November 2021
Old Homesite TO15 - Off Soapstone Creek, Towns Co., GA
When I posted the last old homesite (TO14), I mentioned that I had identified another potential home place on the old maps that was nearby, but had ran out of daylight to go look for it. I went looking for that other site today. Reaching the site required another hellacious bushwhack along old logging roads, choked with rhododendron and blowdown. To make matters worse, I found no sign of the old homesite. It appeared that there was a logging camp in the area decades ago, and I think their disturbance of the land obliterated the old homesite.
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Just one example of the blowdown. I spent much time walking over, through or around it...
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Along the logging road, I found this old ice box (or whatever it is).
Probably dumped decades ago.
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Lots of old cable around the suspected homesite.
Evidence of an old logging operation...
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I saw some pretty big pines in a few areas.
Not champion size, but averaging 42 inches (3 1/2 feet) in diameter.
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I was afraid I'd been shut out for the day, but before heading home, I checked another map and saw one more potential site nearby. It involved another steep bushwhack, and I was already tired. I wasn't holding out any high hopes, but as I crawled out of a rhododendron thicket, I spied a chimney rising over the vegetation. This one made all the effort worthwhile!
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Much of the chimney front has collapsed,
but still a nice example to find nowadays...
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Oblique view...
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Side view...
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Rear view...
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The upper section of the chimney front hasn't collapsed yet.
There are two metal structures on top that probably held some kind of chimney cap.
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Interior of the hearth.
There was no sign of a lintel stone; it's probably under the rubble of the fallen chimney front rocks.
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There was rubble from an old masonry structure nearby.
Concrete, bricks, cement blocks...
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November 2021
Old Homesite WH05 - White Co., GA
I checked out a tributary of the upper Chattahoochee River where the old maps showed
five buildings going up the cove. I only found one site, with a long collapsed chimney.
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Collapsed chimney.
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Stacked rocks near the chimney.
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December 2021
Old Homesite WH06 - White Co., GA
I saw this chimney in a pasture, while returning home from visiting a gold mine
in Dahlonega. The sun was all wrong, but I had to stop and shoot it anyway.
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The late afternoon sun was low in the sky,
shining directly on the back of the chimney.
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The front was in deep shadow, but I managed
to pull out some detail in post-processing.
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December 2021
Old Homesite UNxx - Union Co., GA
Another chimney of more recent vintage, so no Homesite ID.
A TCHS friend told me about this one...
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Double (back-to-back) fireplaced chimney.
What makes this one unusual is the twist in the stack, with the result
that the upper stack is about 45 degrees off from the fireplace.
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December 2021
Old Homesite TO16 - Gumlog area, Towns Co., GA
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Stone chimney with a brick-lined fireplace
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The front steps of the old house still sit in place.
Note the grapevine, aka Giraffe, style of masonry on the steps...
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February 2022
Old Homesite HA01 - Habersham Co., GA
The remains of these two old chimneys are located along a creek below a friend's property.
The homesteaders living here were named either Davis or Hamilton; I will try to verify which.
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Remains of chimney 1, from the front
Although it has collapsed, this is easily recognized as a chimney firebox.
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The chimney's lintel stone lies a few feet away.
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Chimney 1 from the side.
This home dated from the turn of the prior century (~1900).
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Rear of chimney 1.
Not quite four feet high at its tallest point.
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A nice spring head lies next to the two chimneys.
A few daffodils were appearing around the rim.
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Chimney 2 from the front
Chimney 2 is older than the first one, dating to around 1820.
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The two old chimneys are not quite 100 feet apart.
Chimney 1 is visible in the rear at upper-right.
At some point a big tree fell on the chimney;
someone cut it up and moved it off the rock.
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Chimney 2 from the rear.
Judging by the wide base of this chimney, it may have supported a massive stack in its day.
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