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Col. Sam Tate announced the creation of a 10,000-acre estate that would serve as a summer resort for wealthy Atlantans in 1929. At the cost of one-million dollars (seventeen million in today's money) he would construct a 51-acre manmade lake, 18-hole golf course, Dude Ranch, and a premier place to rest and hold events, the Connahaynee Lodge. Situated some 3,300 feet above sea level, atop Mount Burrell (Burnt Mountain today), the giant lodge was built of American Chestnut L

Pickens County has a history replete with convicts who escaped local authorities. This particular story took place near Sharptop Church (near the present-day corner of Grandview and Pendley Road) and moved to the Connahaynee Lodge grounds within Tate Mountain Estates before the convict escaped our county. On September 2, 1937 a group of convicts were near Sharptop Church, when one of the convicts, a man convicted of murder, escaped from the group and ran up an embankment. A

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

Did you know that Frank Spratlin, father of Bent Tree's developer H. Dean Spratlin, helped build a radio tower for Georgia Tech on Burnt...