fautrever.com

We were in the Gainesville and Dahlonega area of northern Georgia to visit family. Lance’s Grandmother Ruth, Uncle Gary, and Aunt Chris all live up there while his cousin Katie, her husband Ryan and son Kaden live about an hour and a half south. Most of the family is originally from New York state but after living in the South for over a decade they have absorbed some of the Southern culture. It was wonderful to visit especially since it was my first time meeting some of them, better late than never.

Of course, as always seems to happen in places we visit, the area piqued our interest. We stayed at River Forks County Park near Gainesville on the shores of Lake Sidney Lanier (named for a native Georgian poet and musician, don’t worry we’d never heard of him either). The immense lake is the result of the Buford Dam erected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1956. It was originally constructed to control flooding along the Chattahoochee River and to provide hydroelectric power for the growing city of Atlanta. In case you were wondering, Chattahoochee is a Creek word meaning “painted rock.”

Today, Lake Lanier’s sizeable reservoir is also tapped for drinking water and the surface is ever popular with water sportsmen (the rowing and canoeing events of the 1996 Summer Olympics were held on the lake). Of course, the Chattahoochee, a river familiar to many because of the hit song by Alan Jackson of the same name, doesn’t just belong to Georgia. So a major fight over water rights by Georgia, Florida, Alabama and the Corps of Engineers is still ongoing. At least it is only three states and not the seven states (AZ, CO, CA, NM, UT, WY, NV), one foreign country (Mexico) and numerous Native American tribes involved in the squabble over the Colorado River’s water. Hey, I’m just trying to put a positive spin on it.

We were in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Lance was happy to be near mountains again. He found the flat Texas coastal region to be a bit monotonous. Not that there weren’t plenty of new things to marvel at, he just missed mountains. We were tantalizingly close to the southern end of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain, not far from Dahlonega. But the trail would have to wait until some other time…

This part of northeastern Georgia was home to the Creek Indians long before the Cherokees moved in. The Cherokees, like members of Lance’s family, originated in the New York area, and speak a distinctly Iroquoian language. Experts aren’t sure when they arrived, however, it must have been before 1540 since they were already there when Hernando de Soto came through on his ironically fruitless search for gold (keep reading, you’ll soon see why). The first white settlers trickled into the northern part of what would become Georgia in the late 1700s. The settlers and the Cherokees coexisted fairly peaceably until the discovery of dalonige in 1828.

Dalonige, a Cherokee word for yellow money, caused the first gold rush in the U.S. Thousands of men streamed into the area with the hopes of striking it rich. The town of Dahlonega (named for the gold) soon sprang up and was inhabited by “thieves, gamblers and murderers…forming altogether a lawless, ungovernable community.” It mattered little to these men that the land belonged to the Cherokees so the state of Georgia appealed to the U.S. government for help “acquiring” the land from them.

President Andrew Jackson aided Georgia when he disregarded the Supreme Court’s decision—that the Cherokee were an autonomous nation who owned their land—by signing the Indian Removal Act in 1830 (I know I’ve covered this topic before but I think new information warrants a new look at it). Jackson refused to change his policy even after a visit by Chief Whitepath, a Cherokee who had fought valiantly alongside him during the War of 1812. Chief Whitepath, who was born in 1761 not far from Dahlonega, argued vainly for his right to remain in his birth country. Unfortunately, Chief Whitepath was one of the thousands of Cherokees who died along the Trail of Tears after they were forcibly removed from their lands in 1836. Chief Whitepath’s cabin has been moved to Gainesville and is on display at the Northeast Georgia History Center.

Speaking of Jackson, remember his Vice President, John Calhoun, who resigned from office because he couldn’t stand Jackson? Well, he had a big stake in the Georgia gold rush with a mine aptly named, the Calhoun. There was so much gold coming out of the northern Georgia mountains that Congress established one of the first branch mints, the Dahlonega Mint in 1835.

The “gold only” mint opened in 1838 and operated until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. In its twenty three years over six million dollars in gold coins were minted. Georgia gold, while 98.46% pure, is said to have a greenish tint because of its silver content. After viewing the gold leaf on the spire of the Price Memorial Hall on the North Georgia College campus in Dahlonega, I would say it is a pale yellow gold (appropriately, Georgia gold also covers the rotunda of the capitol building in Atlanta).

While you can still pan for gold or buy gold in the local shops commercial gold mining has long since petered out. There are folks who still find the “yellow money” every year and it is said that after really heavy rainstorms gold washes into Atlanta’s water system. These days Dahlonega’s treasure is its history, its quaint square and its proximity to Atlanta. Dahlonega is a great weekend getaway for many Atlantans. During our visit the town was hosting its “Bear on the Square” weekend. The three day long bluegrass festival celebrates the day, years ago, that a black bear wandered into town. Interesting reason for a festival but we enjoyed the impromptu bluegrass jam sessions occurring on every corner.

Though Gainesville was never as famous or prosperous as neighboring Dahlonega, the small farming community was vibrant until early in the twentieth century. The 1920s saw cotton farming destroyed by depleted soil and the boll weevil, but the town survived. The stress of Prohibition was followed by the misery of the Depression and still the town hung on. Yet in one day in 1936, the town of Gainesville was almost completely destroyed. On the morning of April 6th the town was struck by a double tornado that demolished most of its buildings. The “Great Tornado”, as they call it, killed over 203 people making it the fifth deadliest in U.S. history. Of course, due to the policies of the time, the deaths of black people were not included in the official figure, the actual total could easily be twice that number. Debris from Gainesville was even found in South Carolina!

Gainesville rebuilt and now it could be called the chicken capital of the world because of the large number of its chicken processing plants. We would have never known that fact if we hadn’t read about it, because unlike the other processing towns we’ve been in, Gainesville didn’t stink.

Gainesville’s most famous and controversial figure was Confederate General James Longstreet. A West Point graduate, Longstreet’s military service for the South was marked by brilliant successes (Chickamauga for one) and questionable defeats (such as at Gettysburg). Longstreet was second in command to General Robert E. Lee who called him “my old war horse.” In 1875 Longstreet bought a farm and moved to Gainesville in an effort to avoid his many critics. Not only was he often blamed for the South’s failure at Gettysburg but after the War, Longstreet became a Republican and supported his old West Point classmate, Ulysses S. Grant in his bid for the Presidency, which Grant ultimately won.

Good thing, too, since Grant signed Yellowstone National Park into existence. One more tidbit about Grant and then we’ll get back to Longstreet; General Grant was rumored to be quite a drinker. Abraham Lincoln, who had complete faith in Grant, is reputed to have said this about Grant’s penchant for the bottle, “I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”

Now back to Longstreet. The “scalawag” as Southerners called him was the last of the Confederate high command when he passed away in 1904. General Longstreet is buried in Gainesville’s Alta Vista cemetery near the center of town. Good man or bad I cannot judge but this quote of his impressed me, “If I could recall one hour of my distant but glorious command, I would say, on the eve of battle with a foreign foe, little children, love one another.” Spoken like a man who has experienced the tragedy of war.

Our time in the northeastern Georgia mountains was enjoyable, not only did we have a wonderful time visiting family but we were in a beautiful location. Every evening as we walked the shores of the lake we encountered a different animal. Once it was an Eastern Kingbird , a small, aggressive but solid looking bird with a black cap. Another day it was a family of White-tailed Deer.

Our neatest experience was with a Red Fox. Rookie was outside, in his supersuit (harness) when we heard a small, gruff bark. When we looked out the fox was sitting about 30 feet away pondering our cat. Rookie for his part was just as curious and didn’t show one ounce of fear. Carefully, I went outside and gathered Rookie up. The fox barked again and then trotted off into the woods.

Photos: View our photographs from Gainesville – Dahlonega, Georgia.

Notes: We stayed in Gainesville – Dahlonega, Georgia from 04/15/07 to 04/21/07.