n late June 1775, William Bartram left the Georgia frontier with a "company of adventurers," bound for Mobile. Once there, Bartram explored "the bay of Mobile" and the "Taensa, a pretty high bluff, on the Eastern channel of the great Mobile river, about thirty miles above Fort Conde, or city of Mobile, at the head of the bay." Bartram's host for much of his time in the British colony of West Florida was Major Robert Farmar, who provided a canoe for Bartram to explore the delta. During his excursions, Bartram observed "many artificial mounds of earth and other ruins," the habitations of French settlers who stayed after the British conquest of their colony, and "many curious vegetable productions." Perhaps none of his discoveries was as spectacular as the evening primrose, which still blooms in the Tensaw.

This fall, the Bartram Trail Conference will revisit Bartram's Tensaw journey. The 2007 Bartram Trail Conference Biennial meeting will be held October 26-28, 2007, at the beautiful new Five Rivers Center, the launch point for the Bartram Canoe Trail. Five Rivers is the gateway to the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, the second largest river delta system in the continental U.S. and Alabama's largest federally designated National Natural Landmark. The eighty-acre site features seven newly constructed state-of-the-art buildings, including a visitor center, a Nature Center Complex, an exhibit hall, and, of course, Bartram Landing, the terminus of the Bartram Canoe Trail. Come and meet old friends, make new ones, feast on great southern foods, explore the Bartram Canoe Trail, see historic sites and hear the latest scholarship on William Bartram. Our sponsors for the meeting will be the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Baldwin County Department of Archives and History, and the Alabama Museum of Natural History. I hope to see you there.