Downtown Huntsville Library
Enriching Life in Huntsville and Madison County: Monte Sano Wells Memorial Trail and Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary
Thursday, October 27, 2022 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
Join presenters Steve Jones and Bill Heslip as they chronicle the making of a 12-minute land legacy video on Well Memorial Trail on Monte Sano and a 14-minute video on the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary.
Presenters Steve Jones and Bill Heslip (Two Guys and a Camera) will show and discuss two videos they have recently released.
The first, a 12-minute land legacy video, took a year to produce and includes interviews with the Wells family. The project is a memorial to William Arthur Wells, a lasting tribute to Robert and Catherine Wells, and a model for a selfless gift of land and nature to perpetuity. The Alabama State Park System accepted the land donation with great enthusiasm! The history of the area includes the significant involvement of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The donated, 40-acre cathedral forest parcel is named in honor of William Arthur Wells, who died at the WWII Naval Battle at Leyte Gulf in October 1944.
The second, a 14-minute video that likewise took a year to produce, explores the Nature of the 375-acre Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary, enabled by a 300-acre gift of land to the City of Huntsville from philanthroper and Nature-enthusiast Margaret Anne Goldsmith. The project focuses on the benefactor's selfless gift to the future and her friend, Marian Moore Lewis, who authored the exquisite Southern Sanctuary: A Naturalist's Walk through the Seasons, a 12-month photo-essay on the Nature of the G-SW Sanctuary.
Both videos offer compelling stories of the role that conservation of wildness plays in enriching life in Huntsville and Madison County.