Meet Don and Diane Wells

Note from the editors: It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of the passing of Diane Wells on February 18, 2023. Diane was a beloved member of our community, and her presence will be deeply missed. We extend our heartfelt condolences to her family and friends during this difficult time. Diane will always be remembered for her kindness, generosity, and contributions to our community.

Agreeing that there was no better place to settle down than the Southern Appalachian Mountains, we moved into Monument Falls 2 in August of 2000. We celebrated our 60^th wedding anniversary in June of 2022. However, our days as a couple reach back 67 years to our high school days in Albany Georgia. Now in our early 80’s we continue to enjoy traveling around America doing Native American and other cultural research for the Mountain Stewards organization.  And, of course, we love spending time visiting with our 3 children, 4 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren.   

Although we had some classes together in high school, we really met when we were 16 and were both working at the State Theater in Albany. The manager, an alcoholic, was seldom there. From 4 to 8 pm we were in charge. Don was the projectionist.Diane sold tickets and ran the concession stand. 

After graduating from High School, Diane went to Georgia Southern University and Don to the University of South Carolina on a Navy ROTC scholarship. Diane went to school continuously and graduated with a history and education degree in 1960 and moved to Cayce SC (just across the river from the University of SC) to teach. Don graduated in 1962 with a degree in Civil Engineering.  June 1, 1962 was a busy day for us. Diane rushed over to the University early in the morning to pin Don’s new Ensign bars on his shoulder. Then she hurried back to Cayce to hand out report cards and finish up some details of closing out the school year. Luckily, the Civil Engineering department was last on the list to graduate. Luckily, Don’s name didn’t start with “A” and Diane was able to make it back just a few minutes before he walked across the stage to receive his diploma. We were married in Cayce at 5pm that same afternoon. Whew!  20 days later Don started his 28-year Navy career when he picked up his ship, the USS McCaffery DD-860 in Aden, Saudi Arabia (now Yeman).

Having transferred to the Navy Civil Engineering Corps in 1964, Don was selected in 1967 as one of the first officers to be a part of a new High-Tech program in Ocean Engineering. Sent by the Navy in 1968 to school at Texas A&M, Don received his Masters in Civil Engineering with a specialty in Ocean Engineering and Diane got her Masters in Educational Psychology in January 1970.

Over the next 20 years they were stationed in Port Hueneme CA twice and in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area for 15 years. During that time Don held a variety of jobs in the Ocean Engineering field. Diane taught school for a couple of years and then she and another Navy wife started the Gate Ministry, a tutoring program for children who had difficulties learning. They finished their Navy career back in Port Hueneme where Don was the Commanding Officer of the Navy Civil Engineering Laboratory. Returning to their home in Alexandria VA, Don spent the next 10 years working for an engineering consulting firm in Vienna VA. 

Next, came Retirement!  Which our children say we have failed. We bought our lot here on the mountain in 1998 and spent our free time designing our home using a basic Barna Log Home design. We modified it to suit our needs. We were proud to have our home featured in the May 2005 issue of Log Home Design Ideas. We planned for our home to be a retreat for church workers who were facing burn out.

Construction began in August 2000. Don was the Building Contractor who managed all of the sub-contractors. We can truly say that we built our home. After the logs were stacked, the windows installed and the roof put on, the two of us pretty much did everything else. That makes you really appreciate it. Our home served its retreat purpose for a little over 10 years beforewe had to close it.

After completing construction of our home in August 2001, Don and 4 other men started hiking and using GPS to mark some of the local trails. In October 2003, The Coalition of Southern Appalachian Mountain Steward, Inc was founded. It soon became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Nineteen years later, the Mountain Stewards is still going strong. It has 2 missions. One is to manage a Trail Crew of men, average age 75, who work two days a week maintaining about 20 miles of hiking trails built by the Mountain Stewards and building recreational and other facilities for state, county, and local non-profit organizations. From 2007 to 2009, they built the handicap raised wooden platform trail along the Amicalola River and in 2013 – 2017, our biggest effort was building Eagle’s Rest Parkon Oglethorpe Mountain. In 2009, Don was selected as the Cox Conservation Hero for the Atlanta metropolitan market for building the Amicalola Trail. 

The second mission is its Indian Cultural Heritage Program which has been operating since 2007. That program has now documented 3,360 Indian Marker Trees in 45 states and Canada.  We add some 250 trees annually. Hundreds of Native American sacred sites are also documented nationally. The web site at www.mountainsteward.org has a great deal of information about our Indian Cultural Heritage program. On the site are 60 research reports available for reading or downloading as well as multiple videos. 

Under the Mountain Stewards program, we have published two books: Mystery of the Trees (2011) and Deciphering the Signs, Sacred Indian Trees, and Places. (2020). In 2015 we produced the documentary Mystery of the Trees featuring award winning Cherokee actor Wes Studi.  We are currently filming another documentary we hope to release in 2023. 

Associated with the Mountain Stewards is a new group known as the Awakening. That group of researchers with special research skills is blazing new pathways to knowledge.  Where possible that information is being shared when the knowledge base has been fully documented. 

We continue to live on Sassafras Mountain enjoying our home, our friends, and the mountain flora and fauna which is hard to beat. Over the years we have researched and written about the history of the North Georgia Mountains. We hope to share some of those stories on the Jasper Mountain Life website.

Note from editors: Don and Diane have worked hard to bring us history that we are all curious about. We plan to bring you each and every article spaced out every few weeks. In addition, we will be hearing from Jan Murphy of the Big Canoe Historical Society. Our history is very important, now you can have the knowledge to pass on to your love ones.