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Other Explorations - 1 April 2025 - Towns County, GA |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2025) |
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Other Explorations - 1 April 2025 - Towns County, GA |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2025) |
| It occurred to me that there was a 320 acre tract of Forest Service land almost within the city limits of Hiawassee that, for some reason, I had never explored for old homesites. Studying the old maps, I marked about ten old homesite locations that once existed in the area. Unfortunately, at least half of them appeared to be on or below the waterline of current Lake Chatuge, constructed in 1941-42. I spent an afternoon exploring the area, and found the remains of three homesites. A fourth, which I later found out still had a chimney in the 1980s, had been converted into a wildlife clearing a few decades ago, and no sign of the homesite remains. I found nothing at two other sites that should have been on the uplands. The other sites I had marked are apparently just offshore now and underwater. I only found the remains of a single chimney, and it had been bulldozed long ago. |
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| At first I only found a few scattered remains of human occupation, like these kettles and buckets. |
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| This was the first area where I found any structural remains. A short wall at the bottom end of a terraced bank, near homesite 1. I'm not sure what its purpose was... |
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| And Yuccas, another plant occasionally seen at old home sites. |
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| A few foundation corner stones remained, but no sign of a chimney... |
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| The nearby hillside was covered with old prospect pits. Probably gold, as gold mines are found nearby. |
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| More prospect pits |
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| Suspected millrace, looking upstream. The main creek is on the left. |
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| Outflow of the suspected millrace into the creek. |
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| Suspected millrace, looking downstream. |
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| I think this is the remains of the base of a mill dam, located just downstream from the millrace inflow. |
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| A 3-4 foot drop just upstream would have provided extra head to power a mill. |
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| Another boulder below the aligned-boulder cliff. |
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| One more boulder further down as I was heading back. |
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| Part of a cast iron stove, with a nice design... |
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| This stonework is all that remains of the old Swanson Grist and Saw Mill in the Spilo community. |
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| Old Spilo community (photo courtesy of S. Henderson) This photo shows the Swanson Mill before it was washed away by a major flood in the early 1940s. Note the two buildings at the right rear of this image, and then look at the next photo. |
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| This is what's left of the two buildings at right rear of the previous image. Nothing remains of the building on the right, which was a store, except the old stone chimney. The building on the left remains standing, although it is in very poor shape. |
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| Remains of the stone chimney. The old store that stood here was built and operated by Jess and Carlton Phillips. |
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| Breached dam - purpose unknown.
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| Dam |
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| Dam |
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| Dam |
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| Dam |
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| Later on, we stopped by the site of old CCC Camp F-8 Blue Ridge. |
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| This stone structure appears to have been a fountain of some sort |
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| There are at least three more Craytonian home sites that we did not find, so, combined with the bad photo conditions, a return trip is definitely in order. |