Hiking Sawnee Mountain

Sawnee or Suwanee Mountain? U.S.G.S. Map from 1890.

 

On a sunny and warm February Saturday my feet were drawn out of the city to somewhere north of Atlanta. After the snow of last month, February has turned mild enough for short sleeves on sunny afternoons. I headed off to Sawnee Mountain in Forsyth County for my second outing of the year to walk in the woods.

Sawnee Mountain is a small mountain at 1,946 feet in elevation as far as mountains go and is part of a larger preserve of protected land managed by the county. For comparison sake, Sawnee is a hundred feet higher in elevation to Kennesaw Mountain in Cobb County. Both mountains are bumps on the landscape to the higher Appalachian Mountains further to the north. In terms of geologic classification, this area and these small mountains are classified as the Piedmont Uplands, the same as where I grew up in Paulding County, Georgia with Elsberry Mountain and the Braswell Mountains.

The 1964 U.S.G.S map, the first year it was shown as Sawnee Mountain.

At some point the name of the mountain was changed from Suwanee Mountain to Sawnee Mountain or early maps incorrectly spelled it in error. The 1890 map at the top of this page from the U.S.G.S labeled it as Suwanee. Error or not, that naming practice continued through 1963 and then on the 1964 U.S.G.S. map the mountain became Sawnee. Either the mountain received a new name or the mapmakers had it wrong for seventy-three years. Getting the name of a mountain incorrect for that long a period seems peculiar.

Over the decades a local legend developed about the history of the mountain too and how it got the name of Sawnee.

 

Mr. Sawnee may have looked like this or maybe not. Photo by me, February 2011.

According to this legend, and you know how inaccurate those can be, the mountain was named after an American Indian chief named Sawnee. He was said to have been a good carpenter and helped newly arriving settlers set up home in the area. He lived on the mountain and had a stash of gold hidden there according to this legend that sounds like a bad seventies movie plot. Whatever happened to chief Sawnee and his gold no one has an answer, but people searched and searched and never found that gold.

An old mine shaft on Sawnee Mountain. Photo by me, February 2011.

It is true that gold was found at Sawnee Mountain like it was in several locations in the northern portions of Georgia. It was discovered through mining operations and not at the end of a rainbow.

Consider me a skeptic that there ever was a chief Sawnee and a hidden pot of gold no matter whether the name of the mountain was Sawnee or Suwanee.

 

The visitor center. Photo by me, February 2011.

 

The Appalachian Mountains in the distance. Photo by me, February 2011.

Whatever the name and the history I arrived at the visitor center to hike the miles up and around the mountain. Behind me from the parking lot was a nice view of the Appalachians not too far in the distance.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Adjacent to the visitor center, people learned to climb trees. Strange it seemed to my eyes, but people will do anything these days and at least they were outside and not being sedentary. It must be part of this amusement park trend that it takes to lure some people out into nature when nature is not enough reason for them to step into the woods. Similar to the notion of going "camping" in a bus sized RV with all of the comforts of home on wheels parked within feet of the next campsite with another bus parked there too.

I will stick to my tent and sleeping bag just fine.

Photo by me, February 2011.

A view up the slope of the mountain through the hardwood forest. It was a spectacular day at this rather nice park that I had not heard of until the week before.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

It was through this largely hardwood forest that the trail gained elevation through a series of switchbacks. There were stretches of trail that were rocky to the point of having to watch every step, but otherwise it was a smooth trail that presented a couple of calf burning steep stretches. The understory included passing through a thicket of mountain laurel which provided some pleasant winter greenery.

 

The view to the north which is the only open direction to take in the view. Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

 

At the summit of the mountain were rock outcroppings and ledges that provided a wonderful view to the north in the direction of the Appalachians. These rock ledges were named The Indian Seats.

Photo by me, February 2011.

There was also a wooden viewing platform with a view to the north.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

The view was worth it. You could see the tree covered folds in the land between Sawnee and the Appalachians to the north. The suburban sprawl was beginning to creep into the landscape forever biting away at the rural and natural beauty. I hated to see it, but it was expected and not a surprise.

1924. Image courtesy the state archives of Georgia.

This was the same view in 1924 from the summit of Sawnee Mountain. There were fewer trees in the immediate foreground when the land was used for agricultural purposes. It was also common practice for the timber industry to clear cut the land during that time and almost every acre of northern Georgia was logged in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which left us with few old growth forests.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

Photo by me, February 2011.

I chose to descend the mountain down another trail to make for more miles and a loop around the mountain and back to the visitor center. There was little in the way of views on this side of the mountain, but it was still a good hike that meanders through the woods.

Photo by me, February 2011.

On the trail back as the sun was getting low on the horizon, a bent tree winked at me. The tree reminded me of a piece of folklore that is undeniably false, is spread on the internet and I have heard said to me many times by people in person. I may have fallen for it as a child, but not as an adult. The folklore is that when you see a bent tree like the one above, it was done when the tree was young and American Indians did this as way-finders in the wilderness. I have to dispel this because it defies common sense. Trees bent like the one above are much too young to have existed when American Indians lived in this area and any tree from that time was long ago logged. The are two more reasonable explanations: the tree was bent by a fallen tree as it was growing (most likely) and the other was moonshiners bent the sapling as a way to guide them through the woods. Moonshining was a thriving practice during the lifetime of these bent trees that are found in the Georgia woods. I do have some familiarity with that business as one of my grandfathers ran moonshine and the practice continued where I grew up in Paulding County, Georgia into the 1970s. There were also numerous abandoned moonshine stills along the springs and creeks in the woods of our property. Near those stills were sometimes bent trees like the one above.

Happy hiking, get out an enjoy some nature on foot and learn some history about the places you explore.