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Several Old Home Sites Towns-Union Counties, GA March 2020 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2020) |
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Several Old Home Sites Towns-Union Counties, GA March 2020 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2020) |
| March 2020 Visits to the remains of some old home places near the Union-Towns County line, in the upper Hullander and Gumlog Mountains area. My first exploration was a search for a series of old home sites in Hullander Cove: |
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| I found the first site (UN20), with a pair of stone walls across the slope's contour, as well as a pair of stone chimney piles just above (faintly visible in this photo). |
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| Nearby was a stone pile with a partial wall... |
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| A huge boulder alongside a bend in the creek. |
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| Further upstream, possible remains of another long collapsed chimney. The old maps show a few other late 1800s homesites in the area, but I didn't see evidence of them on this expedition. |
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| A lot of spring wildflowers were in bloom, including the parasitic Bear Corn (Conopholis americana). |
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| A few days later, I returned with my friend Sheldon, to look for another home place in the cove, as well as some additional home sites up on the next mountain range. We found three homesites with chimneys, all high up on the mountain sides. I'm amazed at the high elevations of some of these sites, many with no water close by... |
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| Home site 1 (UN21), collapsed chimney 1 - front This first site had two collapsed chimneys, about 150 feet apart... |
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| Site 1, collapsed chimney 1 - rear |
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| The foundation support stones were still visible at each corner of this house site. |
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| Site 1, collapsed chimney 2 - front This smaller chimney was about 150 feet uphill from the main home. Perhaps it was originally a chimney for a weaning cabin... |
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| Chimney 2 - detail of base |
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| The second home site we explored involved a long hike/climb on Gumlog Mountain. |
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| Approaching a creek between some large boulderfields, we came across a big Buckeye, with a huge grape vine bigger than your thigh draping down. |
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| On our way to the second homesite, we encountered an odd depression in a large boulder ledge. It is about 11-12 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep. I'm not sure if it's natural or man-made. I think natural, but I don't know what process would form such an almost perfect circle with a slightly domed, convex bottom. It is similar to a pothole one finds scoured in a creek, but there is no water nearby. |
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| A wider view... The edge of another circular hole can be seen on the right... |
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| Home site 2 (UN22), front of collapsed chimney. We believe this is the old Stewart homestead. |
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| Chimney, from the side. |
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| Rear of the chimney (or I guess more accurately, rear of the fireplace). |
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| The third home site we explored was also on Gumlog Mountain. It is known as the Rube Miller homestead (UN23): |
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| With a pair of chimneys, both facing the same direction, this must have been a large home for that time. |
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| Collapsed chimney 1 - front. This seemed to be the smaller of the two adjacent chimneys here. |
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| Chimney 1 - rear |
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| Chimney 2 - front Although difficult to see here, this chimney was the largest of the pair; probably for the kitchen... |
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| Chimney 2 - rear |
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| Bits and pieces of china and pottery on a stove lid, found around chimneys... |
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| This site had a nice spring head near the house. Two pieces of a ceramic coffee/tea cup were found in the water. |
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| Close-up of the cup pieces |
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| Miller family, probably in front of the old home. |