travelogue
NOTES FROM THE ROAD
Currently on the road across Alabama, photographing for the project, What Has Been Will Be Again. Follow along here and via Instagram @jaredragland. NOTES FROM THE ROAD
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04.15.22 – ROCK HOUSE HOLINESS CHURCH
Good Friday at Rock House Holiness Church on Sand Mountain, near Section, Ala.
Following the death of their pastor, Rev. Billy Summerford, in July, the church has struggled yet remained faithful to continue their ministry. On Fri., the service was led by new pastor Rev. Kenneth Smith with assistance from Rev. Wayne Summerford and his family.
Rev. Smith delivered a message on the parable of the 10 virgins from Matthew 25 and the Holy Ghost led the congregation to share the signs of speaking in tongues and taking up serpents as several took turns at playing instruments, singing, testifying, and laying hands.
The church welcomed me warmly––even sharing an anointing of oil and laying hands on me, which I’d never experienced before. I’m grateful to them, and for the chance to photograph such a storied tradition.
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03.03.22 – THREE NOTCH ROAD
Originally an Indigenous trade route, the Three Notch Road was constructed by U.S. Army engineers over the summer of 1824 to facilitate military communication between Pensacola and Ft. Mitchell, Ala. The 233-mile path was officially known as Road No. 6 but named locally for the distinctive horizontal notches blazed into trees by advancing surveyors as they marked the route for the builders who followed. Capt. Daniel Burch oversaw construction of the road which was wide enough to allow “carriages, carts, wagons, &c.” and included “substantial wooden bridges” over those streams which were not so wide as to require ferries to cross. Three Notch Road was the major thoroughfare for those coming from Georgia into present-day eastern Alabama once the territory was opened to settlement following Indian Removal.
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02.26.22 – CHAMBERS COUNTY
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02.13.22 – MACON COUNTY
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