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In mid-December of 1942, A little over a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Joe Loggins, 31, of Nelson, Georgia, was incarcerated in the Old Jail on Jasper's Main Street. The previous Wednesday, December 16, Joe had gone to his in-law's house in a drunken stupor to confront his wife. He grabbed his youngest daughter Nancy and fled the scene to his brother-in-law's house and an arrest warrant was issued. Later that night Joe was apprehended by the Pickens County Sheriff

The metal jail cells of the Old Jail as seen in the early 80s. Many a ghost hunter have claimed they've encountered spirits of the dead in the Old Pickens County Jail on Main Street in Jasper. Reports and rumors abound of the death of two prisoners hung by the gallows. Official reports emphatically state that no prisoner was ever executed from the gallows during the seventy plus years the jail was operational. And yet, newspapers from the 80s made the claim that two priso

Lindsey Evans a.k.a. Milton Lewis Coleman, the murderer of Lee Cape In the summer of 1933, a violent confrontation at a small service station in Devore, California, escalated into a criminal case that drew weeks of newspaper coverage across San Bernardino County. At the center of the controversy were Lewis M. Coleman, a 30-year-old service station operator, and Frank E. Medock of the Glen Helen Ranch. The incident occurred on June 16, 1933, at Coleman’s filling station in Dev

The Body In the Well On Tuesday, February 22, 1949, a grey 1947 Chevrolet with a blue top with a sign that read Veteran’s Cab arrived at the Asta Café on Main Street in Jasper. The driver, Earl Holbert, thought it was going to be a short evening. He was right, but not in the way he planned. G. "Earl" Holbert Around 6 p.m. Earl had picked up a passenger at the cafe (inside what is now the Old Mule House building). At 7 p.m. he traveled to Low’s Service Station in Talki

The weaver school changed locations depending on the map you've looked at. Around 1900 it was located within the area that is now Big Canoe. By the 1910s it was located near the entrance of Cove Lake off of Cove Road on Land Lot 91. Like most schools of its day, there was one teacher, and a small group of about 30 local students who attended. Most of the students stayed until about 8th grade. Most of the students had surnames like Blackwell, Cox, and Padgett - families w

For Our Defense Aerial of the Jasper Airport built in December 1941, less than three weeks after Pearl Harbor (photo by J.H. Dilbeck) In December 1942, not even a month had passed since the horrendous attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, when a group of men from Pickens County leased a section of land about three quarters of a mile north of town on the east side of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Their purpose? To build Pickens County's first airport as a defensive

Many newcomers to Jasper drive past Church Street and Burnt Mountain Road, look at the Walgreens without giving it a second thought. Some residents likely remember when Greystone Village had been there - a series of small shops and a restaurant known as the Yellow Bird. A few elders who lived their whole lives here might remember the Greystone as a reincarnation of the Archer Tourist Court. Fewer still remember the Archer Hotel which burned down at the site back in 1947.

The Myth The folktale goes like this: There's a haunted house in the south of Gilmer County where the owner used to pick up and send his mail. All the kids in Gilmer called it the Elf House. The builder was a lawyer from New York or the Midwest. He retired and moved to North Georgia and built the Elf House so his rejected manuscripts would have a place to land because they wouldn't fit in a regular mailbox. It was said he only lived there for ten years in a small house wi

When Bent Tree was being designed in the late 60s, Atlanta-based developer Spratlin and Associates hired two different firms to map out the planned locations of facilities and roads. Zachery W. Henderson & Associates and landscape architects Hudson - Welch and Associates mapped out the layout. While some of the primary areas like the front gate and the Clubhouse location (later named Club Tamarack) remained true to their original planned locations, other areas like the over-

This information is based on interviews conducted with Colonel Lemuel J. Allred and Mr. James Simmons, by the Ellijay Courier newspaper in 1887. Not long after Pickens County was carved out of Cherokee County and Gilmer in 1853 by legislation drafted by Colonel Lemuel Allred, a new town was proposed as the county seat. James Simmons, the former legislator who moved to the area in 1835 and lived in Colonel Haney Nelson's old Tavern along the Federal Road, originally proposed

The Southern Marble Company can be seen in Land Lot 106, of District 4, in the 1903 Pickens County map. In the 1890s the Southern Marble Company (located where the Imerys Corporation is presently at on Hwy 53 in Marble Hill, Georgia, built a combination of a pipeline and channel for a gravity-fed water delivery system from nearly two miles north to their marble plant. The water would pass beneath Hwy 53 and shoot out from a small pipe to power a Pelton Wheel which operated t

John Martin may not be a widely recognized name outside of Pickens County, Georgia. But to locals, he's as Americana as Waffle House, baseball, and barbeque. To most Pickens Countians, John is instantly recognizable in his customary garb: a tan cowboy hat, blue liberty brand overalls, button up shirt, and eyeglasses. And if you're eating at a local mom and pop establishment, and you don't see John, take a listen. His distinct southern dialect, baritone voice, and guffaw

The American Ethnologist James Mooney released his book on Cherokee legends in 1888. Only one sentence refers to a Cherokee council site. It falls under his definition of Talking Rock. Specifically, he states: "TALKING ROCK: A creek in upper Georgia flowing northward to join Coosawatee river. The Indian settlements upon it were considered as belonging to Sanderstown, on the lower part of the creek, the townhouse being located about a mile above the present Talking Rock stat

On the afternoon of April 2nd, 2025, Pickens County resident Jessica McCabe found a cannonball near the bridge off Swan Bridge road

The Perseverance Quarry can still be seen on the north side of Cove Road. In the 1850s Summey and Hurlick operated a marble operation there for a few years. Prior to them, the discoverer of Georgia marble, Henry Fitzsimmons had owned the site before being murdered by an unknown assailant. The Cove Mine, a.k.a. The Perseverence Quarry About three decades later, James Harrison of Atlanta, the owner of the Atlanta Printing Company, leased the land near the Perseverance Quarry

The Poet Bury me in a nameless grave! I came from God the world to save. I brought them wisdom from above: Worship, and liberty, and love. They slew me for I did disparage Therefore Religion, Law, and Marriage. So be my grave without a name That earth may swallow up my shame! Aleister Crowley, infamous poet and black magician of the mid-twentieth Century. Potter's field "piece of ground reserved as a burying place for friendless paupers, unknown persons, and criminals" (1520

Bent Tree Community, a private gated community located four miles east of Jasper, Georgia, had its first houses built in 1970. Today, there are over 1,100 homes. When I moved into the community in late 2018, I was told a murder had never happened within Bent Tree's gates throughout its entire history. Forever a skeptic, I set out to determine the truthfulness of that statement. In 2022, as we approached the 50th Anniversary of the Bent Tree Golf Course, I reached out to two

Tim Day, a member of the Gartrell/McCravey line recently reached out to me about helping him track down some long-lost relatives. Back in 1995, Roger Cagle, father of Bill Cagle, took Tim and others on a drive somewhere near Price Creek. Tim remembered seeing and hearing about a Talona Methodist Cemetery. He and I spent several hours driving down various back roads in Northwestern and North Central Pickens County. We stopped at Price Creek Baptist Cemetery to pay homage t

Last summer, John Humphrey and his sons Norman and William, found themselves in unfortunate circumstances. Within two weeks of each other, Norman caught fire, suffering third-degree burns over much of his body, and William lost his eye in a separate accident. Neither son had medical insurance, so a GoFundMe campaign was started by Norman’s girlfriend. I visited the property to meet with their father John, the owner of John’s Mill at their 61-acre property in Hinton. J

In 1930, in Northeastern Pickens County, Col. Sam Tate opened a 10,000-acre resort for wealthy Atlantans called Tate Mountain Estates. The Estates featured a dude ranch, kids camp, private 38-acre lake, trapshooting, archery, fox hunts, and a massive 20 plus bedroom lodge named Connahaynee. The other premier amenity was the 18-hole, par 71 course built by Stiles and Van Kleek. John R. Van Kleek was a well-known golf course architect. His firm was headquartered out of Bosto