By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Northwest Georgia Mountains > Murray County > Chatsworth

The Chief Vann House in the Northwest Georgia Mountains was once owned by one of the wealthiest families in the Cherokee Indian Nation.

A “floating staircase,” 12-foot mantle, and fine antiques — somehow I never imagine something like this as the home of a Cherokee Indian leader. But the Chief Vann House Historic Site is just that. This two-and-a-half story brick home built in 1804 belonged to James Vann, a wealthy businessman whose 1,000-acre plantation near Chatsworth in what is now Murray County was the largest and most prosperous in the Cherokee nation.

Vann was murdered in 1809, but his son Joseph went on to inherit the property and add to the family fortune until the tragic Indian Removal of the 1830s. The family lost their home and was forced to move west to the Cherokee Territory of Oklahoma along with the rest of the Cherokees in the infamous Trail of Tears. Read the rest of this entry »

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Coastal Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah

The birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts, was the first designated National Historic Landmark in Savannah.

I first visited the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace on the corner of Oglethorpe Avenue and Bull Street in downtown Savannah many years ago when my oldest daughter was a Girl Scout. Her troop had saved their cookie money for six years for that trip to Savannah and a day at the Birthplace as it is called. I remember a stately but friendly house and a dozen or so fifth grade girls dressed up in Victorian smocks, making crafts, playing Victorian parlor games, and learning about the woman who had started the Girl Scout organization back in 1922.

Daisy, as Juliette Gordon Low was called, developed a life long interest in the arts as a girl. She wrote poems, sketched, wrote and acted in plays; and later became a skilled painter and sculptor. She founded the Girl Scouts on March 12, 1912, to help “build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.” Read the rest of this entry »

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Atlanta Metro > Cobb County > Marietta

From toddler friendly to the very extreme, there are lots of slides and rides at Six Flags White Water, the Southeast’s premier water park. 

For 25 years, Six Flags White Water in Cobb County has been Georgia’s premier water park. Recently awarded “Best Private Water Park” in the nation by Aquatics International, the industry’s leading publication, it also bears the designation of an “Extreme Water Park” by the Travel Channel.

I first visited the water park with my children in the early 1980s when the Atlanta Ocean wave pool, the Three-slide Body Flume, and the kiddies Activity Pool were big news. Today, Six Flags White Water is the largest water park in the Southeast, with more than 20 rides and 40 slides.

The water park rates its rides Mild (green), Moderate (yellow) and Max (red). There are three different areas for the littlest visitors — Captain Kid’s Cove, Little Squirt’s Island and Tree House Island; and three Thrill Rides that boast serious water park action. For instance, on the Cliffhanger, you will drop nine stores at harrowing speeds on what is claimed to be one of the tallest free-falls on earth; on Dragon’s Tail, you’ll brave a 250-foot triple drop; and on the Tornado, a giant, funnel-shaped thrill-ride, you’ll plummet down a 132-foot tunnel, eventually landing in the cool pool below. All three of these are definitely for real thrill seekers only. Read the rest of this entry »

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Central Georgia > Bibb County > Macon

If you are looking for a place to view some extraordinary African American art, history and culture, consider taking a trip to Macon and the Tubman African American Museum.

Named for Harriet Tubman, the “Black Moses” who led hundreds of slaves to freedom, the Tubman Museum has grown over the years to become the largest institution of its type in the state and a key educational and cultural resource for the entire southeast region.

You’ll find a number of interesting permanent exhibits. “From Africa to America” is a pictorial collage that covers everything from historical events to people who made significant contributions to the history of African Americans. The Georgia Area Artist Gallery features popular works by Georgia based artists. Inventors Gallery features many items of our daily lives that were created by African Americans, including the ironing board, the ice cream scoot and the golf tee. The Folk Art Gallery contains works for notable African American folk artists. There is also an area for changing exhibits.

On display until July 25 is “Wini McQueen: The History of the Dream Project.” In 2000, the Tubman African American Museum commissioned textile artist Wini McQueen to produce a series of works of art to be installed in the rotunda of the Museum’s new facility in downtown Macon. The installation consists of more than 130 individual works of art that tell stories of the struggles and triumphs of a people and a community. This special exhibition features a selection of works from the project that pay homage to the individuals, institutions and organizations that have made a positive contribution to the quality of life in Macon, and who were instrumental in the founding and development of the Tubman African American Museum.

Besides its exhibitions and special events, the Tubman Museum also holds classes throughout the year, such as modern and African dance.

Read more about African American History, Macon and Bibb County, or find other activities in the Central Georgia Travel Region here at Browns Guides.

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > East Central Georgia > Wilkes County > Washington

Re-enactors from the Sons of the American Revolution portray the Elijah Clark Militia firing at the Battle of Kettle Creek, the most significant Revolutionary War battle to take place in Georgia.

July 4th is fast approaching so what better time to travel to some of the sites here in Georgia that were prominent in the American Revolution. An area of Revolutionary War activity in Georgia that makes for a nice weekend trip is in the Piedmont in and around Wilkes County where you can learn about the Battle of Kettle Creek.

As late as the early 1770s, Georgia’s boundaries were mostly within the coastal region. In only a confined area beyond Augusta were the Piedmont’s heavier soils and hardwood forests included in the colony’s boundary. Frontiersmen were trickling down into this region from their homes in Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas. Mostly of English or Scotch-Irish ancestry, these settlers were seeking new economic opportunities, good land and, most importantly, as much freedom as possible from British rule.

One of the most significant battles of the Revolutionary War in Georgia was fought here by these patriots at Kettle Creek in Wilkes County, a county that was formed along with the first Constitution of Georgia in 1777. Read the rest of this entry »

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > West Central Georgia > Troup County > LaGrange

At the Explorations in Antiquity Center, you can experience the food and drink common to the culture of the ancient Middle East at an authentic Passover meal.

Want to do a little archaeological digging around – Indiana Jones style? How about with a real-live Indiana Jones type teacher, showing you authentic archaeological techniques, step-by-step? If this sounds like an exciting way to spend a day, Explorations in Antiquity Center in LaGrange might just prove to be an adventurous and educational destination for you and your family.

Explorations in Antiquity Center is a museum with full-scale archaeological reconstructions of discoveries from the ancient world. This museum shakes off the dust of history and presents it to all ages in unique and unforgettable ways.

You will find four separate Kid’s Dig pits. One, geared to very young explorers, contains dinosaur remains and other fossils. The other three are for older kids and are based on archaeological excavations of actual sites, ranging in time from the 15th century BCE to the second century CE. Real artifacts and replicas—things like coins, pottery shards, oil lamps, ancient fishing equipment, a stone anchor, mosaics and carved stones—are buried in the sand of these pits. One pit, centered in the early Roman era, is for elementary students. A bi-level Iron Age pit is for middle schoolers. The last, which has three strata ranging from late Roman to Byzantine periods, is geared toward high school students. Read the rest of this entry »

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Southwest Georgia > Dougherty County > Albany

Albany was a major battleground in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and that story is told at the Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum at Old Mt. Zion Church.

Nationally noted as a key civil rights battleground of the early 1960s, Albany was one of the first cities where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the four major civil rights organizations – Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC), Student National Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Committee on Racial Equality (CORE), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – joined forces.

The Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum at Old Mt. Zion Church, operated by the Albany Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), tells the compelling story of the Civil Rights Movement in Albany. The Albany Movement was an organization formed in 1961 to coordinate civil rights movement activities in the area. The group chose Mt. Zion Church as the site of their first mass meeting. A majestic church at the corner of Whitney Avenue and Jefferson Street, Mt. Zion Church had been built in 1906 by a congregation of former slaves, who had organized at the end of the Civil War. Mt. Zion Church continued to host the Albany Movement’s mass meetings, such as those in which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to capacity crowds. Read the rest of this entry »

Georgia > Northeast Georgia Mountains > Hall County > Lake Lanier Islands

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

There is a lot of splashing going on at Lake Lanier’s Chattahoochee Rapids Beach and Water Park.

A part of the Lake Lanier Islands Resort located on the shores of Lake Sidney Lanier, Chattahoochee Rapids Beach and Water Park is a water park with a dozen rides and attractions that offers summer fun for everyone in the family.

Open now through Labor Day, the water park has a “Kiddie Lagoon” with age-appropriate waterslides and “Wiggle Waves,” a kid-sized wave pool, for the little ones. For the more adventuresome, there are 11 waterslides, including the Twister, SplashDown and Triple Threat; Georgia’s largest wave pool, Wild Waves; and the FunDunker, a water attraction equipped with more than 100 ways to get wet. There is also a half mile of white, sandy beach for anyone who just wants to relax away an afternoon. Read the rest of this entry »

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Numerous exhibits and dioramas depicting the timeline of Southeastern Indians can be viewed at the Funk Heritage Center.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the Funk Heritage Center at Reinhardt College in Waleska is Georgia’s “Official Frontier and Southeastern Indian Interpretive Center,” and it lives up to its designation.

The Center consists of the Bennett History Museum – a 7,000-square-foot exhibit space with a theater and museum store – and an Appalachian Settlement with relocated authentic log cabins and other 19th century farm buildings. All total, the Center houses more than 6,000 artifacts donated by area collectors, most of them illustrative of the area’s many Indian cultures.

In the area of the museum known as the Long House, there are artifacts and text panels telling the story of the earliest encounters between Europeans and the people of the Southeast. You can also view a 15-minute film on the Southeastern Indians. In the Hall of Ancients exhibit area, you will see dioramas depicting the Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian and Historic periods as well as a timeline, maps and information about the Cherokee Indian removal from Georgia during the 1830s known as the Trail of Tears. The centerpiece of this area is a granite petroglyph that is 11 feet long, 5 feel wide and 1.5 feet thick. This ancient and mysterious carved rock was found years ago on a farm in the Hickory Log area of Cherokee County near the Etowah River about four miles north of Canton. Read the rest of this entry »

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

The home once belonging to Cherokee Indian leader Major Ridge is now a museum and a designated site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. 

The Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home is a museum that tells the story of Cherokee Indian leader Major Ridge as well as Cherokee history and culture. Designated as a National Historic Landmark, it is also a site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.

Before white settlement, Georgia was home to the Cherokee and Creek Indians – the Cherokee basically living north of the Chattahoochee River and across North Georgia, the Creeks living south of this line. Living in a part of the state where the Creeks once lived, I am very familiar with the story of Creek Chief William McIntosh and how his own people murdered him after signing the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs, which ceded Creek land to the U.S. government. So it was very interesting to learn about Major Ridge and his rather parallel story as a member of the Cherokee Nation.

Sometime in the early 1800s, Ridge built a two-story dogtrot log cabin on the Oostanaula River near present day Rome. In 1828, the cabin was renovated into a white clapboard plantation home where Ridge and his family oversaw a ferry, trading post and a working plantation complete with numerous crops, orchards and slaves. Read the rest of this entry »