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For years, I regularly contributed articles to the now gone North Georgia Journal and Georgia Backroads. In the process, I learned much...

Steele's Bridge 1964 baptism Most people from Pickens and Dawson County are familiar with the metal span bridge over the Amicalola River. Spanning 80 feet over a popular fishing and tubing location known as the Devil's Elbow, the bridge has been a landmark of local activity for over 120 years. Map of Steele's Bridge Dawson County John Chumley and his family helped build the bridge. The Chumleys lived downstream from the elbow, and Wash Steele owned the property upstream.

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.

During the Cold War, Lockheed Martin partnered with the Air Force to build a remote secret laboratory in the middle of a 10,000-plus acre wilderness in Dawson County, Georgia. The land was purchased by Lockheed from a local landowner named Roscoe Tucker who had acquired large tracts of land in the 1930s. In 1957, Lockheed deeded the land to the government and together they built a nuclear testing facility. The Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory (GNAL), also known as Air