Georgia Natural Wonder #54 - Marshall Forest - Rome. 1,104

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Georgia Natural Wonder #54 - Marshall Forest - Rome

Marshall Forest continues our run through the National Natural Landmarks of Georgia. We take a turn way north of I-20 to Rome Georgia.

Salamander.
Marshall Forest official NNL photo.

Marshall Forest is a loblolly pine-shortleaf pine forest believed to have originated following an intense fire at about the time the Cherokee Indians were forcibly removed to Oklahoma. The site has a ten-acre stand of virgin yellow poplar.



Location: Floyd County, GA

Year designated: 1966

Acres: 112

Ownership: Private

Marshall Forest is located in Floyd County, in Georgia, 5 miles outside the Rome city limits. It is one of the few remaining old-growth forests in Northwest Georgia. Marshall Forest is referred to as the only virgin forest within city limits of any city in the USA. It is also probably the only virgin forest in the Ridge and Valley Province which extends from Pennsylvania to Alabama.



The forest is 311 acres. Trees in Marshall Forest range from 600–900 feet in elevation. More than 300 species of plants and fifty-five tree species live within the forest, together with numerous animals indigenous to the area.

History

Once a part of the Cherokee Nation, the 311 acres were bought by the Marshall family in 1880. The land was passed down the Marshall family until it reached Maclean Marshall, naturalist and philanthropist, who had the land dedicated as a Natural National Landmark on October 12, 1966. The land had been preserved for "preservation's sake". A large portion of the forest is old-growth forest and much has never been cut by humans. Marshall Forest was the first Natural National Landmark in the state of Georgia.



In 1976, just before Marshall's death, he gave the 100-acre forest and 120 additional acres of fields and woods to the Nature Conservancy which is dedicated to "preserving unique" natural areas through the United States. About 75 acres on the Coosa River flood plain was probably farmed at one time.



In 1985, 70 acres were added to the forest on the Mt. Alto side. These parts were not part of the original purchase by the Marshall family. Now only seventy-five to one hundred acres of the original forest remain uncut.

Forest life

It is thought that periodic ice storms (like the 1993 blizzard) and fires open the canopy for pine growth, preventing domination by a single plant community.



Marshall Forest supports more than three hundred species of plants. Among them is the endangered Large-flowered Skullcap. The forest houses the largest population of these flowers in the state of Georgia and the second largest population in the United States.



The large-flowered skullcap was discovered by Alvin Wentworth Chapman, a physician and botanist who explored the mountains near Rome in the 1870s.



Several kinds of mushrooms also grow in the forest. Again, the forest contains fifty-five trees species, such as pine-oak, chestnut oak, and mixed hardwoods. Northern red oak and chestnut oak are near the southern limits of their ranges, while longleaf pine is near its northern limit.



Several indigenous animals call the forest home. Some of these include frogs, salamanders, and snakes. There are at least six different species of snakes in the forest. Dozens of different kinds of birds also live in among them.

Recreation

Marshall Forest contains five self-guided walking trails, primarily on the Southwest side of the forest. The trails are self-guided and travel on the southwest side of the forest. The trails provide informational aides, including plant identification tags, and twenty stop-and-observe stations, with signs in both Braille and English. The Big Pine Braille Trail is made specifically for the visually impaired. The trails are not cut over, allowing the undergrowth to spread onto the pathway. The trail can be easily walked in 30 minutes.

Management

The forest is managed in part by two groups –Friends of Marshall Forest and the Georgia Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. The Nature Conservancy, founded nationally in 1951, has managed Marshall Forest for five years. Volunteers assist in nonprofit work such as boundary marking and removal of invasive species.



Marshall Forest Hiking Trail is a 1.4 mile lightly trafficked loop trail located near Rome, Georgia that features beautiful wild flowers and is good for all skill levels. The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, nature trips, and birding and is accessible year-round. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.



So the main loop is called Dorsey Trail loop. There are 2 Spurs off the loop. if you go right onto the loop, the first one is called "To Flower Glen trail" this spur goes down to Flower Glen Trail that parallels with creek and has wildflowers on it. It ends as it hits Horseleg road. It is not very well kept and there are no markers on the tree.



The second spur is marked red; it goes about 0.25 miles on the ridge before ending at private property. This and the loop will have views of the mountain tops through the trees during the winter. Made it pass the high grass and i must say i did enjoy the trail.

Marshall Forest Nature Preserve

Access to the area is by special permission or guided tour only. Tours are provided by the Marshall Forest Stewardship Committee and may be arranged by calling the office. Students from several colleges and universities in the state have used the forest as a research site. There are five trails, but most tours are conducted on the braille trail, which was designed for the visually impaired. Unfortunately, all of the trails are unkept. Lists of plants, birds, and trees are available.


Braille Trail.

Directions: In Rome go west on Shorter Avenue (GA 20); turn south (left) on Horseleg Creek Road. Forest begins approximately .5 mile from Rome city limits.

Facilities: Tours, braille trail, other trails. Note: Access to the forest is by reservation only.

For more information: Marshall Forest Nature Preserve, The Nature Conservancy, Chamber of Commerce, Rome, GA 30161. Phone (706) 291-0766.



We find this article about the head honcho. When your job is your passion, it’s not easy to walk away, but Malcolm Hodges, director of stewardship for the Nature Conservancy of Georgia, is making plans to do just that. However, before he retires, Hodges wants to tie up some loose ends at sites the conservancy owns or manages in Floyd County. Hodges visited Marshall Forest on Saturday, leading 16 Berry College first-year students in a hands-on lesson about stewardship.



The 300-acre forest off Horseleg Creek Road is one of the few places in Northwest Georgia you can still see sections of old pine-hardwood timber.



The students picked up trash on the side of Horseleg Creek Road, spread gravel on the unique Braille Trail and cleared invasive species that threaten to take over the native environment. Invasive species are a particular thorn in Hodges’ side. “They’re usually very aggressive plants. They don’t have any enemies locally and because they don’t have enemies that means there’s no insects that tend to eat them …,” Hodges said. Chinese privet, Chinese wisteria, Japanese honeysuckle and English ivy are big problems in the forest.



The English ivy suppresses native vegetation and can quickly transform a diverse environment into a monoculture. The Chinese privet does essentially the same thing. Hodges led the Berry students in an effort to eradicate as many of the invaders as they could Saturday.


Not this bad yet, but got to keep ahead of ivy (And Kudzu).

One of the most recent projects Hodges and Conservancy leaders have undertaken in Rome involves the addition of a small spur trail off Dorsey Trail at Marshall Forest. It follows the contour of what Hodges believes was an old Civilian Conservation Corps trail right along the edge of the mountainside. “It touches into a remnant longleaf (pine) that is up on the high ridge there. We didn’t even know about this grove (montane longleaf pine) when we bought that tract,” Hodges said.



The montane longleaf pine-hardwood forest has been identified as an ecosystem at risk. Marshall Forest also includes a population of large flowered skullcaps, a plant species that is also threatened.


Eagle project.

“Things are looking lush there, the trail has been trimmed back it’s always tricky to find that little hidden trail,” Hodges said. “I really want to develop that little parking area so people can pull off and not be afraid of getting stuck there.” Hodges said he hasn’t set an official date for his retirement yet, but when he does leave the Nature Conservancy payroll he made it very clear he plans to be back in the woods handling some sort of special projects from time to time.

Rome

We can’t make our first trip to Rome on these Natural Wonders without taking a big old history tangent on one of my favorite cities in Georgia. Rome, the seat of Floyd County, and is the largest city in Northwest Georgia and the 19th largest city in the state. These are mostly my photos from this point forward.



Located where the confluence of the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers forms the Coosa, the city was founded in 1834 on the site of a major Cherokee settlement called Head of Coosa. Because of its strategic advantages, this area was long occupied by the Creek and later the Cherokee people.



The city has developed on seven hills with the rivers running between them, a feature that inspired the early European-American settlers to name it for Rome, the longtime capital of Italy. It developed in the antebellum period as a market and trading city due to its advantageous location on the rivers, by which it sent the rich regional cotton commodity crop downriver to markets on the Gulf Coast and export overseas.


Point Park head of Coosa River.

Historically, Rome's claims to regional prominence were based on the transportation and cotton industries. Today, health care and education are more important to Rome's influence and market in both northeast Alabama and northwest Georgia.

History

People of the Mississippian culture are known to have inhabited the area from about 1000 CE. These people are believed to have died off from disease brought by exposure to the Spaniards in the late 16th century. The Cherokee migrated into the Southeast and established themselves in the early 17th century. Specifics before the Spanish expeditions in the 16th century are largely unknown, but archeologists have found evidence of thousands of years of indigenous cultures along these rivers.


Crossing the Oostanaula and looking up the Etowah.

There is some debate over whether Hernando de Soto was the first Spanish conquistador to encounter Native Americans in the area now known as Rome, but it is usually agreed that he passed through the region with his expedition in 1540. In 1560, Tristán de Luna sent a detachment of 140 soldiers and two Dominican friars north along de Soto's route. They established relations with the Coosa chiefdom, as they recorded assisting the Coosa in a raid against the rebellious province of Napochín, in what is now known as Tennessee. Exposed to new Eurasian infectious diseases, these mound builder peoples suffered high mortality rates, as they lacked immunity; within 20 years the community was abandoned.


Looking up at Myrtle Hill where Indian fortress was located.

A Cherokee village named Chatuga was settled in this area during the late eighteenth century, in the period of the Cherokee–American wars (1776–94) during and after the American Revolutionary War. The Cherokee referred to this area as "Head of Coosa". Several Cherokee national leaders settled here, developing plantations, including chiefs Major Ridge and John Ross. In the 20th century, Ridge's home here was preserved as Chieftains House. It has been adapted by the state for use as the Chieftains Museum and is used to represent the history of the Cherokee in this area, especially Major Ridge.



In the 18th century, a high demand in Europe for American deer skins had led to a brisk trade between Native hunters and white traders. A few white traders and some settlers (primarily from the British colonies of Georgia and Carolina) were accepted by the Head of Coosa Cherokee. These were later joined by missionaries, and then more settlers. After the American War of Independence, most new settlers came from the area of Georgia east of the Proclamation Line of 1763.


Looking down to Battle of Hightower.

In 1793, in response to a Cherokee raid into Tennessee, John Sevier, the Governor of Tennessee, led a retaliatory raid against the Cherokee in the vicinity of Myrtle Hill, in what was known as the Battle of Hightower.


Sevier Monument for Battle of Hightower across river from Myrtle Hill Cemetery. Someone has planted an Indian spear there.

City founding period

Rome was founded in 1834 as European Americans increasingly settled in Georgia. Founders were Col. Daniel R. Mitchell, Col. Zacharia Hargrove, Maj. Philip Hemphill, Col. William Smith, and John Lumpkin (nephew of Governor Lumpkin); most were veterans of the War of 1812. They held a drawing at Alhambra to determine the name of the new city, with Col. Mitchell submitting the name of Rome because of the area's hills and rivers. Mitchell's submission was drawn, and the Georgia Legislature chartered Rome as an official city in 1835. The county seat was subsequently moved east from the village of Livingston to Rome. Rome was one of several names literally pulled from a hat. Our town was almost christened Hamburg, among several other choices suggested by our founding fathers.



Rome’s forefathers met at Alhambra to name the new city in 1834. Built in 1832 by Major Philip Walker Hemphill, Home-on-the-Hill/Alhambra is said to be the oldest private residence in Floyd County. It is currently part of the Darlington campus and serves as the home of the head of school.


Alhambra today.

With the entire area still occupied primarily by Cherokee, the city developed to serve the agrarian needs of the new cotton-based economy. Invention of the cotton gin in the late eighteenth century made processing of short-staple cotton profitable. This was the type of cotton that best thrived in the upland areas, in contrast to that grown on the Sea Islands and in the Low Country.


Sydney P Smith steamboat in Rome.

Much of upland Georgia was developed as what became known as the Black Belt, named for the fertile soil. Planters brought or purchased many enslaved African Americans as workers for the labor-intensive crop. The leading Cherokee participated in the cultivation of cotton as a commodity crop, which soon replaced deer-skin trading as a source of wealth in the region. The first steamboat navigated the Coosa River to Rome in 1836, reducing the time-to-market for the cotton trade and speeding travel between Rome and New Orleans on the Gulf Coast, the major port for export of cotton.


Looking up Oostanaula River from Point Park bridge.

By 1838, the Cherokee had run out of legal options in resisting removal. They were the last of the major Southeast tribes to be forcibly moved to the Indian Territories (in modern-day Oklahoma) on the Trail of Tears. After the removal of the Cherokee, their homes and businesses were taken over by whites, with much of the property distributed through a land lottery.


Between the Rivers neighborhood.

The Rome economy continued to grow. In 1849, an 18-mile rail spur to the Western and Atlantic Railroad in Kingston was completed, significantly improving transportation to the east. This route was later followed in the 20th-century construction of Georgia Highway 293. By 1860 the population had reached 4,010 in the city, and 15,195 in the county.

The Civil War

Rome's iron works were an important manufacturing center during the Civil War, supplying many cannons and other armaments to the Confederate effort. In April 1863 the city was defended by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest against Union Colonel Abel Streight's "lightning mule" raid from the area east of modern-day Cedar Bluff, Alabama.



General Forrest tricked Colonel Streight into surrendering just a few miles shy of Rome.



Realizing their vulnerability, Rome's city council had allocated $3,000 to build three fortifications. Although these became operational by October 1863, efforts to strengthen the forts continued as the war progressed.



These forts were named after Romans who had been killed in action: Fort Attaway was on the western bank of the Oostanaula River, Fort Norton was on the eastern bank of the Oostanaula.


Fort Norton.

Fort Stovall was on the southern bank of the Etowah River. The Confederates later built at least one other fort on the northern side of the Coosa River.


Hendrix at Fort Norton.

Thornwood was built in the late 1830s after Col. Alfred Shorter moved to Rome from Eufaula, Alabama, was named for the hawthorn trees that were abundant on the property. During the Civil War, Thornwood was twice occupied by federal troops. Shorter and his wife had taken temporary refuge at their second home in South Georgia when the first Yankee soldiers, scouts for Col. Abel D. Streight, took over the home for a brief period in 1863. A year later, during Sherman’s plundering of Georgia on the way to Savannah, Yankee troops again occupied the home.


Thornwood today.

In May 1864, Union General Jefferson C. Davis, under the command of Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, attacked and captured Rome when the outflanked Confederate defenders retreated under command of Major General Samuel Gibbs French. Union General William Vandever was stationed in Rome and is shown with his staff in a photograph taken there. Due to Rome's forts and iron works, which included the manufacture of cannons, Rome was a significant target during Sherman's march through Georgia to take and destroy Confederate resources. One of these foundries brought unwanted attention to the city during the Civil War (1861-65). James Noble Sr. and his six sons built a foundry in Rome in 1855, and by 1857 they had completed a locomotive for the Rome Railroad.



Davis' forces occupied Rome for several months, making repairs to use the damaged forts and briefly quartering General Sherman. Foreshadowing Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 120, Union forces destroyed Rome's forts, iron works, the rail line to Kingston, and any other material that could be useful to the South's war effort as they withdrew from Rome to participate in the Atlanta Campaign. On their way out of town the Union troops burned the Nobles' foundry as well as many downtown buildings.


Confederate dead at Myrtle Hill.

Reconstruction era and 19th century

Romans rebuilt rapidly and with more grandeur after the war. In 1871, led by the Nobles, the city constructed its signature landmark, a water tank on Neely Hill, which overlooks the downtown district. This later was adapted as a clock tower visible from many points in the city. It has served as the town's iconic landmark ever since, and is featured in the city's crest and local business logos. As a result, Neely Hill is also referred to as Tower or Clock Tower Hill.



Cotton dominated post–Civil War agriculture and commerce in Rome. An era of industrial development led by the rebuilt Noble Foundry also began after the war. At least five firms at one time produced stoves in Rome, making it the stove center of the South.



Cherokee Baptist Female College (later Shorter University) opened in 1873.




Named Shorter University because of the financial contributions of Alfred and Martha Shorter.

Due to its riverside location, Rome has occasionally suffered serious flooding.



The flood of 1886 inundated the city to such depth that a steamboat traveled down Broad Street.



In 1891, upon recommendation of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Georgia State Legislature amended Rome's charter to create a commission to oversee the construction of river levees to protect the town against future floods. In the late 1890s, additional flood control measures were instituted, including raising the height of Broad Street by about 15 feet. As a result, the original entrances and ground-level floors of many of Rome's historic buildings became covered over and had to serve as basements.

Early Twentieth Century

Taking advantage of Rome's cotton and cheap labor, the Massachusetts Cotton Mill Company built its plant at Lindale, located just south of Rome, between 1895 and 1903. The textile industry would dominate Rome's economy for decades.



Several of its citizens also became nationally prominent over time.


This clapboard cottage was once the home of nationally known golfer, Alvin Everett. He won the National Left-Handers Golf Tournament three times and was responsible for an interest in the game of golf in the Rome area that still inspires others today.


This home was built by Nicholas Omberg before the Civil War. He was a member of the Home Guard of 41 Romans who refused to leave the city after the Union invasion in May of 1864. After the occupation ended, Omberg was shot down by renegade marauders within a stone’s throw of the house as he attempted to prevent the robbing and hanging of a friend. It was in this house that Dr. Robert Battey also performed the first oophorectomy on the kitchen table. Although many were certain the patient would die, Julia Omberg lived 50 years longer and died at the age of 80.

Richard Von Albade Gammon was the only University of Georgia football to die after injuries sustained in a collegiate football game. Gammon was born December 4, 1879 in Rome, Georgia. He grew up on downtown Rome's 3rd Avenue and was a very talented athlete. Rome has a memorial to him on the sidewalk downtown.



Gammon attended the University of Georgia and played football on the 1896 and 1897 teams under Glenn "Pop" Warner and Charles McCarthy. In 1897, they played their first two games against Clemson and Georgia Tech.



On October 30, 1897, UGA played the University of Virginia at Brisbane Park in Atlanta, Georgia. The two teams the year before were the two most vocal claimants to a Southern football title. Early in the second half Von Gammon was on defense, and dove into the mass around Virginia's right tackle. Once the pile-up cleared, he lay there motionless. Two doctors in the stands came to his aid and determined he had a severe concussion. He was on his feet in a few minutes, however, and was being taken off the field by Coach McCarthy, when captain and later judge William B. Kent, not realizing how badly he was hurt, said to him:

"Von, you are not going to give up are you?"

"No Bill," he replied, "I've got too much Georgia grit for that.

Those were the last words he ever spoke. Upon reaching the sideline he lapsed into unconsciousness. They rushed him to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Gammon died in the early morning hours of October 31, 1897. The funeral was held at First Presbyterian Church in Rome, Georgia. News spread of Von Gammon's death and the people were devastated as were the Virginia players.



The Georgia Legislature was in session at the time and public opinion caused them to pass a bill to ban the sport of football in the state of Georgia. The bill would end the football programs of Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Mercer. The bill only needed the signature of Governor William Yates Atkinson to become a law.


It took me forever to find this grave in Myrtle Hill.

His mother, Rosalind Burns Gammon, wrote a letter to her representative which later was in the hands of the governor. She was saddened by her son's death, but did not want the sport outlawed. She mentioned in her letter how his two friends were killed in rock climbing and skating accidents, and how those sports were not banned. Gov. Atkinson vetoed the bill on December 7, 1897. His mother is known as the woman who saved college football in Georgia.



The University of Virginia team presented a plaque to the University of Georgia in honor of Von Gammon and his mother. Less than three years after Von's death his brother Will died when he fell under a train following a baseball game in Cartersville, Georgia.

U.S. president Woodrow Wilson's first wife, Ellen Axson, lived in Rome before her marriage. She is buried in Rome's Myrtle Hill Cemetery. She is one of the only First ladies to die in office. There was a large State funeral through downtown Rome.



Her grave is alone as Woodrow is buried in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.



I found it poignant on the bottom of this plaque………



First Lady of Princeton

First Lady of New Jersey

First Lady of the United States of America

In 1902 Martha Berry founded the school that later became Berry College on an extensive campus at the northern edge of the city. Berry College and forest will be a future Georgia Natural Wonder one day with all the wild animals roaming the campus and the Eagle cam. But just to hit the highlights.



Henry Ford helped build the Ford Buildings at Berry College.



Cute story how that came to be. He gave her 50 pound bag of corn when she first asked for donation. She planted that bag and made $100 selling crop. Impressed Henry and he built these buildings on campus for her.


Berry grave beside church on campus.


Largest water wheel in world.


Oak Hill – birth home of Martha Berry. Was home of Bill Arp before that. Will do a full tangent on Arp when we get to Cartersville.



Teddy Roosevelt cabin. He stayed here when he visited.



Berry is mostly about the wild deer everywhere.



Rome became home to the United States' "Known Soldier" of World War I in 1922. After the war's end, U.S. president Warren G. Harding designated a known soldier killed in action as a representative of all who were lost in the war.



Private Charles Graves was an eighteen-year-old private from Rome killed and originally buried in France.



He was selected at random (Last soldier last boat). Initially, he was meant to lie at Arlington Cemetery, alongside the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. However, his mother wanted to bury him in a local family plot. The government accommodated Mrs. Graves, and after a homecoming parade in New York City, Private Graves was buried in accordance with his mother's wishes.



After her death ironically, the locals dug him up and made this big local known soldier exhibit in Myrtle Hill Cemetery.



In 1928, the American Chatillon Company began construction of a rayon plant in Rome; it was a joint business effort with the Italian Chatillon Corporation. Italian premier Benito Mussolini sent a block of marble from the ancient Roman Forum, inscribed "From Old Rome to New Rome", to be used as the cornerstone of the new rayon plant. After the rayon plant was completed in 1929, Mussolini honored the American Rome with a bronze replica of the sculpture of Romulus and Remus nursing from the Capitoline Wolf.



The statue was placed in front of City Hall on a base of white marble from Tate, Georgia, with a brass plaque inscribed: This statue of the Capitoline Wolf, as a forecast of prosperity and glory, has been sent from Ancient Rome to New Rome during the consulship of Benito Mussolini in the year 1929.


fCMR titty babies.

In 1940, anti-Italian sentiment due to World War II became so strong that the Rome city commission moved the statue into storage to prevent vandalism. They replaced it with an American flag.


She knows.

In 1952, the city restored the statue to its former location in front of City Hall.



Modern Rome

Few of the old industries continue to thrive in Rome today. Only the Fairbanks Company dates from the nineteenth century. The carpet industry followed in the wake of textiles, but today both industries have declined and almost disappeared from the area. In the 1950s came General Electric, Georgia Power Company's Plant Hammond, and Inland Rome, formerly known as Georgia Kraft and Inland Container Company. Today, General Electric lingers only for environmental cleanup.


Plant Hammond.

Economic diversity yields resilience, however, as the growing business in technical metals and automotive parts demonstrates. Recent additions to Rome's manufacturing landscape include Brugg Cable and Telecom, Suzuki Manufacturing of America, and automobile-parts makers Neaton Rome and F and P Georgia. The most prominent of the new additions is the North American headquarters of Pirelli Tire.


Old charm new industry.

Rome has been called the most livable small city in the Southeast by the New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities (1997). It was also rated first in health care among the nation's 193 small cities. There are three hospitals in Rome—one public, one private, and one state. The Harbin Clinic is a multiple-specialty physicians' group that includes about 130 members of the community's some 350 physicians. The Rome medical establishment serves a regional population estimated at more than 500,000 in two states.

Arts and Culture

In academics and the arts, Rome serves a regional population similar to that of the health care industry. The Rome city schools enroll approximately 5,000 students. Outstanding private schools include Darlington and St. Mary's Catholic. Rome is home to two public colleges, Georgia Highlands College and Georgia Northwestern Technical College, and two private colleges, Berry and Shorter. In addition to numerous cultural offerings from the four colleges, Rome claims the oldest symphony orchestra in the South (founded in 1921).



Places of interest include the Rome Little Theater, the Martha Berry Museum, the Rome Area History Museum, and the Chieftains Museum, former home of Cherokee leader Major Ridge.


Inside the home of Major Ridge. Also known as Pathkiller II.


Ferry that Ridge ran beside his home.

State Mutual Stadium, which was completed in time for the 2003 baseball season, is home to the Atlanta Braves' Class A farm team, the Rome Braves.



TRD addendum to original post, as if it's not long enough already.


Right next to the Nathan Bedford Forest monument is one of the first monuments to Confederate women.





I really shortchanged that Between The Rivers neighborhood, this should have been a two part history tangent on Rome.



This area lies between the Etowah, Ostanaula, and Coosa Rivers.



Whew, not really impressed with natural wonder but a tremendous tangent on Rome. Just two more National Natural Landmarks to go. Our GNW gal today is a trio of Braves ladies.