It was back in 1862 in a pre-dawn light when Savannah gas plant supervisor James Smedberg braced himself against the wall of a brick well to shut off… as he called it… an “intolerable gas flow” and found his hand resting on the still lifeless face of a man suspended on the side of the pit where the valve was located ..read more

Hey, everyone! Did you hear that? Somebody said, “The Yankees are coming!” Actually, we hear that all the time here in Savannah, Georgia. Today it would mean they were coming down for a few days of vacation… But back in 1864, it didn’t mean they were stopping in town to catch dinner at Sweet Potatoes ..read more

Today we’re going to talk about two historical events that were separated by 100 yards but were a decade apart in history. The first incident in 1766 was over a little paper stamp. People got really riled up over this little stamp. So why get aflutter about a small piece of paper… it only cost a few pennies? Here’s why… It incident took place on the northeastern corner of Savannah’s Historic District in what locals call the Old Fort District. Today the Charles H. Morris Center at Trustees’ Garden is on top of the bluff where Colonial Era Fort Halifax once stood. Now, this spot is just a few fe ..read more

Savannah and South Georgia, back in 1881, they had a really bad day. A devil of a hurricane… The carnage started several miles south of the city where at the sportsman’s club on Wolf Island, the home of the club’s caretaker, Mr. Stokes, was ripped from the foundation and pushed into the river. Floodwaters crashed in the doors and windows and swept his wife and children into the river. His entire family drowned. Only Stokes survived and walked over sixty miles to Savannah to report the event. I’m JD Byous. Welcome to History by GPS, where we travel through history and culture GPS location by GP ..read more

Why would a young man… an educated and intelligent young man… hike 700 miles, walk into a strange cemetery where he had never been and knew no one buried there… then unknowingly lie down on an important grave and go to sleep? t was John Muir, who was a naturalist and a conservationist and is remembered as one of the fathers of the US National Park system. Today there are mountains, forests, parks, and two John Muir Trails, one in California in the Sierra Nevada and one in Tennessee in the Cumberland Mountains. So, why did he come to the cemetery/ an ..read more

–JD Byous– –Books– –Shop–  32.081360° -81.092032° Season 1, Episode 3 Other coordinates listed are at the end of the page. Hey, everyone! What a great day for a podcast! I don’t know if you know, but Savannah, Georgia, where this podcast… is based… is known for being a bit of a party town. If you’ve ..read more

Today we’re going to talk about pirates. And I’m not talkin’ the AAAARRRGGG, me hearty kind of pirates. Okay, you ask, where did it happen? So, you wanna know where they hung out? Listen up! Well, it happened in Savannah, Georgia, when Savannahians had had enough of the things that pirates do… and they ended up in a donnybrook. Ah… and your next question is….. Did the Americans lose the fight, or did French pirates get their booties swashed and buckled by some ticked-off Southern boys? Stick around, and I’ll give you my take on it. I’m JD Byous. Welcome to History by GPS, w ..read more

Today we travel to the edge of Savannah’s Trustees’ Garden, near the end of East River Street, where the GPS coordinates are 32.079459° -81.083386°. As I said, Liberty Boy, Andrew Elton Wells, was the brother-in-law of a Boston Liberty Boy and malthouse owner, Samuel Adams ..read more

What a great day for a podcast! This is JD Byous.  Welcome to History by GPS, where you travel through history and culture GPS location by GPS location. For season one, there is a debut date of February 14th, 2023… don’t you just love it?... In that season we’ll be focusing on the history in and around Savannah, Georgia USA… There,,, is…a lot of history here. Then… occasionally we’ll venture out to other areas across America, and sometimes we’ll tell the connections of those events to the Hostess City of the South just to illustrate how our nation is interconnected and interdependent. For ..read more

He did not specify the details when sophomore-year history teacher, Mr. Stammerjohn, assigned students to create historical items for his class. He suggested that some students could make a cannon replica, a painted flag, then offhandedly, a guillotine. As for ..read more