Sunset over Lake Allatoona.
Surrounded by cotton fields and home to an operating cotton gin, Bostwick thrived through the 1920s. Growth was spurred by the railroad but stalled with the arrival of the boll weevil and decline of cotton.
The Bishop Town Well shelters an array of clamshell chairs and other fine patio furniture sold by the Tracks of Time Antique Store. (June 2018)
Weeds overtake the former Athens Line through Bishop, once part of the Central of Georgia Railroad. In 2019, the line was abandoned. (June 2019)
Opened 1931 and acquired by the TVA in 1933, the Blue Ridge Dam is just one in a system of many hydroelectric dams on the Toccoa, Ocoee, and Tennessee Rivers.
Barns in the middle Georgia landscape.
An aging crossbuck guards a disused Central of Georgia line, originally built as the Buena Vista and Ellaville Railroad in 1889. The beaded Cataphote reflectors (“cat eyes” date it to sometime between the 1920s and 1940s.
A disused Central of Georgia line runs through a farm and by this house in very scenic surroundings.
The County Line Jug Shop, studio of potter Roger Corn, is located between Gillsville and Lula. This part of northeast Georgia has a rich history of folk pottery, one that continues today.
The sun begins to set behind layers of winter clouds over beautiful Banks County farmland.
In the 1950s, two different waves of school consolidation washed through Morgan County. White schools were consolidated in Madison, while in 1958 Black schools were consolidated here at Bostwick and in two other towns.
Built in 1905, the Nolan Mansion sits on former plantation land (later used for sharecropping). As it’s well-photographed already, I indulged my fascination in textures on the porch.
Barnett was once a watering stop for the Georgia Railroad, and while much smaller now, still has several historic churches.
Cakewalks are so frequent in Bowman that they have a permanent circle in the town square.
Indeed, a little police station sits alongside the railroad, which was established by town namesake Thomas Jefferson Bowman. Bowman completed the Elberton Air Line route in 1878.
A vacant storefront wishes everyone a happy 4th of July. Plenty of other businesses down the block and around the corner do, too.
Train 19 makes its daily run through Bremen on Amtrak’s Crescent service, which connects New Orleans, Birmingham, Atlanta, Charlotte, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and points between.
Apparently the Golden Eagle burned down, but I can’t find out much more (like when).
The Sewells came to Bremen in 1928, starting a string of successful clothing mills and attracting others to the area. The original maker of Arrow shirts, Sewell still sells men’s slacks, suits, and sport coats.
Remember, IT LIKES YOU.
It’s not a pharmacy anymore, but the old coke privilege sign remains.
Wesley Chapel, a church that anchored the small community of Beatrice, GA.
Pullman-Standard trolleybus #1386 operated on Atlanta’s extensive “trackless trolley” network from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, before getting new life in 2017 as a restaurant. May 2023.
A Blue Ridge Scenic Railway train just after its return to downtown Blue Ridge, GA. May 2023.
A former Muffler Man holds a mighty toothbrush, where he once stood guard outside a hobby shop. Restoration of this behemoth by American Giants was documented for YouTube in 2019. May 2023.
Box Springs was only officially a town from 1913 to 1931, and was named for a natural spring that was “boxed in” and used to supply water for trains passing through the community. It was small then, and smaller today. December 2021.
No, not that one. The town of Buckhead, GA was established in Morgan County in 1908, and was a layover point on the Georgia Railroad. It’s got a similar place-name origin story to the Atlanta Buckhead, though - hunters publicly displaying a deer head. August 2020.
Tanner’s Mill Bridge was built across the Apalachee River in 1918 but now sits abandoned. April 2022.
Buford's Bona Allen tanner sits above the railroad. Once, it earned the city the moniker "The Leather City." Circa 2019.