2012 Dec Vintage Rabun
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December 2012 Volume 6/No. 4 The Vintage Rabun Quarterly High Elevation History Rabun County’s own Rabun Before the road was built, Bald is Georgia’s second there was just an old skid trail highest mountain. With an where timber men hauled out elevation of 4,696 feet, it is their logs in the early 20th only 88 feet lower than the century. The road intersects highest, Brasstown Bald, but it with the famed Bartram Trail Inside this issue is not nearly so easy to get to that crosses the summit. the top of Rabun Bald. Brass- • Geography Quiz town’s nice paved road leads A historical note about Rabun • Pickens’ Nose to a parking lot and visitor Bald is the Bald Mountain center. There is even a bus to School that was located on the take you to the summit obser- mountain and was the highest vation tower. By contrast you school in Georgia. The “1914 get to the top of Rabun Bald Survey of Rabun County “Preacher” Parsons at the eleva- Schools” states that the one- on foot, there are no recrea- tion marker on Rabun Bald. tional facilities, and many room log cabin enrolled an times hikers can experience cholson, the first forest ranger average of 12 students in 8 grades. The only teacher in the summit in solitude. in Georgia, and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) men 1914 was Miss Ethel Ritchie Rabun Bald is one of many at the GA-F6 Camp Warwoman of Rabun Gap. The school was bald summits found primarily in the 1930s. The CCC men eventually consolidated with in the Southern Appalachians. also ran telephone lines from the Dillard School. They are covered mostly by tree to tree up the mountain to thick vegetation of native establish communication with grasses or shrubs occurring in the tower. The tower had a areas where heavy forest glass-walled room that the growth would be expected. United States Forest Service Why some summits are bald operated as a fire tower until and some are not is a mystery. the early 1970s. After the fire Rabun Bald’s main ridgeline is tower was taken out of ser- The rock-based fire tower on the Eastern Continental vice, a crew dismantled the top of Rabun Bald in 1968. Divide. From this divide metal-framed enclosure that waters drain northward into sat on top of the stone base. Yet another interesting and the Little Tennessee River and Leaving the stone base intact, little-known story involves a ultimately the Mississippi River the crew replaced the metal plane crash during World War and the Gulf of Mexico. cabin with the railed wooden II. On August 15, 1944, six Streams on the south side of observation platform which fliers were killed in the crash the divide drain via Warwoman hikers enjoy today. of a B-25 bomber on the steep Creek to the Chattooga River, flank of Rabun Bald. The • Please visit our then to the Savannah River, Earl “Preacher” Parsons, who bomber was on a night cross- and finally to the Atlantic was the U.S. Forest Ranger on museum and research country flight from Greenville the Tallulah District in the Ocean. Army Air Base in South Caroli- library on Mondays 1960s, built the road to the na. There was an intensive and Fridays from A stone structure on the sum- summit and drove the first ground and air search on the 10:00 until 2:00 and mit of Rabun Bald provides Jeep to the top in 1942. It was hikers with spectacular views mountain to discover the on Wednesdays from an extremely rough four-wheel- that, on clear days, extend for drive road in 1942, and is wreckage and bodies. 12:30 until 4:30. more than 100 miles. The much worse now after years of Rabun Bald may be second to structure was the first fire tow- erosion and wear. The road is Brasstown Bald in elevation, • Group tours by er in the area. It was con- no longer vehicle-friendly, but but its historic interest is appointment structed by Ranger “Nick” Ni- is used regularly by hikers. second to none. Volume 6/No. 4 The Vintage Rabun Quarterly Page 2 The History Behind the “Nose” In the Nantahala National Pickens’ most famous battle was Forest, hovering at 4,880 feet, the defeat of British Colonel 2,000 feet above Rabun’s Tarleton at Cowpens, South Caro- Betty’s Creek Valley, stands lina in 1781, which turned the tide for American forces in the called Pickens’ Nose. Who is South. He was promoted to Briga- this Pickens, and why is his dier General by the state of South nose memorialized in a moun- Carolina. tain’s name? Andrew Pickens also led a Andrew Pickens was a dour campaign in North Georgia Scotsman born in Pennsylva- against the Cherokees late in the nia in 1739. After migrating Revolutionary War. It led to the through Virginia’s Shenandoah tribe ceding significant portions of Valley, he eventually settled in land between the Savannah and upland South Carolina on the Chattahoochee Rivers. In 1785, Seneca River, now part of he was responsible for the Lake Hartwell. Pickens’ Nose, a familiar site to motorists driving north on treaties with Indian tribes that Highway 441 in Rabun Gap removed them completely from During the French and Indian South Carolina. In spite of his War in 1761, when the British were fighting the French for military campaigns against them, the Indians respected him and control of the American colonies, 22-year-old Andrew Pickens called him “The Wizard Owl.” Andrew Pickens would also later helped the British Colonel James Grant fight the Cherokees. serve as a member of the U.S. Congress from South Carolina’s They were attempting to rescue the besieged men at Fort Sixth District. Loudon in what is now Tennessee. The rescue did not succeed, however, and the men were massacred after surrendering to The Indian fighter and Revolutionary War patriot now has coun- the French and Cherokees. A short time later somewhere ties named for him in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina, as between Rabun Gap and well as a fort in Florida. Those memorials are not as impressive, Franklin, another battle however, as the great mountain shaped like Andrew Pickens’ ensued where the Cherokees prominent Roman nose. Very near his Cherokee victories of the suffered a great defeat. eighteenth century and looming on Rabun’s northern border Historical markers denote the with North Carolina, the great mountain stands as a permanent site near Otto, North Carolina. memorial to pioneer courage, patriotism and public service. Dr. Andrew Ritchie, first to record Rabun County history, also reports a battle fought and won against the Chero- kees in the Little Tennessee River Valley of Rabun County. He says reports of the battle were passed down to Rabun’s General Andrew Pickens original settlers. Pickens also emerged as a military leader during the American Revolution, first in expeditions against the Cherokees who had allied with British loyalists. This new alliance with the British the Indians saw as a way of keeping settlers from overrunning their territory. In 1779, Andrew Pickens distinguished himself in a battle against British General Sir Henry Clinton. He and his patriot militia of 300 men defeated a British force of 800. A hiker on the rock outcrop at the summit of Pickens’ Nose Volume 6/No. 4 The Vintage Rabun Quarterly Page 3 Geography Quiz 1. This mid-1950s photo is the view from which mountain? A. Glassy Mountain B. Tiger Mountain C. Black Rock Mountain 3. This photo is circa 1920 and shows the confluence of which rivers? 2. Which stop on the Tallulah Falls Railroad was the highest A. Coleman and Tallulah elevation on the line and also the site of the Eastern B. Tallulah and Chattooga Continental Divide? C. Tiger Creek and Tallulah A. Dillard B. Rabun Gap 4. The Wolffork Valley is named for the “Wolf Fork” C. Mountain City of which river? A. Little Tennessee River B. Tallulah River C. Coleman River C 5. Which of the waterfalls pictured below was never used to 5. A produce hydroelectric power? 4. B 3. C 2. A. Estatoah Falls C 1. B. Stekoa Falls C. Mud Creek Falls Answers: Estatoah Falls, c. 1925 Stekoa Falls Mud Creek Falls Volume 6/No. 4 Rabun County Historical Society 81 North Church Street P.O. Box 921 Clayton, GA 30525 Phone: 706-782-5292 E-mail: [email protected] Coming This Winter: A new slide show on We’re on the web! Moonshine showing on the “big screen.” www.rabunhistory.org A moonshiner in Tiger with his still, 1950s. .