Petty Family's Big Rock

 I remember my mother telling us about when she was in her early teen years her family lived on a farm in Murray county, Georgia, near Cohutta and Varnell. On their farm was a huge boulder that was a good backdrop for pictures.

If I remember correctly before the big rock was where it was in the pictures, in that spot there was an opening of a cave. In the first room of the cave was Indian lore and a footprint on the ceiling. She said her brothers went further back and by flashlight or whatever, saw a huge body of water.

Then, their father, sold rights to the Georgia Department of Transportation to dynamite the area for stones to crush to use for the Cleveland Highway that ran near their home.

During the dynamiting the huge rock or boulder covered the entrance of the cave.

I’m reading the book MURRAY COUNTY HERITAGE compiled by the Murray County Historical Committee.

I just came across this on page 2:

“In 1934 a large cave was discovered and was thought to contain lost Indian treasures. Professor J.R. Stull was told of the cave by an aged Cherokee in Utah followed markings on tree to the spot where some “stone images” were found.”

I wonder if this cave on my grandparents’ farm is the same as Prof. J.R Stull heard about.

Pictures: (1)Opal and Janie courting (2) ?, Janie, and Osmo; (3) Sarah, Roy, & Leonard; (4) Sarah and Grandma Petty (Frances Viola Ridley Petty).