Georgia Natural Wonder #34 - Fort Mountain. 768

[Top Row Dawg]

Georgia Natural Wonder #34 - Fort Mountain

Fort Mountain is a mountain in northern Georgia, just east of Chatsworth. It is part of the Cohutta Mountains, a small mountain range at the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains. It also lies within the Chattahoochee National Forest. Fort Mountain State Park is a 3,712-acre Georgia state park located between Chatsworth and Ellijay on Fort Mountain. The state park was founded in 1938 and is named for a peak that has remnants of a stone formation around part of that peak. I love this place because of the mysterious, 800-foot-long stone wall of ancient (and disputed) origin. It has a 1930s, four-story, castle-like stone tower. And it has one of our favorite, most beautiful, sweeping views in North Georgia. This hike packs in a ton of interest and natural beauty on its relatively short, beginner-friendly distance, and visits of the best views in all of Georgia’s State Parks.



You come to beautiful Chatsworth with its courthouse; you look up at the stone edifice, the edge of the Cohutta Wilderness. Most of this post is my photos taken.



You get a taste for the elevation change as you switchback up Hwy. 52.



There are several spectacular overlooks just on the drive up.



You can see the Cohutta Lodge in the distance.



Even a cloudy day can be rewarding.



The land that became Fort Mountain State Park was donated by Ivan Allen Sr., a popular Atlanta businessman, politician, and father of Ivan Allen Jr., the mayor of Atlanta during the Civil Rights Movement.


Sr. & Jr. Allen's.

The park officially opened in 1936, and its infrastructure was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC was responsible for construction of many of the park’s facilities such as the lake and several buildings. They also did forestry work and made hiking trails on the mountain. With help from state and federal funding, the park expanded its boundaries during the late 1990s to 3,712-acre.



A 1.5-mile loop explores many of the highlights of Fort Mountain State Park, combining three trails to visit the park’s most popular destinations. It’s beautiful year round, for sure – but especially so in autumn, when fall’s colors paint the forest in beautiful shades. And sunsets from the observation deck are nothing short of incredible… just be sure to leave time to get back to the trailhead before dark.

Fort Mountain Trail: the hike

The adventure begins at the park’s mountaintop-area trailhead, following yellow blazes in a northeast arc through a rocky, mossy hardwood forest. The trail rolls up in elevation gently, crossing through a tumbled slope of lichen-covered boulders at .3 mile. The hike passes a junction with a red-blazed side trail that connects to the Fort Mountain Gahuti Trail. This route continues straight, following yellow trail blazes in a loop around the mountain’s summit. The trail arcs westbound at .45 mile, beginning a steady elevation climb through a boulder and fern-filled forest on the mountain’s northern slope.



Views open through the tree cover on trail right as the hike continues to gain elevation, and a stone outcrop at .5 mile offers limited views of the adjacent ridge. The hike meets a signed trail junction at .8 mile, turning right. The trail descends to the mountain’s overlook, dropping elevation on stairs and landings bordered by massive tumbled boulders.



The panoramic vista opens up after descending the stairs, revealing an incredible, sweeping wide-angle view of the surrounding mountains and plains.



Towering mountains frame the view to the left and the right, stretching into Georgia’s beautiful, remote Cohutta Wilderness.



If you look carefully, you can spot the nearby Grassy Mountain fire lookout tower on the neighboring summit to the right.



Open, abundant plains of trees and farmland stretch ahead. Birds of prey soar silently above in the thermal uplifts flanking the ridge.



It’s easily one of the best long-range views we’ve seen in North Georgia.



Views from the Fort Mountain overlook are particularly stunning in autumn, when leaves on the surrounding peaks and the sweeping valley erupt in a colorful spectrum of yellows, reds, and oranges.





The hike departs the overlook, retracing its steps to climb the stairs and return to the yellow trail intersection. This hike follows the red-blazed trail straight through the trail junction, ascending steadily and approaching a clearing.





The trail reaches the castle-like tower at 1.2 miles. The four-story tower, built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps as a forest fire overlook, stands at the crest of the mountain’s summit. One of the most notable contributions by the CCC, the large tower stands four stories tall. This lookout tower allowed rangers to spot fires up to 40 miles away.



The building of the stone tower was led by local stone mason Arnold Bailey. Bailey used his skills to carve a large stone heart into the tower to impress his sweetheart, Margaret. The two were married for 59 years from 1935 until Mr. Bailey’s death in 1994, at the age of 80. The heart formation remains in the fire tower today. The tower was utilized for the detection of fires from is completion in the 1930’s until it was replaced by a newer metal tower on an adjacent peak in the 1960’s. In 1971 the wooden cupola at the top of the tower burned. The remaining stone structure stood in disrepair until 2014 when the Georgia Department of Natural Resources undertook the task to restore the structure to its former glory. Over the next year, careful steps were taken not only to repair the structure but also to reconstruct its unique historical and architectural aspects. The stone tower at Fort Mountain won the 2016 Preservation Award for Excellence in Restoration from The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.



Departing the tower, the hike follows a trail due south toward the rock wall, reaching the wall at 1.3 miles. The stone wall winds in a serpent-like curve, stretching 885 feet in length. . The zigzagging wall contains 19 or 29 pits scattered along the wall, in addition to a ruin of a gateway. The wall was constructed out of local stones from the surrounding regions around the summit. A 1956 archaeological report concluded only that the structure "represents a prehistoric aboriginal construction whose precise age and nature cannot yet be safely hazarded until the whole problem, of which this is a representative, has been more fully investigated."



Its origins are shrouded in mystery, thought by archaeologists to have been built anywhere from 500 to 1500 AD. The wall’s construction varies from small rocks to enormous boulders, rising as high as 6 feet and winding as wide as 10 feet along its enormous length. Whoever built the wall was determined: construction must have been a pretty significant effort, and the wall’s significance must have been important.



Archeologists and historians have been unable to solve the puzzle of who, if anyone, built the wall or why or when they built it. There are many theories. Early visitors referred to the formation as a fort, speculating that it was built by Hernando de Soto to defend against the Creek Indians around 1540. However, this theory was contradicted as early as 1917, as a historian pointed out that de Soto was in the area for less than two weeks.



A favorite explanation is that the wall was built by pre-Columbian Native Americans, the Woodland Indians around 500 a.d. The east-west orientation of its end points would result in alignment at sunrise and sunset at the solar equinox in both spring and fall. The dramatic setting of the wall, offering expansive vistas to the east and west, could have added to its religious significance. Ceremonial centers similar to this one were built by the Woodland Indians at Old Stone Fort, Tennessee, and Rock Eagle Mound in Putnam County, Georgia. The Woodland Indians occupied the Southeast from several centuries b.c. to about 900 a.d. The original construction and function of the formation as a fort is less accepted today and its origin remains unknown.



A less probable but more romantic theory attributes the wall to a legendary Welsh prince named Medoc. He supposedly sailed into Mobile, Alabama, 500 years ago, then worked his way northward toward the Fort Mountain vicinity. Nothing else is known about Prince Medoc, except that his name is vaguely linked to several petroglyphs and several stone forts found in other parts of the Southeast.



Early historians attributed the stone piles to a race of moon-eyed people, said to predate the Cherokee. The earliest known mention of this was by Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815).



Marker's all along the wall.



It is a kinda cool spot, this wall.



Other speculations of the wall's origins and purposes have included a honeymoon haven for Cherokee newlyweds.


Rock Me Baby, Rock Me All Night Loooooooong. Our GNW gal today is a google of woman on the rocks.

Some geologists believe—and this is the least romantic explanation of all—that the "wall" is the result of natural weathering of a generally horizontal stratum of a hard caprock of quartzites and conglomerates.



The hike turns left to follow the wall’s winding contours to the east, meeting a trail junction at 1.45 miles. The hike turns right at this junction, following the Fort Mountain Trail southwest along the wall’s southern contours. The trail departs the wall, descending a series of stone stairs in a southerly direction toward the trailhead. The hike reaches the parking area at 1.6 miles, finishing the adventure.



This park is easily one of our all-time favorite destinations in North Georgia. There’s a ton to see and do in the park, with nearly 40 miles of equestrian, mountain biking and hiking trails. Hell I have never been on these other trails, have to go back and find this waterfall. Hike the 8-mile Gahuti Trail to explore a waterfall, stunning overlook views and beautiful, rolling forest, and camp at one of the trail’s backcountry campsites. An 8.2-mile loop trail around Fort Mountain. Three limited-use camping sites are located along the trail for backpackers. An orange blaze, which is easy to see, designates the trail. Old logging roads crisscross the trail, and it is easy to mistake one of these for the trail. The first .3 mile looks out over the Cohutta Wilderness and is one of the finest views in Georgia. The trail begins at a gravel parking area marked "Cool Springs Overlook" in Fort Mountain State Park.



Big Rock Nature Trail .6 mile. This trail provides hikers a glimpse of the rugged and diverse natural habitat found on Fort Mountain. Where the trail reaches the first branch, note the unusual occurrence of Catawba rhododendron. Then pass several rocky outcrops which form natural outlooks with chestnut oak as the dominant tree.



One view is of a 400-foot cascade of Gold Mine Creek. Along this creek is ordinary rosebay, with mountain laurel, galax, and wild ginger.



Or hike the kid-friendly, 1.2-mile Lake Trail, exploring the park’s sandy beach, campground, and beautiful, wooded lake shore.



Around and mostly south of the fort peak is Fort Mountain State Park, with camping and hiking areas, a mountain lake, and a variety of public facilities. Situated in the Chattahoochee National Forest, Fort Mountain State Park offers many outdoor activities, such as hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding. There are 14 miles of trails inside the park. The park is also known for its unique scenery, a mixture of both hardwood and pine forests and several blueberry thickets. In addition, the park contains a 17-acre mountain lake. The picnic shelters in the park and the trails to the rock wall were also constructed by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps..



The summit of a different mountain in the south-southwest part of the park contains a radio tower for Georgia Public Broadcasting, transmitting TV station WCLP-TV (now WNGH-TV) since 1967, and radio station WNGH-FM since about May 2008.



Directions: Fort Mountain State Park is located 8 miles east of Chatsworth, GA on GA Highway 52 - The Woody Glenn Highway. You go past the park on Hwy. 52, like you’re going to Ellijay, and there is tremendous overlook with a distinct pull off on your left. You hike up to a stone patio deck for this view of the main Cohutta Wilderness.



The visitor to Fort Mountain may hear the activity of commercial mines in the bowels of the mountain. Fort Mountain is probably Georgia's leading talc producer. Large companies moved in around 1900. Mines surround the mountain on three sides; two can be seen from the Chatsworth overlook.



Fort Mountain is pretty cool, but I'm digging on the Islands like Leon Russell. Mountains back to the sea.


Reprise of "Rock Me Baby" GNW Gal.