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East Gumlog Tributary February 2026 - Gumlog, GA |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2026) |
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East Gumlog Tributary February 2026 - Gumlog, GA |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2026) |
| Back in December, when Sheldon and I made our exploration from Gumlog Mountain down to Gumlog Creek, we failed to find an old homesite that he recalled seeing about 40 years ago while working for the Forest Service. We had searched up and down a cove that had some good looking locations for a home, but all we'd found was some rock piles, likely left from clearing the land for cultivation. A few weeks later, Sheldon took some other friends to the area to see the sites we'd found, and they came across the old home place on their way out. I went in to photograph it in early February. |
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| A pretty creek runs in front of the old home site. |
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| The old house here must have been sizable. It had a pair of chimneys, both now mostly collapsed, facing inward, almost fifty feet apart. This is the remains of the east chimney. |
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| A closer view of the front of the east chimney, with little but the remains of the upper firebox remaining. |
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| I went around the east chimney, counter-clockwise from the right... |
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| Note the hole in the chimney where a rock is missing... |
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| Another view of the chimney from the rear. |
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| View through the hole in the east chimney, looking toward the west chimney. |
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| Rear left of the chimney. The long rock on the right was probably the lintel stone. |
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| Back around to the front of the east chimney. A low stone wall can be seen extending outward (eastward) from the house / chimney. |
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| When I first arrived at the site, I thought that this wall was the collapsed stack of the chimney. But upon closer examination, I could see that the stack had collapsed to the north (to the right, out of frame of the image). |
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| A wider view, showing the east chimney and the wall. The collapsed western chimney can be seen in the left background. |
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| Front-left corner of the west chimney remains. |
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| Left side. Moving around the chimney, in a clockwise direction. |
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| Rear of the west chimney |
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| Rear-right, showing some of the collapsed chimney stack. Like the other chimney, it had collapsed sideways, to the north. |
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| View down the toppled west chimney, with the base at the far end. |
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| From the front-right side of the west chimney. Remains of firebox on left side, part of toppled stack on right. |
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| Stacked piers piers supported the house structure. This one sits at the middle of what would have been the north wall. |
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| View from stacked rock pier toward east chimney. |
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| View from stacked rock pier toward west chimney |
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| A spring seepage flowed through this pile of rocks. I wondered if it was the remains of a small collapsed spring-house. |
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| East chimney at front left, stacked rock pier at far right, west chimney in background. This and next few views show the layout of the old home site. |
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| East chimney at right, west chimney at far left. |
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| East chimney at right foreground, stacked rock pier at upper center. |
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| View from rear of west chimney, east chimney at upper right. |
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| West chimney and collapsed stack at right, stacked rock pier at far left, east chimney in left distance. |
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| Piece of an old cast iron stove. |