When I was a little girl, my family told me that the ships that delivered cotton and other wares to the Savannah harbor back in the day used to unload their cobblestone ballast as well as their goods. These cobblestones, in turn, were used to pave the river front, factor’s walk, and build up the bluff on which Savannah sits. I made up stories about the people who delivered the cobblestones and where they might have originated. While the cobblestoned areas are beautiful, they can also be treacherous if you don’t watch your step. Likewise, my stories had more than a sample of pirates and ne’er do wells handling the stones. The cobblestones have always maintained a mystique to me.
Historians guess that the cobblestones that pave Savannah’s waterfront area hale from the American northeast, Canada, the British Isles, Spain, Portugal, and Madeira. I imagine an expert could trace the stone’s origin by its content. It doesn’t really matter to me what the expert says. The word itself simply signifies a rounded lump of stone, implying a large size, which has been rounded by the flow of water. No matter what the true origin, I think I’ll stick with my childhood fantasy that assured me that the person who brought them to the ship to be used as ballast salvaged them from some stream bed in a magical forest. Isn’t that more fun?
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