The event features ponies, a petting zoo, moonwalk, bubble blowing, jewelry making, face tattoos and a magic show.

The day kicks off the Summer Reading Program and The Friends will also begin collecting books for the annual book sale. The event is free. For more information, call (706) 769-3950.

On May 26, experts on the subject of Dr. Lindsey Durham’s medicines will give a tour and lecture on the subject at the Durham Herb Trail located in the Oconee National Forest near the Scull Shoals village historical site.

The event is sponsored by the Friends of Scull Shoals and will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the trail off Forest Service Road 1234 off Macedonia Road in Greene County.

There is a $5 entrance fee per car.

“We have a fellow who knows a lot about how Durham’s remedies were used and we have someone who knows the plants,” said Peggy Sommer of Watkinsville, who is the secretary for the Friends.

While one expert identifies the plants that Durham collected for his medicines, the other expert will explain their use in Durham’s treatments.

Durham, who lived near the village of Scull Shoals, used his remedies to treat patients who visited his hospital from all across the state. The doctor died in 1859 and is buried near the location of his former home off Greensboro Highway in Oconee County.

The herb trail was established by the Friends of Scull Shoals as an educational program.

Dr. Allen Vegotsky of Stone Mountain, who is a Friends member, is an expert on Durham’s medicines. At previous events at Scull Shoals, Vegotsky has actually dressed up as Dr. Durham as he talked about the old medicines, according to Sommer.

The Herb Trail is near the front of the road, but a member of the Friends will be at the Scull Shoals mill site for anyone who would like to ask questions about the remains still standing including an old bridge and parts of a warehouse.

To reach the location from Athens, take Georgia Highway 15 south of Watkinsville. Turn left on Macedonia Road after crossing the Oconee River bridge and go 2.2 miles to Forest Road 1234.

But the sculptor, now deceased, nor his 59-year-old son, ever visited the artwork where it stands like a lone sentinel in a grain field more than 50 years after it was moved off the campus of the University of Georgia.

The artist, Abbott Pattison, died in 1999, and made a legacy for himself as a sculptor. His son, Harry Pattison, has been a painter for 40 years and is known for his landscapes of wild places and its myriad wildlife.

Abbott Pattison, who was a World War II veteran serving as a captain on a destroyer escort ship, was working in the art department at the University of Georgia in 1953-54 when he made the Iron Horse. The sculpture was set on campus, but students vandalized the metal piece, some say because Pattison said something disparaging about the school’s athletics.

“He spoke to me about the Iron Horse on quite a number of occasions as its story was written up in newspapers every few years. In addition, several graduate students from the University of Georgia wrote papers about the entire controversy of the sculpture in the 1950’s and Abbott would correspond with each of them in response,” Pattison said in an email.

“My father admired the statue and was initially very surprised and hurt that some of the students could not see the bold approach of seeing a horse in a different way and so attempted to vandalize the piece, eventually having the university decide to remove the sculpture from its campus to stop the riots on campus,” he said.

The 9-foot statue was welded out of heavy-gauge boiler plate steel, so it has withstood the elements — and even vandalism — over the years. The Iron Horse was moved to Curtis Farm during the 1950s.

Abbott Pattison, who grew up in Chicago and lived in Maine during his later years, had a difficult time understanding the resentment he felt was directed toward him during the Iron Horse controversy, his son said.

“Abbott never got back down to see the sculpture again, after having left his teaching tenure with the university. I have not ever personally seen the piece,” Pattison said.

But the son is proud of the Iron Horse.

“I think the piece is a very strong sculpture, and even today, the sculpture is still a very contemporary and forceful statement. Once my father became very well known, both in the U.S. and internationally, the university tried to get the sculpture back from the farmer, but the state of Georgia courts ruled with the farmer, stating that the university had given it up long ago,” he said.

So today, the horse still reigns on the open range.

BURGLARY: ON May 10, a deputy was dispatched to a home on Lane Creek Road, Bogart, where a woman said she came home about 11 a.m. after being away for about two hours and discovered someone had forced the door open.

She discovered the thief took a rifle, three shotguns, a laptop computer, two TVs, a Wii system, DVD player, sound system, coin collection, two tablet computers and a weedeater, all valued about $6,827.

SHOPLIFTING: On May 10, a deputy was dispatched to Walmart, where a man was charged with shoplifting a pair of headphones. Alfonzo Ellison, 19, of Salisbury Plains Drive, Athens, was arrested on the charge.

FRAUD: On May 11, a resident of Kennedy Road, Arnoldsville, reported she found three charges on her bank card that were unauthorized earlier this year. She closed the account, but now she found another transaction for $1,532 on the card that was made out of state.

POTS TAKEN: On May 11, residents of Keeneland Drive, Watkinsville, noticed that someone went into their neighbor’s yard while they were away and stole five antique flowerpots and other yard objects valued at $830.

SHOPLIFTING: On May 11, a deputy was dispatched about 7 p.m. to Walmart, where security had detained Recola Lavern Smith, 22, of Salisbury Plains Drive, Athens, on a charge of shoplifting about $30 in merchandise.

HARASSMENT: On May 11, a deputy met with a Mars Hill Road, Watkinsville, resident, who said her ex-husband is sending her harassing text messages after she disciplined their child by taking away a cell phone.

DUI: On May 11, a deputy was dispatched to Epps Bridge Parkway after a motorist saw a reckless driver headed toward Georgia Highway 316. The deputy spotted the Chevrolet Tahoe near the Oconee Connector and made a stop.

The driver, who was unsteady on his feet, but denied drinking, failed a sobriety test. Henry Edward Lowe Jr., 26, of Macon was charged with DUI.

HARASSMENT: On May 13, a young woman met with a deputy at the sheriff’s office to report that a former boyfriend is harassing her at school and on her Facebook page.

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY: On May 13, Deputy Joe Williams met with a resident of Elder Mill Road, who reported seeing a gray late-model car with a loud muffler stopping at her mailbox and other mailboxes along the road.

She has observed the driver and sometimes a passenger open the mailboxes and look inside. The resident believes they may be stealing mail.

THEFT: On May 13, a deputy was dispatched to Lowe’s on Epps Bridge Parkway, where a man was seen taking a Husqvarna lawnmower, valued at $280, putting it inside a red Jeep Cherokee and leaving.

A person at the store followed the Jeep into Clarke County, but lost sight of it.

A lookout was posted and a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy stopped the Jeep on U.S. Highway 129. The mower was still inside. The Oconee deputy went to the scene and arrested Jonathan E. Scott, 55, of Fairlane Drive, Athens, on a charge of theft.

DAMAGE: On May 14, Deputy Josh Elrod was dispatched to meet with an Oconee County Road Department employee on Dickens Lane in High Shoals.

The man showed the deputy where someone had placed an unknown chemical inside the cab of a front-end loader. The chemical exploded and damaged the loader’s upholstery.

It appeared the chemical was placed in a large plastic bottle, and some aluminum foil was placed inside to cause a reaction. The bottle was closed with a cap, and when the reaction occurred, the bottle blew up.

FRAUD: On May 14, a resident of Maple Lane, Watkinsville, reported someone used his Social Security number to file a federal tax return for 2010.

THEFT: On May 14, a resident of Lake Pointe Drive, Athens, reported the theft of a video camera and a laptop computer from her home last fall. She waited to report the theft, thinking a person she believes may have taken the items would return them.

SHOPLIFTING: On May 14, a deputy was dispatched to Walmart after a man took a trolling motor and ran from the store and escaped from the pursuing security officer by getting in vehicle and fleeing. The tag number was turned over to the deputy,

THEFT: On May 15, a man said he was at Oconee Veterans Park on Hog Mountain Road and placed his cellphone and wallet in a bag while he played soccer. When he returned to the bag, the items were gone.

THEFT: On May 15, a deputy was dispatched to a home in the 3000 block of Macon Highway, Watkinsville, where a woman said she heard a noise and upon looking outside saw a man backing her mower out of the barn.

She called her sons and the sheriff’s office, but the man and mower were gone.

DISPUTE: On May 15, Deputy David Burchett was dispatched to a disturbance on Moreland Avenue in Watkinsville. A woman said the man living with her had been disrespectful toward her and called her names. The man said the argument occurred over some Oreo cookies and the woman had overreacted.

The man agreed to leave for the night.

WOMAN HIT: On May 16, Deputy David Burchett was dispatched to the emergency room at St. Mary’s Hospital because a woman was being treated for an assault.

The woman said she was helping a friend move some furniture. The friend told her to step aside, and when she didn’t, he punched her in the jaw. Although her jaw may have been broken, she told the deputy she didn’t want to press charges and she would not provide any names or addresses.

FRAUD: On May 16, a Jamestown Boulevard, Watkinsville, woman said her credit card was fraudulently used for $24,694.

BURGLARY: On May 16, a resident of Branch Road, Bishop, reported someone entered a storage building behind her home. She is unsure what is missing.

Tom Odom announced his intentions to run for the seat after current board Chairman David Weeks said he will not run for re-election.

Odom is familiar with the majority of a school board’s work — budgets, policies and personnel — through his experience as a school principal, he said.

“I think education is very important to where you want to go in life, and I just want to contribute,” Odom said.

Odom started teaching physical education classes at Clarke Central High School in 1977 and currently is an interim principal at Westside Middle School in Barrow County.

He retired in 2010 from Oconee County schools, where he served as a principal and interim principal at several schools.

Weeks has decided he didn’t want to run for a third term because he’d like to spend more time focusing on his family and business opportunities, he said.

Voters first elected Weeks to the board in 2004. When he started serving on the board in 2005, he had one son and one restaurant, Weeks said. Now, he has three boys and seven restaurants.

“It’s time to walk away,” he said.

Weeks plans to continue helping the school district as needed, but not in a leadership role, he said.

“I’ll be the school system’s biggest chearleader — from the sidelines,” he said.