Jay Bird Springs has been a well-known recreation area since about 1907, when one of Georgia’s first public swimming pools was built utilizing the waters of a natural spring emanating in the adjacent Gum Swamp (Little Ocmulgee River). The water is thought to have healing qualities and has had thousands of devotees over the past century. It was so famous that it was delivered to homes and businesses throughout the region in the earliest years of the operation. The miniature golf course seen above and the motel and welcome center are all I was able to photograph, as the facility is now a spiritually-based rehabilitation center and the residents were conducting Sunday services near the pool area. Even though the gentleman I spoke to said I could take a few quick shots, I respectfully declined to take any more than what I could get from the road. I do hope to get back at some time and get a few more shots.
McMillan Walker the lawyer and I was good friends. He grew up at Jaybird springs as his kin owned it for years. His moms little house still stands as far as I know just up the road from there. He had a lot of interesting stories about that place. I lost my friend though several years ago unfortunately. We use to have family reunion there when I was young, boy was that some cold water.
I remember going to Pitts family reunions there in the 60’s & 70’s. There was a pool, skating rink, and I think putt-putt golf all right across the street from the motel.
Elton family reunions held at Jay Bird Springs for decades before I came along to attend in the 70sand 80s. Loved riding the train, walking the trails and playing mini golf. Only got up my nerve to brave that cold cold spring water twice though!
My mother remembers going skating at Jay Bird as a child in the late 1930s and early 1940s when she would spend summers with family in nearby McRae. Great memories of that place.
I remember going to Jay Bird Springs as a child. I remember a skating rink. I wish there were still places like that open to the public
My dad was the preacher at Jay Bird Springs Baptist Church in early 60’s. We would have a room in the motel every weekend for several years and the people that ran the businesses there would let us skate and swim and even ride the train for free. We had a great time
My grandparents had water delivered from Jaybird Springs . It came in large glass bottles that were as large as I was. We went with our youth groups to swim in the ice cold water. I have a picture of me in the kiddie pool taken by Bertie Mae Garrett. As I got older I was allowed to skate at the rink and we would skate to “Rockin’ Robin” by the Jackson 5 and other popular songs from the 60’s – 70’s. We rode the train and watched our parents bowl. Those were some good times!
Bertie mae was close to my family Jane Williams and my mom nancy Williams
Hey,
Did Bertie Garrett ever run a flower shop? And was she ever married to W.T. Garrett? I knew a lady named Bertie.
Thank you
The Fordham Family held their reunions there for many years!
My Nanny was Lucille Fordhham and my Mother Brenda Sue Smith used to visit Jay Bird Springs often.
My family went there in the 1960s for Burch family reunions.
Gail Hudgens
My Father James Stevenson & my Mother Doris Lewis met there I think in late 30s as Im 76………….
We had family reunion there. I have been skating and I went with my church group as a teenager back in 1965 and the water is ice cold. Also I went bowling there as a teen . Lots of good memories.
I have a picture of my daddy riding the train with me before I started to school. Late 50’s
We had reunions there when I was little. I remember swimming in the pool. Sweet memories!
It was a great place to live in the 70’s, my grandparents owned it from 1973 till 1984. Lot of great memories. Loved everything about it except having to clean the pool and fill it back up every Monday. We had a great restaurant, my grandmother’s sister was the cook and she could fix anything you wanted. Which most of the children just wanted hamburgers and hotdogs with fries. We were there during all the great music of the Seventies and early Eighties.
Remember going to Stuckey Family Reunions there in late 40’s-50’s. Quite the place for a farm boy!
Remember going there at a very young age…My most memory’s of Jay bird was the pool and skating rink…And it seems like they had a disco dance place there as well..
I used to love skating, bowling, and swimming there–especially skating. We also attended family reunions there. The pool (spring) water was really cold! We went frequently and I will always remember Jaybird Springs! Cynthia Cadwell Sanders
I GREW UP IN CHAUNCEY SPENT LOT OF TIME AT JAYBIRD GOOD MEMORIES
I went skating there when I was in School in Chester Ga. But I also went to Dodge county School good times at Jay Bird.
Brian,
Georgia has many “jewels” and Jay Bird Spring is one that provided much happiness to a generation of South Georgia folk back in the 1950s. Though I only visited there a few times, I remember the place well. On occasions, a class group from my Excelsior Elementary school in Jeff Davis County would schedule a day field trip to the Spring. The water was so cold until many shivered after a twenty minute swim or less.
The skating rink was where lots of rural kids learned to skate. In the area, skating on side walks was not that common. Farm kids found it impossible to skate out in the country, for sandy roads without side walks offered impossible conditions for the activity.
It is sad that the place is no longer available to the public as a recreation site, but I am happy that it is being used for a worthy purpose and is not being allowed to vanish.
I sure miss the good Ole days of softball skating swimming and hanging out with other families
My grandfather,N. C. WILKES LIVED on the road to Jay Bird Springs and we could go skating and go swimming there in the 40’s.. Slept on corn shuck mattresses.. Many memories!!!!
Way, way back in the day, my brother, Alfred Simmons, was a skater that everyone came to watch. I was just a little girl, but I loved for him to pick me up and skate with me. My sister skated with him too. Wonderful memories!
I don’t know when your brother skated there, but when I was a child (in the 1960s), we would go there for our family reunions. I remember there was an older gentleman who would skate there and we loved to watch him. He was an awesome skater and would put on quite a show for us. I wonder if that might have been your brother?
I used to go skating at Jaybird every Sunday night. I had many good times the
I was born in Chauncey Ga in 1962,,,in my early years and teen years i visited Jay Bird springs frequently,,it was my get away ,,my haven ,as well as a lot of my friends and classmates…That pool ,that water ,the whole surrounding was great,,The old train is gone now and i dont know about the nature trail.Nothing but good memories of this place.
I did stop years ago before it became what it is now. Took some pictures of the pool I swan in many times as a child. Later, I remember dancing in a building with a juke box near bowling lanes. Skated in the skating rink, played miniature golf (I still have the scorecard from that date, I married him).
Jimmie Batchelor