Scavengers in the North Georgia Mountains

 

This adventure includes the same bunch as hunting Rabbits riding on a fender in White, Georgia.

This time the adventure is a few miles north of Dahlonega, Georgia.  Maybe seven or eight miles north of Dahlonega, Georgia, is a fork in the road.  Aside of the road is a big pile of rocks, pebbles, boulders, stones, you name it.  The story is that an Indian Princess ran away from her tribe to be with her lover. A brave from another tribe.  I do not know how she found her demise.  But she is suppose to be at the bottom of all those rocks and stones.  The tale is if you throw a rock on the pile of stones you will have have good luck.  Go ahead and try it, what can you lose?

Back to the fork:  If you go straight you will go over Blood Mountain and then to Blairsville, Georgia.  If you take the left fork you will go through Suches, Georgia, and end up in Copper Hill, Tennessee. 

Incidentally years ago off this road I found my great grandfather Elijah Petty (1803-1881)’s grave in the Petty Family Cemetery between Suches and Morganton.

Also, at the fork, when you turn left, there are high cliffs on the left on the left and high mountains on the right.  We found out in this area were many cars at the bottoms of the cliffs.  No one was hurt, people purposely pushed their cars off the road and collected the insurance.  It was a racket.

The way my friend Larry saw it, there was a gold mind in auto parts at the bottom.

We wanted to be there about daybreak, so we got there about 1am.  Much too early.  We pulled the cars over just told stories about some of the messes we found ourselves in from time to time.

Larry, went into the woods and drug out few logs and dead limbs and built a fire in the middle of the road.  That really gave us the spirit to tell out tales, like sitting around the campfire.

This went on for over and hour or two and one of us heard a distant truck motor.  He warned us, we were quiet so we could here it, and we did.  It was getting louder and louder which meant it was getting closer and closer.

Panicking we hustled to pull the burning limbs and logs off the pavement.  We could seed the two head lamps whipping around curves.  Then it was upon us at speed.  We ran out of the way.  The driver just plowed through it having burning logs roll and sparks or cinders flying up in the air.

The truck kept on going down the road.  He probably had some kind of route and probably traveled over that road in his sleep, which he might just have.

After it got light Larry got his hoisting ropes, cables, pulleys, and rigged up a rope to carry us down and the parts up.  I forgot who was the first to go down.  He got at the bottom and hollered to come on down there were cars.  Jenky Latimer was the second to get on the rope to be hoisted down.  After he was lowered about a third down I jumped on to be lowered down.

I forgot to mention that I went out drinking the night before.  As I was lowered the ropes were swinging way out and back in.  All the swinging to me dizzy and I vomited all over Jenky, below me, also on the rope.

Unfortunately, when we got down to the bottom we saw the cars and saw the cars had been already stripped.  Not one thing useful could have been taken off a car. 

A bunch of thieves beat us to it.