DIXIE HIGHWAY, REVISITED

This book is better than my ramblings, read it instead.

In the 1940s and 50s we kept the Dixie Highway pavement and tar hot on our frequent trip up and down that 100 mile stretch between Marietta and Chattanooga.  

When I say "we" I mean some of my mother's siblings and their spouses and children and us.  My grandmother and some of her children lived near Dalton and Chattanooga and some lived in Marietta.

I felt I knew the road pretty good and felt that I wanted to see it again to see what changed and what has remained the same.  In today's terms, to ride up it to Chattanoga was on my "Bucket List".  And it was my birthday, so there.

I remember this same view when I was a kid.  Of course, it was black and white then.  I beleive this is the remains of a bridge I  read that Sherman had destroyed.  See the guy fishing?  Also, there is a certain comfort feeling of seeing things you haven't seen for a while and they are still around.

This is an Indian who looks like a warrier or a hunter.  I would think he is pissed off.  This is in Calhoun, only a few miles from New Echota, the then seat of the Cherokee Nation.  His leaders voted for all the Indians to give up their land and walk to Oklahoma.  "The Trail of Tears".  That would be enough to make anybody highly perturbed.

Notice the rock that make this arch?  Along the highway there are many structures made of rock.  It was probably easily accessible.  I think the two CSA soldiers are not following protocal.  If I remember correctly military statues are to face the direction of  their enemy - in this case, the north.  I think one was facing east and the other one was facing west.

Also along the highway there appear to be no zoning laws.  There are all kinds of houses, junk piles of junk in front yards, not to be confused wtih decorative little statues and things, which Anna said is "Yard Art".

The Resaca Civil War  Confederate Cemetery that probably holds the CSA soldiers from a battle about a mile away.  Marvin, a friend, lives near here and he told me he sometimes cuts the grass of this cemetary.

This was the train depot.  Now it is Ringgold's Visitor's Center, History Museum, and bluegrass concert hall.  I bet they have a gift shop too.  They are closed on Mondays.  This is also where James Andrews and his Raiders were caught up with in the Great Locomotive Chase.

The overpass down the hill ahead was there when our family came up often.  It is still there.  What I couldn't find was the Wedding Chapel.  The Wedding Chappel of Ringgold offered a quick bloodtest and a quick marriage.  Las Vegas may have taken notes.  I was told by a stranger when just outside of town at a Civil War skirmish marker that Dolly Parton got married in Ringgold.  The stranger with a white beard told me he was returning from Tennessee where he is practicing for the Baseball Olympics in the age 70 category.  He new all the good places to play baseball in Cobb County, such as Al Bishop Park.

Also, a distant relative of mine is a  resident of Ringgold and famous in an infamous kind away when the law accused him of locking his wife and mother-in-law up and starved them to death....it took 20 years.  He was found innocent in the court of law, but a TV special was made of him and his eccentric ways.  It is no crime to be a hermit.

I found some relatives through my Tyson branch on at West Hill Cemetery in Dalton up on a hill.  When alive they lived in Tunnel Hill, Georgia, then some of them went south and settled near Ball Ground, and one of the daughters married into the Tyson family, near Woodstock.

Burial place for Leander Newton Trammell

This is Leander Newton Tammell's family plot.  The big marker is his, the small one is his wife's.  Leander, or "The Colonel" is a distant relative - well, not that distant, we are first cousins (4 times removed).  He is the one that is responsible for the Trammell House in Marietta.  I found their plot when I visited West Hill Cemetery a few years ago.  This time in Dalton I noticed that  I crossed Trammell Street, on the north side of town.

This grave has my mother's sister and her husband Cecil.  Interesting couple.  I also found this grave years ago, but paid them another visit.  This time I noticed they are buried next to Cecil's parents. 

This is West Hill Cemetery's Confederate Graves section.

I found my mother's brother and his wife Mary Jo's grave.  It is the first time it has been visited by one of our family members as far as I know.

I went into the cemetary's office and asked if they had an index.  The lady said yes and she looked up Thomas Petty.  She found him.  She gave me a map and drew line on the route I should take to get to his and Mary Jo's grave.  She said something like this... "You take the Sermon on the Mount road up and turn right at the green gate - then you park and walk eight rows from the Sitting Jesus."  It sounded like a satire from a Kurt Vonnogut or Terry Southern novel

This is the Chapel in the cemetery.  I just wanted to point out that kind or rock again. There are plenty of structures are made of it.

On the way home we stopped at J.D.'s Bar-B-Que in Acworth.  Delicious!!