Mountains

Howard Finster saw things; he literally had visions. They inspired him to create a universe of unusual paintings, sculptures, and drawings. A self-taught folk artist and preacher, he became one of the most important creative artists of the twentieth century. Finster was born in 1916 in Valley Head, Alabama, one of 14 children. He saw […]

When Robert Benham was appointed the first African American on the Georgia Supreme Court, it was only one of a long line of firsts. Benham was born in Cartersville in 1946.  He majored in political science at Tuskegee University and attended Harvard before graduating from the University of Georgia's School of Law in 1970.  After […]

The General was the famous train captured by Andrews’ Raiders during the Civil War, and later made famous by Buster Keaton’s 1927 film, and the 1956 movie The Great Locomotive Chase. On this day in 1939, Gov. E.D. Rivers signed a joint resolution calling on the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee to give it back. The […]

It was one of the worst weather-related disasters in Georgia history. The tornado that struck Gainesville on this day in 1936 was part of a devastating outbreak of 17 tornadoes across the South. And it wasn’t the first for Gainesville- another tornado killed more than 100 people in January 1903. In 1936, two F4 tornadoes […]

Anyone who has ever taken a walk in the woods in north Georgia knows that the Chattahoochee National Forest is one of the state’s great treasures. But it wasn’t always so. At the turn of the 20th century, the forest had been abused and overused, the victims of hydraulic mining, overcutting and poor land and […]

He was billed as the world’s strongest man and, during the Cold War, a convenient symbol of American power.  Paul Anderson was born in Toccoa, Georgia and overcame Bright’s disease as a child.   A football scholarship got him to Furman University, but he quit and began lifting weights instead.  Anderson discovered that he had extraordinary […]

Was he an actor? Not hardly. Could he read cue cards and remember lines? Not so hot. Was he a Hee Haw star anyhow? Just mention BR-549. Alvin “Junior” Samples was born in Cumming, Georgia, in 1926 and spent the first 40 years of his life doing carpentry, driving race cars, and fishing. And lyin’ […]

Two things stood between U.S. General William Sherman and Atlanta in the spring of 1864: Kennesaw Mountain and Confederate General Joseph Johnston’s Army of Tennessee. Johnston, fighting a defensive campaign, slowed and frustrated Sherman as he tried to move south. Twenty miles northwest of Atlanta, Johnston set his army in a strong line along Kennesaw […]

His writing still evokes the spirit of the north Georgia mountains.  Novelist and poet Byron Herbert Reece was born in Union County near Blood Mountain. Nicknamed "Hub," he grew up on the family farm. That life and his mountain heritage would be recurring themes in his writing. He attended Young Harris College, and published his […]

In Gainesville, chickens rule the roost, thanks to a native son who made Gainesville the poultry capital of the world. Jesse Jewell was born in 1902. His father owned a feed and seed store. After studying civil engineering, Jewell went to work in the family business. During the Great Depression, Jewell got into the poultry […]