38:05a more than 5,000-acre wildlife refuge named for the world's most notorious buccaneer.
38:11This is Blackbeard Island.
38:14Blackbeard was known to plunder merchant ships off the Georgia coast in the early 18th century.
38:20Legend has it, he and his men came to this island to stash their loot and hide out between raids.
38:28Blackbeard's career came to a grisly end in 1718 when he died in a bloody battle in North Carolina.
38:35It's said his headless ghost still walks this island, guarding his buried treasure.
38:46In 1800, the U.S. Navy purchased Blackbeard Island as a source of lumber for shipbuilding.
38:53Then, in 1880, it became a quarantine station to monitor incoming sailors and to keep them safe.
39:00Then, in 1880, it became a quarantine station to monitor incoming sailors for yellow fever.
39:07A few years earlier, this mosquito-borne disease had reached epidemic proportions, killing 1,000 people in Savannah alone.
39:17The island is now a national wildlife refuge, providing safe haven for migratory birds and endangered loggerhead sea turtles.
39:31Some 10 miles away is the most remote and desolate of Georgia's coastal jewels, Little St. Simons Island.
39:40It's lucky to have survived in such pristine condition.
39:45In 1908, New York's Eagle Pencil Company purchased this 10,000-acre island with the intention of harvesting its vast red cedar forests.
39:55But, as fate would have it, the wood here was too damaged by salt and wind for pencil making.
40:02By the time Eagle was ready to call it quits, the company's owner had fallen in love with this place and bought it for himself.
40:11The island remains in his family, undeveloped and accessible only by boat.
40:16To help protect its unspoiled wildlife habitats, only 32 visitors are allowed on Little St. Simons at any one time.
40:28Jekyll Island, on the other hand, is a tourist paradise. Its coasts line with vacation homes.
40:34The island was first developed in the late 1800s as a winter resort for northern businessmen like J.P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, and William Vanderbilt, who built elaborate estates here.
40:48They were among the charter members of the Jekyll Island Club, described as the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world.
40:57Today, the clubhouse has been renovated into a luxurious hotel.
41:02The building is steeped in the grandeur of the Gilded Age, and the grounds are home to a tournament-level croquet green.
41:14The largest jewel in Georgia's coastal necklace is Cumberland Island, known for its pristine maritime forests.
41:21Spanish explorers first arrived here in 1566, naming the island San Pedro.
41:28Over the next hundred years, they built forts and missions here.
41:33But by the time the English general James Oglethorpe arrived in 1736, the Spaniards were gone.
41:40In 1955, the National Park Service named the island one of the best coastal recreation areas in the country.
41:48But while much of the island's untouched coastline looks familiar, it is not.
41:54In 1955, the National Park Service named the island one of the best coastal recreation areas in the country.
42:05But while much of the island's untouched coastline looks familiar, it is not.
42:11Lifeless, it is not.
42:18Legend has it that wild ponies like these have been here as far back as the 16th century,
42:24the legacy of its earliest Spanish settlers.
42:34Look from above, and you can also see a human footprint.
42:40Or at least the remains of one.
42:46Dungeness Mansion was built by Thomas Carnegie as a winter retreat for his wife and nine children.
42:54In its heyday, this Scottish-style castle was the height of excess,
42:58boasting 59 rooms, swimming pools, a golf course, and a staff of 200 servants.
43:07The Carnegies left the island after the Great Depression,
43:10and in 1959, a suspicious fire turned the once-glorious mansion into rubble.
43:28About 50 miles inland from the Georgia coast, water meets earth in a dramatic dance.
43:37This is the 402,000-acre swampland known as the Okefenokee,
43:43a Native American term meaning the land of the trembling earth.
43:49Sure enough, soft peat deposits, some up to 15 feet deep, cover the region.
43:55Jump up and down in some places, and the trees around you shake.
44:00It's the largest intact wetland swamp in North America.
44:05For decades, industry exploited the swamp's resources, plundering its forests for lumber.
44:11But in 1936, the U.S. government stepped in to protect this wondrous place and its wildlife.
44:18Today, the Okefenokee is the epitome of wild Georgia
44:22and a celebration of nature's victory over human greed.
44:29The Okefenokee
44:35From its wild swamps to its highest peaks,
44:39down its free-spirited coast,
44:42Georgia is a state as rich in natural wonders as it is in its span of history.
44:49From the site of an ancient mystery,
44:52to key battlefields of the Civil War,
44:54to cities and towns decimated by conflict and economic hard times,
45:00through it all, Georgia has persevered,
45:04producing great writers, a president,
45:08and one of the greatest civil rights leaders the world has ever known.
45:14It's easy to see why Georgia has earned the title the Empire State of the South.
45:24The Empire State of the South
45:29The Empire State of the South
45:34The Empire State of the South
45:39The Empire State of the South
45:44The Empire State of the South
45:49The Empire State of the South
45:54The Empire State of the South