More on Sweetwater Creek

The Army Corp of Engineers has been very busy in this mountainous area. The Allatoona Dam created nine different recreational areas; Sweetwater Creek is the one where we stayed. We visited Cartersville, a town six miles from camp, and did some sightseeing.

We set out trying to find a smelting operation where the workers simply walked away from their work leaving cannon balls still in the furnace, but could not.

Etowah River, flash flooding is a real concern here. Park rangers have come to our campsite and warn us if rains are going to be heavy.

Mark Cooper and Etowah

Being from Minnesota, a leader in iron ore mining and taconite I sort of figured that the only iron ore mines were in northern MN. So ignorantly wrong. Just around the corner from the Allatoona Dam, which provides the recreation area for Sweetwater Creek campground, we learned about Mark Cooper and the Etowah Manufacturing and Mining Company and the town of Etowah. It was instrumental in providing armament for the Confederate Army. In school I was not a very good student of history, American or otherwise. Come to think of it, I pretty much sat in class, and tried to be invisible.

Mark Cooper’s train is abducted by Union solders.

Barite mine, produces “Heavy Spar” used in making paint.

Mark Coopers furnace and facilities are torched

Click here for more Cooper Furnace Info

Cartersville

We toured Cartersville, a town close to Sweetwater Creek campground. Emotions can flip flop during a walk through towns, not so much when walking in the forests. It’s cool to see structures with old dates carved into them, it’s somber to read of solders deaths. Deb and I are not searching out civil war artifacts; they are finding us. Here in the south, it’s in your face. Belief systems fight, countries fight, and witnessing the memorials of civil war brings forward the realization of a terrible loss of physical life. With God there is an afterlife, no pain, no sorrow, no war.