Bulldog Country and Oconee County around Athens and Elberton, Georgia - Athens GA Off the Beaten Path

Preview: Elbert County proudly hails itself “The Granite Capital of the World.” The county’s more than forty quarries and 150 monument-manufacturing plants produce a third of the granite used in memorials and monuments in this country, and much of it is shipped overseas. The Elberton Granite Museum’s exhibits and taped programs will tell you how granite is formed, how it’s quarried, the many types it comes in, and the geological differences between it and marble. You’ll also see a short film about the Georgia Guidestones. Georgia Guidestones may remind you of England’s Stonehenge, and their origin is almost as mysterious. No one’s quite certain who commissioned the Guidestones, or why. But there they are: four massive granite tablets, 19 feet, 3 inches high, arranged in a spoke-like pattern, with a smaller stone in the center and another across the top. Astrological readings may be made through slots and holes drilled in the stones. The Ten Commandments are etched in eight living languages, including English. Four dead languages bear the message: LET THESE BE GUIDESTONES TO AN AGE OF REASON. Other maxims inscribed on the stones include: BE NOT A CANCER ON THE EARTH—LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE. Free admission. Two state parks on the Savannah River are happy hunting grounds for bass and trout fishing. Bobby Brown State Park has boat ramps, picnic areas, a swimming pool, and campsites on 70,000-acre Clarks Hill Lake. Just upriver, Richard B. Russell State Park also has campsites, cottages, a swimming beach, boat ramps, and fish that aim to please. Athens throbs with the vitality of 30,000 University of Georgia (UGA) students, who almost balance “The Classic City’s” 45,000 townies. Founded in 1785, America’s oldest chartered state university existed only on paper for sixteen years before the legislature provided funds for land and academic buildings in 1800. The first classes met in 1801. That same year Athens was founded on hills above the Oconee River—hopeful of Olympian inspiration, the rude little settlement was named for Greece’s hub of classical learning. Planters and literati embellished the campus and Athens’s elm- and oak-lined thoroughfares with Greek Revival, Georgian, and Federal architecture. Over the ensuing decades, “town and gown” have coexisted in peace and harmony only seriously disrupted when 85,000 Bulldog football fanatics shake the skies over Sanford Stadium with exhortations of “Go-oooo Dawgs!” The above description is an excerpt from "Georgia: Off the Beaten Path." Whether you're a visitor or a local looking for something different, this chapter from the Off the Beaten Path series will help you take the "road less traveled" and discover hidden attractions, unique finds, and unusual locales that most tourists miss.
© Copyright William Schemmel published by Insiders' Guide all rights reserved.


This travel guide comes from:
Georgia Off the Beaten Path Guide Book