Oglethorpe To Springer: The Past & Present Of The AT Southern Terminus

Mt. Oglethrope (L) & Springer Mtn. (R)

Amicalola Falls.

Change is part of the history of the Appalachian Trail (AT).  Rerouting of the trail is a continuing part of the AT. Nothing encapsulates this more than the southern terminus of the trail. Unlike the northern starting point, Mount Katahdin that has remained unchanged since the trail inception and the AT in Georgia has stayed pretty much the same since completion, but for one expectation.  At the southern end of the AT, two mountains have served as the beginning of the trail. The current home of the southern terminus is on Springer Mountain and I had the privilege to have visited it last March. It was like a pilgrimage to see where the hopes of all of those who aspire to hike the 2,000 miles to Maine. A year later (March, 2014) I ventured to the original location of the southern terminus, Mount Oglethorpe, but first we turn back the clock to a year ago and Springer Mountain.

There are two ways to get to Springer; the first is to take the approach trail from Amicalola Falls
State Park. To some this is the real starting point of the AT and I have visited the park on numerous occasions (and speak about it here). As I have stated before Amicalola just oozes the AT. There is a historical marker in front of the visitors’ center, numerous displays including Gene Espy, the second person to thru-hike the trail, equipment and the famous stone arch and sign with the distance one must travel to Maine. Oh, and I forgot the largest waterfall in the southeast (see blog for more). So it is easy to know why many see this as the jumping off point to a thru-hike. Unbeknownst to some the approach trail was actually a part of the original AT trail in Georgia when the southern terminus was at Oglethorpe. I have hiked over a mile up the approach trail, but I haven’t hiked all the way to Springer.

AT Historical Marker.

Display of Gene Espy's Equipment.

The famous stone arch.

AT stone in the shape of Georgia.

The Approach Trail above Amicalola Falls.

The Approach Trail at Springer Mtn.

The way I got to the southern terminus is by the second route and that is the drive up via Forest Service roads. One must drive up three (FS 28-1, 77 & 42) that cover 11 miles to the parking area below Springer.  If you have never been on a Forest Service road the first thing I can tell you is that it is not usually paved and this is the case for the route up and over Big Stamp Gap. However, the Forest Service roads that climb up Springer Mountain are not half bad, but remember it not like GA 400 because it takes about 45 minutes to travel the 11 miles.

The sign off of GA 52.

Sign at Springer Mtn. Parking Area..

Springer Mtn. Parking Area.

The information sign at the Springer lot.

Once you make it up to the parking area, which is a large lot due to the mountain’s popularity as the starting line of the AT, you will find that there is some hiking to do to reach Springer’s summit. The AT crosses the parking area headed north, but to get to Springer and the start of the AT one must travel about a mile south up the mountain. Like most trails in the North Georgia Mountains it is rocky, but this one is not too difficult. Once at the summit one finds a rock vista facing west toward the Cohutta Mountains. Some have said that the mountain is not that special and yes there are better views just on the Georgia AT alone. However, being here I must say there is something mystical about the mountain.

The sign at the parking area.

The AT heads up Springer Mtn.

My first experience with the rocky N. GA trail.

Vista from Springer Mtn.

 Maybe it is that first white blaze on the southern end of the trail or just the fact of all those dreams of thru-hiking the trail are fresh and new from this spot, anyway there is a special feeling to this place. Besides the first AT White Blaze one will find two plaques one is the most famous of the three George Noble plaques found in Georgia. Even a book I have on the New Hampshire and Maine parts of the trail has a picture of it. The second bronze plague is the one that indicates this is the southern terminus of the trail. There is a fourth AT totem that is found at Springer’s summit and it is a simple notebook, but in it one will find the signature of those who visit the mountain. Not all who sign it are thru-hikers (I put my John Hancock in the book myself last year), but it is where all those starting out sign in, but most will never see the book at the northern end at Katahdin, which also makes it a little sad.

The George Noble Plaque & the first white blaze.

The plaque, blaze & vista.

Me with the George Noble plaque.

The Southern Terminus Plaque.

With Southern Terminus Plaque.

Once headed north on the trail one will pass the first “official” shelter on the AT, the Springer Mountain Shelter. The reason I say first “official” is because there are two shelters on the approach trail, so they were once AT shelters. The Black Gap Shelter and a course the first shelter built on the southern end of the trail, the Max Epperson Shelter, named in honor of Poultry Farmer and advocate of the AT. Like a good number of shelters the Springer Mountain one has a privy and water. One feature that is not as common is bag cables to hang mostly food items. It is a reminder that you are sharing these woods with many animals, including black bears.

Max Epperson Shelter.

Springer Mtn. Shelter

Springer Mtn. privy.

Another interesting spot found on the trip down (it also there coming up from the parking area) is the southern terminus of another major long distance trail, the Benton MacKaye Trail (BMT). It is apropos that the trail with MacKaye name would start its 300-mile journey splitting with the AT since he was one of the key person behind the idea of a long distance trail across the Appalachian range. The BMT actually follows some of the route MacKaye envisioned for the AT to take.  From the junction with the AT about a tenth of a mile down the BMT the plaque for the southern terminus of the trail can be found. The BMT will enter sect with the AT all the way to Three Forks before heading west and won’t intersect again with the AT until at Davenport Gap, just outside of the Smokies, and the northern terminus of the BMT.

BMT Southern Terminus plaque.

Diamond white blaze of the BMT.

Sign where AT & BMT intersect.

AT headed to Stover Creek.

March on the AT means ice.

While spring is by far the busiest time at Springer Mountain, averaging about 50 hikers per day, it sees crowds year round. On some days the parking lot can fill up by noon and you will see car tags from states around the country. There are a number of reasons that the mountain, some locals called Penitentiary Mountain, was chosen as the current southern terminus. One is that it is where the eastern and western arms of the Blue Ridge Mountains meet. The second, which if you been to Springer you would know, is the mountain is remote which gives it something in common with the northern terminus, Katahdin.

Mt. Mitchell.

While Springer Mountain has always been a part of the AT it was once just a stop on the way. Because in the past the original southern terminus of the AT once rested 14 miles to the northeast (south if you go by AT directions) at Mount Oglethorpe. Like Springer, Oglethorpe was not the first choice as MacKaye envisioned the trail starting at Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi and ending at the tallest peak in New England, Mount Washington. Later, other mountains were also considered for the southern terminus like Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga and Cheaha Mountain in Alabama.

Once it was decided to route the AT through the Smoky Mountains, and future national park, then Cohutta Mountain was a leading contender for the southern terminus. While Myron Avery was busy making the AT a reality, a number of people in Georgia would influence where the final spot for the

*Mt. Oglethorpe monument.

southern terminus would be. While the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club wanted the AT to follow the western ridge, those in Georgia including Roy Ozmer and Everett (Eddie) B. Stone had other ideas. A native Virginian, Ozmer was a AT scout who came to Georgia in late 1920’s, he teamed up with Stone, a Georgia State forester, and both along with the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club favored an eastern ridge path for the AT.

They both thought that the trail should end at Oglethorpe. Then enter the man who owned said mountain, then known as Grassy Knob, Colonel Sam Tate. He was in the process of having the state legislature rename the mountain in honor of 200^th anniversary of the founding of Georgia by James Oglethorpe. More importantly, Tate was in the process of developing a resort on the mountain and thought the AT to pass near it would be a selling point. However, Stone didn’t wait for approval, even though Appalachian Trail Conservatory (ATC) Chairman Arthur Perkins said the route was not a done deal, Stone went ahead and blaze the trail in Georgia and even announced an Oglethorpe dedication for May 1930.

*Old AT sign at Mt. Oglethorpe.

The dedication went ahead and a marble obelisk was built on the top of Oglethorpe. MacKaye, while having no problem with the site of the southern terminus, was not happy with the monument on top of the mountain saying “it was like putting a cap on God.” Already the southern terminus for seven
years with the official opening of the AT in 1937, a sign was erected proclaiming this honor for the first time.

Mount Oglethorpe remained the southern terminus for the next 20 years. In that time the likes of Earl Shaffer, the first AT thru-hiker, Espy and Emma “Grandma” Gatewood all started their hikes on its summit. However, with the building of a logging road up the mountain and increased development, including pungent chicken farms had made the stretch from Oglethorpe to Amicalola not very appealing. So, in 1958 the ATC accepted the request of the GATC to move the southern terminus to Springer Mountain.

While, Mount Oglethorpe is a more prominent peak, after visiting both mountains I can say that the

Oglethorpe monument today in Jasper.

Historical marker in Jasper.

GATC made the right decision in moving the southern terminus to Springer. The top of Oglethorpe is the home to many communication towers including one for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Over the years with the mountain in private hands access was restricted. But, it didn’t stop vandals as the once majestic obelisk was defaced and was generally in bad condition. In 1999 the monument was brought off the mountain refurbished and moved to the place where it sits today in downtown Jasper.

I had thought of going to Oglethorpe, but after reading on SummitPost.org that it was posted no trespassing to hikers I kind of thought it would be more trouble than it is worth. Since I didn’t think I would go to the top of the mountain I at least wanted to see the monument that stood on its summit. So, after a visit to Fort Mountain State Park, that I chronicled here, I did a detour to Jasper to see the Oglethorpe Monument, which I also talked about in said blog.

Eagle's Rest Park on Mt. Oglethorpe.

Anyway, I would find out when I got home that a public park was been built on top of Mount Oglethorpe called Eagle’s Rest. As I have already said, but will again the park will feature two hiking trails one around the top of about a half-mile. The second will be a two-mile path which will be a little more challenging. There will also be four view decks giving views in all directions, and finally a rock eagle sculpture 80 feet by 27 feet will adorn the south face with the trail cutting through it. The park was dedicated on December 21, 2013 in a rock laying ceremony.

Yellow 0.5 trail, Red 2-mile trail.

I had mixed signals on when the park would open; one report said sometime in 2014 others said it opened when the dedication ceremony took place. I even emailed Melissa Harvey at the Big Canoe News, the developments newspaper, and she said it was open, so with that information I decided to make the trek to Mount Oglethorpe. So, back in March a little over a year since my pilgrimage to Springer Mountain I started on my way on another. From Dawsonville it is about a 45 minute drive on paved two-lane roads.

The turnoff for Monument Road, which leads 4.5 miles to the summit, straddles the Dawson/Pickens County line and there is a lot of development on the mountain, so much so that it has its own fire station. The odd thing about the station is while it’s in Pickens County it is administered by Dawson. Before getting to Oglethorpe the road takes one over Sassafras Mountain. Moonshine making was big in this area, so much so that old timers still call Sassafras Mountain, Moonshine Mountain. It is right here, about half way up the road goes from paved to gravel.

Turnoff to Monument Rd.

Dawson County Fire Station #8 in Pickens County.

Sassafras Mtn.

Like I had read the road reaches a first gate which signals the end of the county road and goes a short distance to a second gate. This gate was locked and while the sign about no hikers was gone it still had the warning about the FAA tower. Also, there was no sign indicating a park or its trail. I felt like it was a grey area and wondered if I should hike to the top, but I has come a long way and decided to push on ahead. Hell, if someone came and said something I would just have showed them the email that said the park was open.

The first gate at Mt. Oglethorpe.

The FAA warning sign.

Road bed to the summit.

Well, the trek up is just under a half-mile on a road bed which means it is steep. I will say that I made sure to give the towers a wide berth. I found the stairs that lead down to the trails that had been finished so far. I hiked around and then followed the path to the refurbished observation deck that gave a nice eastern vista, with views of Stone Mountain and Atlanta. As of now it is the only one there, put when they get the other three built it will be nice. Overall, when finished I think the park will be a lovely place and it will be great that the mountain will once again be open to the public to enjoy.

The trail that has been cut on the summit.

Refurbished observation deck, the first of four.

North Georgia Mountains from Mt. Oglethorpe.

The Big Canoe development that Col. Sam Tate built.

Some of the communication towers.

Stone Mountain.

Atlanta.

Hopefully some acknowledgement of Oglethorpe past as part of the history of the AT, maybe a replica of the old AT sign that once stood here might be in order. While Springer Mountain is an important part of the present history of the trail, Mount Oglethorpe is an essential part of the AT’s past.

**Update**
It appears that Eagle's Rest at Mount Oglethorpe is officially open. There are signs up (see photo) and a website has been created with information about the park. Here is the link.

Signs for the park (picture from Eagle's Rest website).

*Pictures From the book: Images of America - Along The Appalachian Trail: Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.