In The Delta

Sometimes you just never know what you'll find when driving down a random road in the middle of the Delta. The road was marked by this small sign for a church, sitting under some leaden skies that promised rain.



The road then passed by this old house, weathered and worn and slowing being consumed by nature.



The road passed by another abandoned old house, which featured a wide front porch with boards coated with chipped and faded paint.





The larger window looks to be the same size as the door, which makes me wonder if maybe this used to be a duplex sometime back in the olden days?



I ended up taking lots of pictures of this porch. I bet it was once a fine place to sit at the end of a long day.



I headed back to the car and drove by this old tree, which was being used as a roost by a bunch of birds. Some slightly menacing looking storm clouds were gathering off in the distance.



I turned back on the main road and then drove through the small town of Tucker. Tucked away, nearly covered by trees and weeds, is the old Tucker school. It was built in 1915, and was used as a school until the 1960s. The building was then used as a church, and it now sits lonely and abandoned.



Tucker is known for being the location of the Tucker maximum security prison, but it was once a large plantation established back in 1871. The plantation mostly grew cotton, and expanded to over 2,800 acres. In 1916, the state purchased the plantation lands and some surrounding acres and used it to build the prison complex. But there are still a few signs of the old plantation. The long abandoned "Big House," sits enshrouded in trees and brush and is almost hidden from view. This is the view of the back door, which was taken after walking through what I would soon discover was some tick-infested tall grass.



Next to the house is the shell of another old building, where all that remains is the floor and most of the walls. The building was constructed in 1913 and served as the plantation office, a general store and as a post office. An old safe still sits in the back corner, collecting rust and weeds.







The outside walls of the building were covered with thick vines, which seemed to stretch across and cover up nearly all of the bricks.





And one last shot, before I headed back to the car to drive home in the rain: