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The summer of 1951 was a little hotter than normal. And that June 10th, Roxie Lee Blackwell Hendrix, her children, and a few others had gone to the private lake of the Roy Roper Yellow Creek Church. They borrowed a motor from a friend to place on their aluminum boat for a ride. The pond in 2024 The Roper Farm on the 1903 Henley Map Lake today, lower right corner The Roper Lake was a spring-fed four-acre lake about 12 to 15 feet deep. It is located roughly a mile west of t

Amicalola Electrical Membership Co-operative began in 1940 as one of the last electrical membership co-ops. Rather than benefiting from...

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....

During the heart of the Civil War, Pickens County was torn between sides. The flag that flew over the courthouse yard was a Union flag. Yet, many of the residents fought on each side. Many of the Darnell family fought for the North, while those from the Fields side predominantly fought for the South. And while many neighboring counties were far more aligned with the Confederacy, as with Pickens's history with race and slavery, Pickens was more of a mixed bag. There we

During the Civil War and for several decades that followed, criminals and vigilantes from various places around the United States would don Klan-like outfits and terrorize citizens. In many newspapers, they were commonly referred to as Night Riders. They were named after their preferred time to commit crimes while on horseback. The Night Riders, like the Home Guards, gangs, and Irregular units of the Confederate Army, frequently harried and preyed upon law-abiding citizen

A few years ago, I ran across a reference for a reported moonshine still in a North Georgia gated community. Initially, I had doubts about the location. However, this was before I knew much about moonshining. I walked up a draw (def - a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them) about 500 yards uphill into the woods. There were remnants of an ephemeral stream about six inches from the abandoned rock furnace. The rock furnace

On November 9th, 2022, I was a part of a thirty-five-person group of hikers that traveled to the Tate Mountain Estates area of...

In 1968, The Burnt Mountain Corporation was approached by a real estate developer named H. Dean Spratlin with a proposal. He wanted to...

The Great Depression of 1929 caused massive hardships across the United States of America. In response to the dire economic situation, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created a series of public works programs designed to employ thousands of Americans in different areas of infrastructure, agriculture, and forestry-related jobs. For nine years, the Civilian Conservation Corps changed the American landscape by building fire towers, fire brakes, roads, and planting trees.

Elizabeth Blink Drummond (nee Thomas) was born in 1906 while her family was stationed in Manilla. Her parents thought it cute that she had a habit of always blinking her eyes, so they gave her the nickname Blink. It stuck with her for the rest of her life. Blink came from a long line of military officers. Her father, calvary officer, Colonel Charles Oscar Thomas, Jr. was born in 1871. His father before him, was born in 1838 in New York State and fought for the Union in

Recently a photocopy of a hand drawn map of the way from Jasper and Tate to Mt. Burrell (now known as Burnt Mountain) has found its way...

In 1930, Colonel Sam Tate had just built his Tate Mountain Estates – which included his stunning Connahaynee Lodge, Lake Sequoyah and a beautiful 18-hole golf course. That October, Colonel Tate gathered with state legislators, Georgia’s Governor Hardman and the Mayor of Atlanta, to unveil the monument dedicated to the founder of the Colony of Georgia, General James Oglethorpe, and to celebrate the changing of the name of Grassy Knob to Mount Oglethorpe. I Unveiling of monumen

For 40 years the Whittington Home occupied part of the land where the sixth hole of the Bent Tree golf course is. Was this house the...

Sallie Doss' chimney is the stuff of legend When you think of Sallie Doss, what comes to mind? She was a widowed landowner that bought land here in the late 1800s. But there were many landowners that came and went before us, so, what sets her apart? A chimney. If this chimney weren’t here, there’s a good chance that we’d never have thought much of the late Mrs. Doss. Many of you know that she was born in 1841 and lived, died and was buried here in Pickens County. Some of you

The Whittington Family only lived in the land that is part of Bent Tree for a little over a decade. Where did they go after they left? Woman (unknown), Laura Whittington, Howard Whittington, Emily Josephine and Gladys (photo taken in 1902) – 8 years before they moved to our area. What happened to the Whittingtons after they left our area? Howard and his wife Laura moved around quite a bit within the state of Georgia before finally settling in Paulding County, Georgia (where