Walker on little used trail finds artifacts of bygone era

Kristie McDonald with two of her finds

While walking at Ijams a few weeks ago, Kristie McDonald discovered a piece of old glass sticking from the ground. Curious, she began to dig around the artifact and discovered what is probably an old household dump site.

Kristie is married to Allen McDonald, the great grand nephew of Bill McDonald who lived across from the Ijams entrance for decades. In fact, Bill lived there long before there was a nature center. He was a neighbor to H.P. and Alice Ijams. 

Kristie was walking on a little used trail near the Secret Pond behind the site of the John Hay house, another neighbor of the Ijams family.

A date on the bottom of the green bottle puts the castoff containers at circa 1925, a proper timeframe for when the Ijams and Hay families lived on the property.

John and Jean Hay lived next door to the Ijams family during the 1920s. Originally from Scotland, John often played the bagpipes in full Scottish attire, loved to play chess and worked as a gardener in Alice Ijams' greenhouse. Jean helped Jo Ijams publish the Ijams family newsletter (1922-1926) and worked with Alice at Camp Margaret Townsend for Girl Scouts in the Great Smoky Mountains when the camp first opened in 1925. John also served as a handyman at the camp from time to time.

- Stephen Lyn Bales

Cast off bottles circa 1925