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Lime Kilns can be seen just above center right in this Civil War era map. During the Civil War, old maps show two lime kilns located just east of Kingston. By the early 20th Century, Georgia State Geology publications mention the Akin Lime Kiln as being located near Cave Station in Bartow County. The Akin lime kiln stands mostly in decent shape. A lime kiln is a giant furnace used to convert limestone (Calcium Carbonate) into quick lime (Calcium Oxide). The Akin lime kil

The ruins of a spring house remain down a hill behind Stamp Creek Baptist Church near the village of White in Bartow County, Georgia. One day while exploring old iron foundries and lime kilns, I stopped for a break in an old baptist church parking lot. Stamp Creek Baptist Church was founded in 1853 in White Georgia. The graveyard across the road has its earliest burial just one year after the church was founded. While sitting near the back of the parking lot, I noticed a b

In June of 1964, Joseph Mahan Jr., an archaeologist from Columbus, Georgia, arranged a trip to southwest Pickens County, near the Henderson and Sharp Mountains. He had learned of an abandoned gold mine and wanted to explore it. In 1878, David Cantrell moved near the Indian Pine section of Southwest Pickens County. He lived on the land until he passed away in 1947. His son T.D. lived with him at the property on Route 3, Jasper. Reed Henson acquired part of the Cantrell Fa

When the Indian Removal happened in 1838, a series of stockades were built in Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee to round them up and house them before their exile to the Oklahoma Territory. Over ten of these forts were built in North Georgia, including Fort Newnan (present Pickens County) and Fort Hetzel in Gilmer County. The map below shows the location of some of the Removal Forts in the southeast. Note: Fort Morrow, Tennessee (above the second G in Georgia

CLICK HERE TO BUY TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH: A COMPENDIUM OF NORTH GEORGIA HISTORY After four years of research and countless hours and excursions, I'm proud to release my first book about North Georgia history. The book spans four centuries of events with original content. Over thirty separate pieces of research are organized into six sections: The First Inhabitants - Pretribal Indians through the Cherokee Enter the Europeans - British and American Colonists from the Revolutiona

Being curious, detail-oriented, and courageous are the most important inherited traits of an explorer. While you can teach people how to read maps, look at aerial photography, and determine latitude and longitude, you cannot make someone curious. Like color blindness, you’re either born curious or not. Assuming your curiosity led you to this article, I will teach you the basics of RUREX. If URBEX = Urban Exploration, I will assume RUREX means Rural Exploration. If not, I

Many millions in eastern North America live within a short distance of amazing ruins as old as two millennia but do not know it....

The Mitchell Map Wauchope's Interpretation of the Mitchell Map The Mitchell map of 1755 was the first map to show Long Swamp as a place (albeit, under a different name). The map was compiled from the best sources of information at the time under the direction of the Second Earl of Halifax. The map remained one of the largest and most accurate depictions of North America through the 18th Century. At six and a half feet wide and four and a half feet high, it is a massive map

The Keith Plantation of Cherokee County The overgrown entrance to the Keith Plantation. Note the main house in the background According to local sources, the Keith Plantation near Canton, GA, in present-day Keithsburg* during the Civil War. The property held over 3,300 acres along the Etowah River two miles north of Etowah. (Note: At one point in the past, Canton was named Etowah) The plantation had a large brick house made from a kiln with red clay from the Etowah River.

I am Jake Scudder, a Wilkes County man from Jackson, A Whig and Republican in political conviction, Resting beneath these columns of polished marble Which stand on a hilltop at Diana's Chapel, Rising like a sentinel to guard the treasure tunnel And looking over the river toward Lewis Blackburn - (except from larger writing on Scudder) Jacob McCartney Scudder was born in the last two decades of the 18th Century in Wilkes County, North Carolina. He moved to Georgia as a young

Oh, how I love to explore abandoned places. Nothing quite satisfies my curiosity like finding an old homestead in the middle of a forest. They say that time travel isn’t possible. However, that’s not exactly true. With a little bit of cleverness and a lot of persistence, people can travel back in time. And while there are far easier ways to venture back into the past than exploring abandoned homes and roads - reading a book or watching a documentary comes to mind – finding an

Cherokee County officially came into existence in 1831. Previously, the land was known as the Cherokee Territory. Two years before,...

If you ask old-time residents of Pickens County, they'll tell you that Murphy Bottom off of Jerusalem Church Road (near two branches of Scarecorn Creek) in West Pickens used to be the place to find arrowheads. Some people mention that a village may have been there at one time. Archaeology sites in Georgia are The site was originally designated as 9 Pi 12. It also has the designator of 9 Pi 103. The real topic of interest was always the who, when, where, and what. The why

In the early 1970s Robert L. Blakely, Roy S. Dickens and Phillip Greear found 50 artifacts within the newly developing community....

High atop Rich Mountain there is a half acre site with 95 stacks of Indian rock piles. Ancient Sites within Pickens County Pretribal Indians throughout North America had left remnants of their ceremonial sites in the forms of cairns. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, a cairn is large, conical heap of stone, especially of the type common in Scotland and Wales and also found elsewhere in Britain, 1530s, from Scottish carne, akin to Gaelic carn "heap of stones, rock