Georgia Natural Wonder #124 - Shaking Rock Park - Oglethorpe County. 1,067

[Top Row Dawg]

Shaking Rock Park – Oglethorpe County

We come back to the Classic South as we rotate for a few post between Mountains and Athens area Natural Wonders of Georgia. Shaking Rock Park is located in Oglethorpe County, off Highway 78 in Lexington, Georgia.


Shaking Rock

A TRD Nugget for you to play as you scroll this Shakin post



Before being settled by American pioneers and European emigrants, the area around Shaking Rock was a camping ground of the Cherokee and Creek Indians.



Shaking Rock derived its name from a 27-ton boulder that was so perfectly balanced atop a granite outcrop that it could be moved by the pressure of a hand.



Over time, the elements have disturbed this balance to a degree that the boulder can no longer be moved.



Reportedly, the "shaking rock" was knocked to the earth by the 1886 Charleston earthquake.



Other huge natural granite outcroppings in unusual shapes are scattered throughout while a picnic area active beaver pond, and several nature trails with identified trees enhance the park.



The park was established in 1968.



Mrs. Andrew Cobb Erwin, Mrs. Sallie McWhorter Hawken and Mr. Thurmond McWhorter (three heirs of the park's former owner, Judge Hamilton McWhorter) donated the land for the park to Oglethorpe County at the request of the Lexington Women’s Club.



Since establishment of the park, Mr. Bobby Maxwell has served as custodian.



Quite a find in downtown Lexington



Welcome Sign



The walk up.



I like Big Boulders and I Can Not Lie.



In recent years, there has been a surge of college students from the University of Georgia, as well as other rock-climbing enthusiasts who have ventured to climb the boulders at Shaking Rock Park.



TRD got a lot of pictures this amazing spot right next to Athens.



Looks like a continuation of the granite field that stretches from  Stone Mountain - GNW #7 to the east. Panola Mountain - GNW #55, Arabia Mountain - GNW #83, Heggies Rock -  GNW #52 all part of the granite exposures as are Table Rock and Caesar's Head in South Carolina.



Nobody there this day. But you can tell it's been a hang out for years.



Wander for hours.



Shaking Rock Park, today's Classic South Georgia Natural Wonder.



Other Georgia Boulder areas include Rocktown - GNW #11, Rock City - GNW #22, Zahnd Tract - GNW #81, Sosebee's Cove - GNW #187, and Shaking Rock Park.



Georgia is loaded with Boulder areas. Alcovy Mountain, Pidgeon Hill, Sweat Mountain, Cherokee Bluffs (All future Natural Wonders)



Bolder to be on top of the Boulder.



Tangent Oglethorpe County.

Oglethorpe County, in northeast Georgia, is the state's seventeenth county and comprises 441 square miles. Creek and Cherokee Indians lived there when the first white people arrived, but they lost their land through treaties signed in 1773. Fur trappers and traders traversed the area before the first non-Indians established permanent settlements. A few trappers established a temporary community known as Kennedy's Gate, but it was no longer extant by the time of the American Revolution (1775-83).



The first permanent white settlers, led by Revolutionary War veteran Colonel George Mathews to Georgia after the war, were a group of wealthy tobacco planters from Virginia. On the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War Mathews led the 9th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army to the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777.The battle, fought between Washington's army and the British army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777, consisted primarily of hand-to-hand bayonet combat. The British defeated the Americans and forced them to withdraw toward the rebel capital of Philadelphia. Mathews was credited for saving the American army from rout at the battle, during which he was said to have been stabbed 5–7 times. Alexander Scott Withers declared him the "hero of Brandywine."


Matthews at Brandywine. Before being stabbed 7 times.

He and his entire regiment were captured in the Battle of Germantown the following month. Mathews led a charge early in the day that resulted in the capture up to 100 British soldiers; however, as the day progressed, his regiment had penetrated so deeply into British lines that it became isolated from Washington's army and was engulfed by opposing troops. The given reasons for his capture vary; some claim he did not receive Washington's orders to retreat, while others claim his regiment became lost in the fog and smoke of battle.



He spent the next four years as a prisoner of war, including two years on the British prison ship HMS Jersey. He was exchanged on December 5, 1781.



He went south with Major General Nathaniel Greene, campaigning in South Carolina and Georgia and fighting with Greene at the Battle of Guilford Court House. His sojourn south provided an opportunity to view the rich lands of the Georgia upcountry. Mathews opted to purchase property in the Goose Pond region of Wilkes County, Georgia, near the Broad River, and obtained additional state lands for his revolutionary service. He returned to Virginia and encouraged family, friends, and former compatriots (including Benjamin Taliaferro) to settle in Wilkes County. Mathews eliminated most of his mercantile connections upon his move to Georgia. He lived in a log cabin with his wife, Anne Polly Paul, and their eight children, John, Charles Lewis, George, William, Ann, Jane, Margaret, and Rebecca. As in Virginia, Mathews sought to create an image of a member of the slaveholding planter-elite.



He was quickly elected to the Georgia General Assembly. The same year he was elected 20th governor of the state. He served two terms as governor, and one intermittent term in Congress, during which he voted to ratify the United States Constitution. His identification as a Federalist and his involvement in land speculation caused him to lose the election for the U.S. Senate in 1792. But, by 1793 he had regained enough support to again be chosen governor.His second administration was more tumultuous than his first. In February 1794, General Elijah Clarke, a popular veteran of the American Revolutionary War, lead an expedition to establish an independent state west of the Oconee River—on hunting grounds reserved by the federal Treaty of New York (1790) exclusively for the Creek Indians. Georgia had not been consulted on the original treaty and many Georgians viewed it unfavorably because they saw it as limiting the possibilities for the future expansion of their state.


General Elijah Clarke

Clarke's frontiersmen made settlements on lands in present-day Greene, Morgan, Putnam, and Baldwin counties of Georgia. The settlers built several towns and forts over the next few months. They also wrote and ratified their own constitution, indicating the permanent intention of their endeavor. With little overt opposition from the Creek, they were taking control of the lands before the state or federal governments could react.


Clarke cabin near Lincolnton.

The United States government viewed Clarke's actions as a violation of the Treaty of New York, which provided recognition of Creek lands in an effort to maintain peace and guarantee their neutrality. President George Washington pressured Mathews to remove the illegal settlers from the Creek lands. Mathews initially ignored the "unauthorized military expedition", because he shared the state's resentment of the treaty and was aware of Clarke's popularity as a hero of the Revolution. He took only token measures to stop Clarke and his party, such as issuing a proclamation in July 1794 that went unenforced. It is unlikely that Mathews had enough public support to move against Clarke at that juncture, but the tide of public opinion eventually changed and he took actions to remove the rogue general from power. In September, 1200 Georgia militiamen, acting in conjunction with federal troops stationed on the Oconee, surrounded and isolated General Clarke's fortifications. After some negotiation, Clarke agreed to surrender, provided that he and his men would not face prosecution for their actions. Clarke and his followers departed, and the militia burned down the new settlements and fortifications.


Georgia Militia ready to kick ass.

Wait a minute General Elijah Clarke was attacked and forced to surrender by the state of Georgia?


Clarke Grave Clarke Hill.

Mathews' popularity waned, in 1794 he turned to land speculation in an effort to maintain his popularity. He, along with other high-ranking Georgia officials, issued several grants of land for the same parcels, at times granting up to three times more land than existed. Four new companies: the Georgia Company, the Georgia-Mississippi Company, the Upper Mississippi Company, and the new Tennessee Company, persuaded the Georgia state assembly to sell more than 40,000,000 acres of land for $500,000. Many Georgia officials and legislators were to be stockholders in these companies. On January 7, 1795, Mathews signed into law a bill authorizing the sale of the 40,000,000 acres, known as the Yazoo Act.


George Washington's copy of Yazoo Act.

When the details were revealed, public outrage was widespread, and people protested to federal officials and Congressmen Jared Irwin and U.S. Senator James Jackson led the reform efforts: Irwin was elected Governor of Georgia and, less than two months after taking office, signed a bill on February 13, 1796 nullifying the Yazoo Act. The state burned all copies of the bill except for one that had been sent to President George Washington.



Matthews left Georgia off to Mississippi. In 1810, Mathews was recommended to President James Madison by Georgia Senator William Harris Crawford as a confidential agent to report on conditions in the Spanish Florida's, as Crawford believed an annexation of the territory to the United States was possible. He tried to negotiate with the Spanish Governor but soon the situation turned to a filibuster.  At the age of 72, on March 13, 1812, Mathews, with a force of Georgians, launched his revolution at Fernandina on Amelia Island. With Mathews, the local insurgents known as the "Patriots of Amelia Island" seized the island and declared their independence. They hoisted a new flag of East Florida, designed by a member of Mathews' staff. He then turned his focus inland, writing to the President to convey the success and to request additional United States military personnel.


East Florida Patriot Flag, raised by the Patriot Army at Fernandina

As the insurrection grew, Congress became alarmed at the possibility of being drawn into war with Spain and their allies, the British. (However, a few months later the U.S. declared war on Britain, setting off the War of 1812). Mathews' operation had grown large enough and quickly enough that the United States could no longer deny involvement. Madison was forced to repudiate the mission, and the effort fell apart. He and his cabinet would deny all involvement in the matter.


Matthews later in life.

It is generally agreed that Mathews was the victim of a vacillating administration whose dictates he had served faithfully according to his own lights. He succeeded too well; and, under pressure from several sources, President Madison and Secretary Monroe deemed it necessary to sacrifice Mathews to quell the criticism of their Florida policy.



Mathews decided to go to Washington to appeal his case personally. But, on the trip he became ill and was forced to stop in Augusta, Georgia. He died without reaching Washington.He is buried in St. Paul's Churchyard there.

Towns and Communities

Lexington, the county seat, was first settled in the late eighteenth century by a group of North Carolinian's who named it in honor of Lexington, Massachusetts. TRD captured the essence of Lexington in a recent drive around.



Sunday morning downtown Lexington. Downtown Commercial Block Vernacular variations of the typical masonry one - story commercial storefront buildings constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.



History

Lexington was founded in 1800. That same year, the seat of Oglethorpe County was transferred to Lexington from Philomath. The original site selected for the new county seat proved to be undesirable due to a lack of good springs. It was incorporated on November 24, 1806. The city of Lexington has been the county seat of Oglethorpe County for over 200 years. It was apparently already a small settlement before the county was established in 1793. Lexington quickly grew and prospered, becoming an important trade center. It was noted for the education, culture, and refinement of its citizens. The first Whitney cotton gin in Oglethorpe Cooperated on Troublesome Creek at the edge of Lexington. Its owner was one of the first men to use water rather than horses to power a cotton gin.



By the 1820s Lexington had become an thriving town with an elegant courthouse, 38 dwellings, 15 stores, numerous shops and hotels, male and female academies, a public library, and churches. Athens, at that time, was still a small, struggling town. Its residents came to Lexington to shop at stores owned by some of the biggest merchants west of Augusta, who had their goods shipped in from New York. The population was 239 at the 2000 census. It is 228 today. In 1900 its was 635.


Lexington’s 3-story “skyscraper” features a recessed corner entrance supported by a decorative cast - iron Corinthian column.

Oglethorpe County Courthouse(ca. 1886-87) Richardson / Romanesque Revival style, designed by L.B. Wheeler, W. H. Parkins & H.I Kimall. It was built entirely of local materials except for the limestone capitals on the columns, at a cost of $30,000. The Seth Thomas clock in the tower weighs 1,000 pounds and was wound by hand until it was electrified in 1988. On the right font lawn is a Monument to the Confederate Soldiers, erected in 1916, by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.



Governor Gilmer's home. Could not find it, saw marker but not home.



Most of the pretty Antebellum and Victorian homes are along Church Street.


C. R. Crawford House (337 East Church Street) (ca. 1905) Nice example of a transitional Queen Anne Free Classic style house (a variation of the Queen Anne style that features classically inspired details).


Meson Academy, the first privately endowed academy in Georgia and one of the finest schools in the state, opened its doors in 1808 on this site. It was moved to the corner of Academy and Church Streets in 1897. On the Joseph Henry Lumpkin House property, near the southwestern edge of the front lot bounded by Main, Meson, and Boggs Streets, is the original site of Meson Academy. An academy building of brick, wood, and stone, two-and-a-half stories high, with large glass windows was built on this hill overlooking the town. Meson Academy opened its doors in 1808 and was moved to a new and larger brick building on the corner of Academy and Church Streets in 1897. 


Final Site of Meson Academy (corner of  E. Church and Academy Streets) Meson Academy was moved into a new and larger brick building erected on this site in 1897. It was enlarged and became a public school in 1917. Designated the Oglethorpe County High School in 1920, it continued to operate at this location until 1954. The building stood vacant and deteriorating and was finally demolished in 1970. The brick enclosed area is the outline of the original building.


Lester - Callaway House (118 E. Church Street) Rare example of an early 19th century vernacular Double-Pen I-House (note the two separate entrances) with Chippendale inspired Folk Victorian swan work.


Willingham - Watkins House (222 West Church Street) (ca. 1832) Built by Thomas Brewer, the Greek Revival entrance and the portico,
supported by monumental Doric columns were added in the mid-19th century. Unusual features include the textured round granite bases on the
columns, elaborate capitals and cornice, “sheaf of wheat” design of the balcony railing and egg-and-dart molding around the upper glass section of the entrance door. A curved Victorian addition to the right is covered with fish - scale shingles. The owners sitting on the front porch like the American Gothic painting, as we chatted a bit.


Upson - Evans House (221 W. Church Street) (ca. 1812) The home of Stephen Upson (eminent lawyer and representative to the General Assembly 1821-1823), the one- story portico is a 1950s addition to what was once the rear of the house. The original entrance, facing Main Street, has an elliptical fanlight and sidelights. The stacked granite wall, typical of New England, is unusual in Georgia, but is explained by the fact that Upson was originally from New England. The old gardens are included in Garden History of Georgia.


Platt - Brooks House (102 E. Church Street) This Federal style I-House, built by George Young between 1827- 36, has long been considered one of the finest houses in Lexington. The Greek Revival portico with monumental Doric columns was added in the mid-19th century. The house was enlarged and a full story added at the basement level in the 1890s.


Bush -Turner House (354 East Church Street) ( ca. 1854) An exceptionally fine vernacular transitional Plantation Plain house with elaborate Greek Revival entrance and decorative corner boards, and an Italianate front porch added in 1873. The outbuilding to the left rear is a pauper’s house from the old Clarke County Poor Farm, moved to the site in 1990.


Lexington Presbyterian Church Organized as Beth - Salem Church in 1785 by the Rev. John Newton, the first resident of Georgia to be ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. In 1822, the congregation moved to Lexington and reorganized as the Lexington Presbyterian Church. The present church building was constructed in 1893. This was the first Presbyterian Church organized in northeast Georgia and is believed to be the oldest chartered and continuously organized Presbyterian Church in the state. Its cemetery is the final resting place for several notable Georgians, including the Rev. John Newton, Francis Meson, Gov. George R. Gilmer, Stephen Upson, and Judge Lewis J. Deupree.



Oglethorpe County's other incorporated communities are Arnoldsville, Crawford, and Maxeys.

Arnoldsville, settled in the early 1800s by Virginians who established tobacco, cotton, and silkworm plantations, was not incorporated until 1969. In earlier days the site's proximity to a Cherokee trail linking Virginia to the Mississippi River made it a popular point for meetings and trading. Colonial governors established a settlement there in the 1770s to regulate Indian trade. The settlement was called Cherokee Corner until 1894, when a local store owner, Edwin Shaw, became postmaster and renamed the town Edwin, after himself. Shaw's store (and postal service rights) were later bought by N. D. Arnold, a wealthy landowner, and the town adopted his name in 1896. Arnold divided 5,000 acres of his land into small farms and sold them "on liberal terms" to encourage settlement of the area.



Crawford began as a train stop known as Lexington Depot. Farmers and merchants brought cotton by the wagon load to ship out by train and camped at the depot overnight before going home with goods delivered by the same train. A public well was dug for their convenience, and people later began building permanent dwellings there.


Downtown Crawford.


Lexington Depot was incorporated in 1876 as Crawford in recognition of U.S. senator William Harris Crawford, who had held the original land grant on which the new settlement emerged. The depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.



William Harris Crawford influenced Georgia and US politics for decades. He was born in Virginia and moved to Georgia at a young age. After studying law, Crawford won election to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1803 as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and he served until 1807. He allied himself with Senator James Jackson. Their enemies were the Clarkites, led by John Clark. In 1802, he shot and killed Peter Lawrence Van Alen, a Clark ally, in a duel. Four years later, on December 16, 1806, Crawford faced Clark himself in a duel, and Crawford's left wrist was shattered by a shot from Clark, but he eventually recovered.


Wrist looks fine here.

In 1807, the Georgia legislature elected Crawford to the United States Senate to replace George Jones, who had held the office for a few months after the death of Abraham Baldwin. After the death of Vice President George Clinton, Crawford's position as president pro tempore of the Senate made him first in the presidential line of succession. Crawford, served as the permanent presiding officer of the United States Senate through March 4, 1813.


Bust at State Capital.

In 1811, Crawford declined to serve as Secretary of War in the Madison administration. In the Senate, he voted for several acts leading up to the War of 1812, and he supported the entry into the war, but he was ready for peace:"Let it then be the wisdom of this nation to remain at peace, as long as peace is within its option."



In 1813, President James Madison appointed Crawford as the U.S. minister to France, during the waning years of Napoleon's First French Empire. Crawford served until 1815, shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.


Crawford Cemetery Crawford Georgia.

After the war, Madison appointed him to the position of Secretary of War. In October 1816, Madison chose Crawford for the position of Secretary of the Treasury, and Crawford would remain in that office for the remainder of Madison's presidency and for the duration of James Monroe's presidency.



Crawford suffered a severe stroke in 1823, but nonetheless sought to succeed Monroe in the 1824 election. The Democratic-Republican Party splintered into factions as several others also sought the presidency. No candidate won a majority of the electoral vote, so the United States House of Representatives chose the president in a contingent election. Under the terms of the Constitution, the House selected from the three candidates who received the most electoral votes, leaving Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Crawford in the running. The House selected Adams, who asked Crawford to remain at Treasury. Refusing Adams's offer, Crawford accepted appointment to the Georgia state superior court.


Crawford is buried at the site of his home, about half a mile west of the current Crawford city limit.

Crawford was nominated for vice president by the Georgia legislature in 1828 but withdrew after support from other states was not forthcoming. Crawford also considered running for vice president in 1832 but decided against it, in favor of Martin Van Buren. Crawford also considered running for president again in 1832 but dropped the idea when Jackson decided to seek a second term.



The Crawford School House was built in 1909 by Jack Stokely for $ 4,500 and classes were held here from 1909-1954. The granite for the windows and doors was hand-cut. There were four class rooms, an auditorium and outbuildings (no longer standing) used for the lower grades and as bathrooms. In 1921, the school became an accredited high school and its graduates were permitted to enter college without an entry exam. Students had to pay $ 1 to cover the costs of fuel and cleaning. During the Great Depression, the school was closed for a short while as the state ran out of funds for the school system. After the school closed in 1954, the building was used as a nursing home, sewing plant, insulation plant, preschool and a manufacturing facility for decorative garden edgings. It is currently undergoing renovation overseen by Arts!Oglethorpe.

TRD wanderings in Crawford.



Maxeys, first known as Shanty, then as Salmonville, was named in honor of Jesse Maxey, a landowner on whose property the town had developed. Maxey had initially encouraged the railroad to come through the area by giving land for the right of way. However, after the track was completed in 1839, Maxey became concerned about the possible dangers to his family and moved away. The town did not incorporate until 1907. One of Georgia's first commercial fertilizer plants was built there in 1874 by William B. Brightwell. John W. Moody started the state's first commercial scuppernong vineyard, which made thousands of gallons of wine each year from sixty varieties of the fruit, near Maxeys.



Aside from the incorporated towns, several communities in Oglethorpe County boast interesting histories of their own. Among them is Philomath, in the southernmost part of the county.



History

Settled in the 1830s  the area of Philomath was first called Woodstock in the 1790s and was briefly the county seat during that decade.It experienced a population decline after the move, but started to be settled again circa 1829 by Virginian's and North Carolinian's. The nearest post office was a stage coach stop between Atlanta and Augusta about four miles away. The people of Woodstock wanted their own post office. When the approval for one came, the name had to be changed because there was another Woodstock in Georgia.



The city was home to an all-boys boarding school, Reid Academy, to which boys came from all over the South to attend. The school was known throughout the state as one of the finest educational institutions of its time. Robert Toombs and Alexander Stephens were frequent visitors to the city and often made speeches at the school.



Stephens suggested that the city’s name should be changed to Philomath which means a place of learning, because the school was such an important aspect to the community. Much of the early history of Philomath was centered on the Academy. The school buildings were eventually torn down and replaced with a one-story building, which was used as a community school until recent years when the students began to be transported to larger schools. The building was then converted into a community center.



Philomath is mentioned in the 1985 R.E.M song "Can't Get There from Here", with singer Michael Stipe singing the lines "If you're needing inspiration, Philomath is where I go by dawn” and “Philomath they know the low-down.” However, Stipe claims he's never been there. The liner notes for the band's Eponymous compilation album identify Philomath as "located between Lexington and Crawfordville and used to have its own post office."



Philomath is mentioned in John McPhee's essay "Travels in Georgia" which appeared in the collection "Pieces of the frame". At the time of that writing (1973), Philomath's zip code was 30659.



Historical buildings

A large number of cotton plantations were laid out in and around Philomath, the oldest of which is called "The Globe". A Presbyterian church was erected circa 1840, which still stands.



On one plantation, there is a clay pit (called the Great Buffalo Lick) the site of a kaolin lick.



Buffalo and, later, cattle, deer, and horses licked kaolin to calm their stomachs.



It was used by the Cherokee and Creek peoples as a boundary to transfer land to the state of Georgia during James Wright's term as governor. There was more recently an attempt to register the above mentioned Buffalo Lick as a Georgia Natural Area. Many Native American trails run through this land. William Bartram, a biological scientist, traveled through this area in his study of the plant life of the region.

The Parting of Soldiers

Philomath was the location of the final breaking up of the Confederate government east of the Mississippi. President Davis and his cabinet separated in Washington, Georgia because they thought it was best for him to travel inconspicuously. His cabinet met at the home of Captain John J. Daniel. General Breckinridge and General Duke, who were bodyguards to President Davis in his flight from Richmond, were in command. It was decided that it was a "needless expenditure of blood to continue the struggle and the Stars and Bars of the late Confederacy were forever furled."



The last counsel of war took place in the parlor of the Globe and the generals and other officers dined with Captain Daniel. The parting addresses were delivered from the porch after the soldiers received their small paychecks and departed for their homes.


Confederate Veterans march by Oglethorpe Square in Savannah.

Another community with historic associations is Stephens, built around the Antioch Baptist Church and called Antioch until its name was changed to honor Alexander Stephens. The development of Stephens was spurred by the Georgia Railroad's building of a line through the area in 1839, but in 1925, after a fire destroyed most of its business section and the boll weevil destroyed its cotton crop, the once thriving community lost population.

Economy

Soon after the American Revolution, the area now called Oglethorpe County focused on agriculture, which has remained a mainstay of its economy. The county was first settled by wealthy planters who set up tobacco plantations; residents later moved into cotton production with the invention of the cotton gin and the construction of railroads, which greatly assisted marketing efforts.


Children pick cotton on U.S. senator Pope Barrow's land in Oglethorpe County in 1899. Barrow was elected to the Senate to fill a vacancy upon Benjamin Hill's death.


Wheat is laid out in the sun by convicts, who were leased by the state to James Monroe Smith, a farmer in Lexington, around 1900. Sunning the wheat prevented an infestation of boll weevils while the crop was prepared for milling.

After the plantation system lost its profitability in the aftermath of boll weevils, fire, war, and emancipation, the county's agriculture shifted to small farms, often operated on the sharecropping system. Grain, poultry, beef, and dairy cattle were among the county's major farm products. Farm income was augmented by employment in the lumber, granite, and textile industries.


Customers congregate outside the Letz Feed Mill in Lexington in 1927. Agriculture has been the primary economic activity in Oglethorpe County since its creation in 1793.


Three miners are pictured at the edge of a granite quarry in Oglethorpe County. Granite mining is a major industry in the county.

People

According to the 2010 U.S. census, the county population was 14,899, an increase from the 2000 population of 12,635. Oglethorpe County is included in the Athens-Clarke County, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Atlanta-Athens-Clarke County-Sandy Springs, GA Combined Statistical Area. It is the largest county in Northeast Georgia.



Notable people

• Nathan Crawford Barnett, member of the Georgia House of Representatives and Georgia Secretary of State for more than 30 years. Raised in Lexington, and educated at the Lexington Academy.



• Clifford Cleveland Brooks, planter and politician; member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1924 to 1932, born in Lexington in 1886.



• William Harris Crawford, lawyer and politician. (See above)

• George Rockingham Gilmer, statesman and politician.



• Joseph Henry Lumpkin, lawyer.



• Wilson Lumpkin, lawyer and politician.



• Stephen Upson, lawyer and politician.



• Marion Montgomery, author.



• Middleton "Pope" Barrow, politician.



• John Henry Lumpkin, politician.



I am enjoying this little stretch of Athens area Classic South to Mountains of Georgia. We did Woody Gap and Rich Mountain Wilderness, now we have done Hurricane Shoals and Shaking Rock Park with history tangents on Jackson and Oglethorpe Counties. Later this week we go to our First Mountain, also with ties to our founding state father. I have three more spots in Oglethorpe County that will be featured as a separate Georgia Natural Wonder next week in our continued travels of Classic South to Mountains.

Today's GNW Gals are shaking it up for Shaking Rock Park. .